Why did corporations pay for Sen. French's trip to Nashville?

To The Daily Sun,

When we’re constantly overwhelmed with national headlines about things like congressmen using campaign money to fund lavish trips and wardrobes, and Interior secretaries flying their wives all over the place on taxpayer dollars, it’s easy for Granite Staters to brush off conversations involving money in politics. After all, those kinds of things don’t happen here in our state — right?

The N.H. Secretary of State publishes all of our candidates’ campaign finance reports online. We can see who is giving to who, how much they’re giving, and how candidates spend their money. When I sat down for what I admittedly expected to be a dull review of the finances of our two Laconia state Senate candidates (Harold French and Mason Donovan), I was shocked to find some head-scratching items in one of them.

Mason Donovan’s finance report was typical: advertising, yard signs, the usual campaign get up. Harold French’s finance report, in contrast, outlined expenses for a trip to Nashville, including the costs of a hotel, rental car, and flights. Yes, you read that right — Nashville. He also wrote himself a check for $3,000.

Why would any state Senate candidate use campaign funds to pay for a trip out of New Hampshire? And why did he write himself a personal check from his own campaign funds? Adding further intrigue to the mystery that is French’s campaign finance report, it’s important to note that his campaign was approximately $5,000 in debt before the primary — and he had no opponent. As of his last filing, his campaign was closer to $6,000 in debt. Something isn’t adding up here.

In an attempt to crack the case, I dove into where each candidate’s campaign contributions are coming from. Donovan’s filing report listed no corporate donors except his own N.H. based company, and lots of unions who have endorsed him and made contributions. Again, nothing surprising. French’s filing report, yet again, was much more concerning. He received, by my rudimentary adding, approximately $3,500 from out-of-state corporations. That is surprisingly close to the amount he wrote himself a personal check for. Pfizer, Altria, AT&T, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Crown Holdings, Express Scripts, Exacta Systems and Select Management Resources are all out-of-state registered corporations giving French’s campaign cash.

Why are all of these big pharma and healt care companies giving money to a relatively small state Senate candidate? And now that they’ve financed his trip to Nashville and set him up to write a cushy check for himself, what do they expect in return? Go to the N.H. Secretary of State’s website and look for yourself. It’s all there in black and white. Unfortunately, I believe the D.C. swamp has seeped into Laconia’s backyard.

Ashley Baez

Laconia