Salem GOP State Rep Calls For Executive Councilor To Resign; She Says Attacks Are To Distract From Republican Failures

By Nancy West, InDepth NH

House Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, issued a press release Thursday calling for Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, to resign claiming she used her office for "political lawfare" against New Hampshire's new voter-ID law.

“Published emails show Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill used her official office to help a partisan, Washington D.C. law firm recruit plaintiffs to sue New Hampshire over our voter-ID and absentee safeguards. That’s not public service; that’s political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox," Sweeney said.

Liot Hill said she is doing her job to protect people's right to vote.

"My job as an elected official is to advocate for my constituents, which is exactly what I do every day.

"Republicans are now attacking me for fighting for the rights of my constituents to vote. This is an attempt to distract from their failure to lower the cost of housing, healthcare, education, and property taxes for the people of New Hampshire," Liot Hill said in an email.

Those attacks include a complaint about campaign spending, she said. Back in December she said she received a request from the Attorney General’s Office elections division because of the complaint. She said she raised about $150,000 for her campaign. As a result of the complaint she said she amended her filings and repaid her campaign about $2,000 mostly for clothing and some smaller items.

Sweeney's email said Executive Councilors can be impeached by the House and tried by the Senate for "corruption, malpractice, or maladministration. What we’ve seen, leveraging an official position to aid outside litigants against our state, squarely raises maladministration and malpractice in office."

Sweeney also threatened to draft and file Articles of Impeachment against Liot Hill.

Also Read

• Emails Show Executive Councilor Used Office To Help Democrat Law Firm Sue New Hampshire Over Voter ID

This article first appeared on InDepthNH.org and is republished here under a Creative Commons license.