Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Last Thursday, Doyle forced a second Senate vote on that issue. Since then, Senate President Pro Tempore John Campbell (D-Windsor) found a strategy — and the votes — to block the exemption.
While senators initially rejected a small-employer exemption, they approved an amendment that gave employers with five or fewer workers an extra year after the law went into effect — January 2017 — before the mandate would apply to them. But Doyle later asked for reconsideration, saying he had changed his mind about the rejected exemption.
Campbell bought himself some extra time to respond to this unexpected development by getting senators to agree to delay reconsideration of the exemption until this week. Wednesday afternoon, he proposed that instead of voting on the pending exemption amendment, the Senate consider his amendment calling for a study. He proposed that the Department of Labor research what sick leave benefits small businesses already offer, and effects of the mandate. The report would be due next January — a year before small employers would have to start offering paid sick leave.
Tags: Sen. John Campbell , Sen. Bill Doyle , Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce , Image , Web Only
"I try to make it very inviting to kids," he said, noting that more than 50 school groups visit each year. He has to be alert for potential hazards, he said. "Kids climbing on things is what scares me," he told members of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Isham came to the Statehouse Wednesday to support a bill that would grant immunity from lawsuits to agritourism operations such as his.
Committee members agreed that agritourism is good for farmers and the public. But Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Sears (D-Bennington) told the bill's advocates: "We need to be convinced we need to give you immunity."
Tags: Sen. Dick Sears , agritourism , Chris Maley , Image , Web Only
"But," he added, "I’m not going to New York City to hold a fundraiser on Wall Street. Instead, I’m going to hold a fundraiser right here, right now, across America."
As the television cameras rolled, Sanders called on his loyal horde of small-dollar donors to visit his website and donate $10, $20 or even $50.
"Help up us raise the money we need to take the fight to Nevada, South Carolina, and the states on Super Tuesday," he said, referring to the coming electoral contests in his race for the Democratic presidential nomination. "So, there it is. That’s our fundraiser. Pretty quick."
Lo and behold, Sanders supporters heeded his call. Within 18 hours of the polls closing in New Hampshire, his campaign announced Wednesday afternoon, those supporters had donated $5.2 million — averaging $34 per contribution.
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Tuesday, February 9, 2016
The administration now intends to break the large projects into smaller components to increase the chances of successful implementation, Secretary of Administration Justin Johnson explained to the Senate Committee on Institutions Tuesday afternoon.
The state has spent several years planning the two big technology upgrades at the Agency of Human Services. One, with a price tag of more than $147 million, would have created an integrated eligibility system for dozens of social service programs. The other, required by federal health care regulators and with a cost estimated at $75 million, would have overhauled the Medicaid management information system. The state had selected vendors for these IT projects. Johnson said that last week the state halted its negotiations on the scope and payments of both projects.
Tags: Justin Johnson , Medicaid , Sen. John Campbell , Sen. Peg Flory , information technology , Agency of Human Services , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
“Thank you all for coming out in this beautiful New England evening,” he told several hundred students at a get-out-the-vote concert in the university town of Durham. “We New Englanders are tough. A little snow is not going to stop us.”
But the blanket of white that covered the state Monday did seem to hamper turnout at Sanders’ final four rallies, which began in the southern city of Nashua and ended near the seacoast at the University of New Hampshire’s Whittemore Center Arena. In between, a candidate accustomed to overflow crowds found himself speaking to rows of empty seats at a private school in Derry.
It was a subdued conclusion to a contest that, until recently, had been hard-fought by both Sanders and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton. That began to change last month after Sanders took and then held a significant lead in public opinion polls of New Hampshire. Ever since, the battle has shifted to one of expectations, with Team Clinton minimizing the state’s import and downplaying the former secretary of state’s chances of winning.
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Monday, February 8, 2016
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) turned the other cheek Monday to a series of tough attacks launched against him over the weekend by top allies of Democratic presidential rival Hillary Clinton.
Speaking Monday morning at a college in Nashua, N.H., and later that day at a Manchester theater, Sanders never once uttered Clinton's name. His spokesman, Michael Briggs, indicated that the candidate did not plan to respond.
"It's disappointing, but we're going to try to stick to the message that he's been talking about, that's been resonating all over the country," Briggs said during the earlier event, which was staged in a gymnasium at Daniel Webster College.
During a speech Sunday afternoon in Milford, N.H., former president Bill Clinton unleashed what the New York Times called a "stinging attack" and what Politico called "a brutal litany of attacks" against Sanders.
Bill Clinton criticized everything from the Vermonter's single-payer health care plan to his participation in elite fundraising events to his campaign's breach of Clinton campaign voter data. He even took a jab at Sanders' online supporters, who he accused of engaging in "vicious trolling and attacks that are literally too profane often — not to mention sexist — to repeat."
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Bill Clinton , Hillary Clinton , presidential campaign , New Hampshire , Jeff Weaver , Image , Recommended Reading , Web Only
Saturday, February 6, 2016
"You have no idea how awesome you look," he said to both sides of the arena, filled with some 6,000 people for the party's annual McIntyre-Shaheen 100 Club Celebration.
"Minor divisions" aside, Buckley predicted to the crowd, Republicans wouldn't stand a chance in New Hampshire this November because they'd be up against "a united Democratic Party."
Maybe. But the party didn't look so united Friday night, just four days before Sanders and Clinton were scheduled to face off in New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation presidential primary. Sanders supporters, in particular, made clear their distaste for Clinton and the high-profile politicians who support her — and they weren't shy about it.
When Democratic National Committee Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz took the stage, with U2's "Beautiful Day" blaring over the PA, a chorus of boos rang out from the Sanders side of the arena. The DNC chair has faced criticism from Sanders partisans for initially sanctioning only six Democratic debates and for doling out a tough punishment to the Sanders campaign following a data breach last December.
Tags: Senator , Bernie Sanders , Hillary Clinton , New Hampshire primary , Ray Buckley , Jeanne Shaheen , presidential campaign , Recommended Reading , Image , Web Only
Friday, February 5, 2016
Sanders plans to leave New Hampshire just three days before the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary for a quick trip to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, as the Washington Post first reported. Tad Devine, the candidate’s senior adviser, confirmed the appearance to Seven Days.
David, the “Seinfeld” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm” creator, has appeared twice on SNL as an only-slightly-exaggerated version of Sanders. The comedian is scheduled to guest-host the show this weekend.
Sanders isn’t the only candidate taking a quick detour from New Hampshire. Rival Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton plans to visit Flint, Mich., on Sunday to urge the U.S. Senate to approve $600 million in aid to the city to help it address its contaminated water crisis.
The Vermonter was expected to accept an endorsement from former NAACP president Ben Jealous Friday afternoon at a press conference in Exeter, N.H., but the event was postponed at the last minute. An aide said that weather — it snowed all morning in New Hampshire — had impeded Jealous’ travel plans.
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In their first head-to-head exchange of the Democratic presidential primary, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and former secretary of state Hillary Clinton escalated their argument Thursday over what it means to be a progressive — and whether ideological purity or tangible results matter more.
The fierce tone of the debate, which was hosted by MSNBC on the University of New Hampshire’s Durham campus, reflected the increasingly competitive nature of the race just five days before the first-in-the-nation Democratic primary. Coming three days after former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley dropped out, it was a far more focused affair.
Clinton, who trails Sanders by 20 to 30 percentage points in New Hampshire, wasted little time before questioning the feasibility of the Vermonter's agenda.
"I'm not making promises that I cannot keep," she said in her opening remarks, adding shortly thereafter, "The numbers just don't add up from what Sen. Sanders has been proposing. That's why all of the independent experts, all of the editorial boards that have vetted both of us have concluded that it is just not possible."
Sanders disputed the point, arguing that transformative change was possible — but only if politicians "stand up to the big-money interests and the campaign contributors." He later made clear that he didn't think Clinton was capable of doing so because, he said, she was part of "the establishment."
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Thursday, February 4, 2016
Speaking at a rally in Rochester, N.H., Sanders spent nearly 10 minutes listing moments in his career when he stood up to majorities in Congress. In many of those instances — including his votes against the North American Free Trade Agreement, the Defense of Marriage Act, repeal of the Glass-Steagall Act and the Iraq War — either Clinton or her husband, former President Bill Clinton, had taken the opposite position.
“Sometimes it is easier to apologize for a bad vote 15 or 20 years later when the tide has changed,” Sanders told an audience of roughly 400 at the Rochester Opera House. “It is a lot harder to stand up, even though you are outnumbered, and cast the right vote. And that is what leadership is about: not having to apologize, standing up and fighting for what is right.”
The Vermont senator did not mention his rival by name, but his target was clear: the former secretary of state has apologized for her vote in favor of the Iraq War, distanced herself from DOMA and modulated her positions on trade and Wall Street regulation.
Sanders’ Rochester appearance came just before he was scheduled to debate Clinton for the first time since former Maryland governor Martin O’Malley dropped out of the Democratic primary Monday. That night, Clinton narrowly edged Sanders out in the Iowa caucuses. But in his remarks Thursday evening, he did not sound like he’d accepted that result.
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