LEBANON — Republican lawmakers are calling for Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill to resign or be impeached.
The calls began last week after the NH Journal reported Wednesday that Liot Hill, D-Lebanon, had used her official state email address to drum up plaintiffs for a lawsuit against New Hampshire’s recently enacted voter ID law.
House Deputy Majority Leader Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, has alleged the emails constitute illegal political activity using a government email address and called for Liot Hill to resign. Sweeney also threatened to begin impeachment proceedings when the legislative filing period opens in September.
According to the state constitution, an executive councilor can be impeached by lawmakers the House of Representatives and tried by the Senate for offenses including “bribery, corruption, malpractice or maladministration.”
For her part, Liot Hill has denied any wrongdoing and called the Republican effort a partisan attack meant to “distract and deflect from all of the bad bills they have been passing.”
The bill at issue in Liot Hill’s emails, SB 287, was signed into law by Republican Gov. Kelly Ayotte on Aug. 1. It requires voters to present copies of their photo ID or a notarized application when applying for an absentee ballot. It goes into effect at the end of September.
In an interview Monday, Liot Hill said she is “concerned” about the impact of the law, which could make it more difficult for some residents to vote.
On Aug. 5, Liot Hill met with attorney Tina Meng Morrison of the Elias Law Group, a Democratic Washington, D.C.-based firm, about the law. She described the meeting as a form of “constituent services” because it was requested by a Hanover resident “with an interest in voting rights.”
After meeting, Liot Hill emailed five state leaders who work with seniors and people with disabilities inviting them to contact Meng Morrison, according to the emails sent Aug. 5.
Sweeney called Liot Hill’s actions “political lawfare run out of a taxpayer-funded inbox” in a news release and said the move constitutes “maladministration and malpractice in office.”
The Committee to Elect House Republicans, a New Hampshire fundraising and policy advocacy group, also launched a website, impeachkaren.com, that includes a petition to impeach Liot Hill.
In a separate move, James MacEachern, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee sent a letter to the Attorney General’s Office last Thursday requesting that the office “immediately investigate” and calling Liot Hill’s emails “electioneering.”
Electioneering is “to act in any way specifically designed to influence the vote of a voter on any question or office,” under New Hampshire law and is a misdemeanor for any public employee.
“Granite Staters expect their elected officials to use their positions to serve the people, not to further their political interests,” MacEachern wrote in the letter. “Liot Hill’s decision to use her official capacity to communicate on behalf of a political law firm adds to the ethical concerns that have already been generated by her previous scandals.”
MacEachern referenced two instances of Liot Hill driving under the influence in 2010 and 2018, and allegations that she misused campaign finances to pay for personal expenditures.
Regarding the driving offenses, Liot Hill pointed out that these are public knowledge.
“Those are certainly not impeachable offenses,” Liot Hill said in an interview Monday. “The voters sent me to Concord knowing that that is part of my lived experience.”
As for the campaign finance complaint, Liot Hill said last fall after she was elected the state Attorney General’s Office asked her for more information about the her expenditures and ultimately recommended that she reimburse the campaign for $2,000 worth of clothing, which she did.
“I didn’t have a wardrobe at the ready that was suitable for the campaign and I needed to augment it and I think that was a reasonable use of campaign funds,” Liot Hill said. “In the end, I’m not going to make a huge stink about it. I have too much work to do, so I just reimbursed the campaign.”
An investigation into Liot Hill’s campaign funding issue is still open, Associate Attorney General Chris Bond said in a Monday email.
As for the letter from MacEachern, “We will assess the information provided and determine the appropriate course of action based on the facts and applicable law,” Bond said.
As the only Democrat on the five-member Executive Council in the Republican super-majority state government, Liot Hill said she has experienced a “pattern” of being “targeted” by Republican legislators.
She maintains that the Republicans’ claims are without merit and aim to distract voters from recent legislation, including the state budget, that Democrats contend will worsen the fiscal situation for the state government and deprive residents of needed services.
Because of Republicans’ expansive influence in the state, a call for impeachment “is not an empty threat,” Liot Hill said.
