Republican candidate and convicted murderer Mark Edgington is dropping out of his race for the State House, and he’s blaming NHJournal for his decision.
Edgington, 53, of Westmoreland, was running in the GOP primary in a House race to represent the towns of Hudson and Litchfield, more than an hour’s drive away. Last week, NHJournal reported on his candidacy, including his 1988 murder conviction.
After that report, the New Hampshire Republican Party took the unusual step of invoking a rarely-used rule to endorse Edgington’s two primary opponents, Kimberly Rice and Ralph Boehm.
Now he is leaving the race, and he says it’s all NHJournal’s fault.
“When I embarked on this, I expected fair, respectful treatment by the press and my party, and to serve my constituents,” Edgington wrote to the NH Bulletin. “[The reporting] is causing me mental stress and affecting my family relations … I don’t need this.”
Edgington did not say what, exactly, he found objectionable in the reporting on his murder conviction.
Edgington was in a three-way race to fill two seats in the primary. The state GOP invoked the Republican National Committee’s Rule 11, allowing the party to weigh in on a primary race.
“New Hampshire State Party Chairman Chris Ager, National Committeewoman Juliana Bergeron, and National Committeeman Bill O’Brien have filed such written approval with the RNC. Pursuant to that filing, they further state that the approved and supported candidates in the Sept. 10, 2024, state representative Republican primary in the two-seat Hillsborough District 38 (Hudson and Litchfield) are state Rep. Ralph Boehm and former state Rep. Kimberly Rice,” the state GOP said in a statement.
Hudson’s GOP Committee Chair Kimberly Allan, who previously maintained neutrality, endorsed Boehn and Rice after Edgington bowed out.
“We respect Mark’s decision and extend our gratitude for his dedication and efforts during his campaign,” Allan said in a statement.
Contacted Monday, Rice was careful not to be critical in her statement about Edgington.
“I’m happy he chose the communities of Hudson and Litchfield above his personal endeavors. I wish him the best for his future,” Rice told NHJournal.
Boehm was less circumspect when contacted by NHJournal via email.
“Guess he will move back to his real address instead of the three-month rented room,” Boehm wrote.
Edgington was 17 when he strangled motel manager Ballapuran Umakanthan, 37, to death, according to an affidavit filed in the case. Edgington and his accomplice, Carmen Tungate, then 18, planned to beat and rob the motel manager in a Bradenton, Fla. Econo Lodge. When Umakanthan fought back, Tungate held the man down while Edgington strangled him until he saw blood coming out of Umakanthan’s ears, according to the affidavit.
Both Edgington and Tungate were sentenced to 390 years in prison after pleading no contest to second degree murder, and both men were released after about 10 years under a controversial early release program.
Tungate was killed in a 2009 shooting, a case that’s still considered an unsolved murder. Edgington would go on to meet Ian Bernard, later Ian Freeman, at a Florida community college. The pair moved to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project and launched Free Talk Live, Freeman’s radio call-in show.
Edgington says he’s retired from Free Talk Live. Freeman is serving a nine-year federal prison sentence for money laundering and wire fraud connected to his Bitcoin exchange businesses.
