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Democratic candidates are scrambling for support in the growing crypto currency sphere, and many want their party’s leadership to change the perception that Democrats are hostile to the emerging financial technology.

But New Hampshire’s Rep. Chris Pappas (D-Manchester) isn’t one of them.

A group of congressional Democrats and candidates, including Maggie Goodlander and Colin Van Ostern, recently wrote to Democratic National Committee chair Jamie Harrison asking for changes to the party’s platform to make it more friendly to Bitcoin and other forms of cryptocurrency. Crypto support could be vital in key swing states, they said in the letter.

“From an electoral standpoint, crypto and blockchain technologies have an outsized impact in ensuring victories up and down the ballot. Crypto is at the top of voters’ minds in swing states, and a balanced approach to crypto that spurs innovation while protecting consumers is a net positive for policymakers and candidates,” they wrote.

Pappas was the only major New Hampshire Democrat running for Congress this cycle who declined to sign.

Instead of embracing crypto, Pappas has amassed a record of supporting bills that would hurt the crypto industry. 

Pappas voted against Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act which proposed protections for crypto buyers. Pappas also voted against the CBDC Anti-Surveillance State Act, which would block the Federal Reserve from creating its own digital currency, giving the powerful bank the ability to run surveillance on crypto users.

Pappas sponsored a bill targeting the use of crypto to purchase drugs on the so-called dark web, linking the use of crypto to criminal activity. His bill would create a task force to study the use of crypto in online crimes.

President Joe Biden’s administration, especially the Securities and Exchange Commission, has been aggressive toward the crypto industry, alienating many potential supporters and donors. With Vice President Kamala Harris leading the ticket, Democrats like Goodlander and Van Ostern hope to see change in the party’s stance. 

“We believe this previous hostility does not reflect our Party’s progressive, forward-looking, and inclusive values. A refreshed leader of the ticket represents an opportunity to change that perception,” their letter states. 

According to the Financial Times, Harris’ team is already working on a “reset” with crypto industry leaders, stressing that under her leadership the party will be “pro-business, responsible business.”

Harris needs to play catch up with former President Donald Trump. A one-time crypto skeptic who once called it a “disaster waiting to happen,” Trump is now firmly behind the industry. He gave a keynote speech over the weekend at a Bitcoin conference in Nashville, Tenn., embracing the technology and calling for establishing a national Bitcoin stockpile before ending his speech in typically Trumpian manner.

“Have a good time with your Bitcoin and your crypto and everything else that you’re playing with,” Trump said.

Trump has also pledged to fire Biden’s anti-crypto Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler.

Crypto is popular among New Hampshire Libertarians, and libertarian-leaning Republicans. Nationally, key voters who are political independents are more engaged in crypto currency than either Republicans or Democrats. According to Goodlander and Van Ostern, the technology is gaining ground among those traditionally part of the Democratic coalition.

“Data shows that digital assets are being adopted at higher rates among Gen Z, Black, and Latino Americans, and immigrant communities–key constituencies of the Democratic party–compared to traditional financial products. These technologies are revolutionizing opportunities for these communities, reflecting their transformative potential,” their letter states.

Crypto support comes with potential drawbacks, as Pappas can attest. Last year he was dogged by the campaign money he took from disgraced fraudster Sam Bankman-Fried’s FTX crypto exchange. 

Bankman-Fried was convicted of fraud, money laundering, and conspiracy and ordered to repay $11 billion stolen from investors. During the investigation, it was uncovered that Bankman-Fried and his cohorts made 300 illegal political donations, including thousands to New Hampshire Democrats.

Pappas eventually gave his $2,900 FTX donation to a charity, while Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan gave up $30,000. 

Where in the world is Maggie Goodlander?

If you’re looking for the Democrat running for the Second Congressional District nomination, you might want to try an apartment in the new Nashua apartment building downtown on a street with a taxi stand and a casino.

But if you’re looking for her actual home, it might be the $2.2 million, three-bedroom house with harbor views in the First Congressional District city of Portsmouth. 

Unless it’s a work day. Then you might want to try Washington, D.C. Her husband Jake Sullivan is President Joe Biden’s national security advisor, and the couple has a home there, too.

Which leads to the ironic situation in which Goodlander is the only major candidate actually born in the Granite State, and yet she’s simultaneously facing legitimate allegations of being a “carpetbagger” as well.

Goodlander didn’t rent her Nashua residence until she became a candidate in the congressional race. Asked about the odd optics of moving into a district in order to run for office there, Goodlander retorted: “I am a renter, and there should be more renters in Congress.”

Goodlander’s building advertises apartments starting at $1,800 a month for a studio, and about $2,600 a month for a two-bedroom unit. It includes a gym and courtyard recreation area, though it seems unlikely she’ll be using the communal grill. And Goodlander’s name does not appear in the menu on the touch-screen directory at the building’s entrance.

The building is owned Wingate, one of the real estate rental conglomerates the Biden administration has been recently railing against 

Wingate, which owns and operates many apartment developments, is also a major contributor to Democratic politics, according to Federal Election Commission data. That includes a $95,000 donation to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee that’s working to elect the next representative in the NH-02 race.

Ironically, Goodlander’s residency issues in Nashua go back to the very first time she voted, in 2008.

According to records reviewed by NHJournal, when Goodlander cast her mail-in ballot in the 2008 general election, the address listed was for a Nashua home her parents had already sold. 

According to the 2008 voter checklist, Goodlander registered undeclared and voted by absentee ballot in both the January presidential primary and the November general election. According to the checklist, Goodlander pulled a Democratic ballot in the First in the Nation presidential primary between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama.  

The Nashua address Goodlander used for her registration was owned by her parents Betty Tamposi and Theodore Goodlander. However, that house was not her home by the time of the November election. The house was sold that fall, with the sale closing on Oct. 24, 2008, according to Registry of Deeds records.

Betty Tamposi and Theodore Goodlander were in the middle of an ugly, high-profile divorce at the time that is still a topic of conversation in Nashua circles. The fact that Maggie Goodlander voted from an address he family didn’t live at has some people asking if she cast an illegal ballot the first time she voted.

Probably not, Secretary of State David Scanlan told NHJournal.

While Scanlan would not speculate about the specifics of Goodlander’s actions, he said New Hampshire state law allows for limited transitional gray areas when it comes to moving and voting. 

“Everybody’s situation is unique and different,” Scanlan said.

The law at the time allowed for people like college students to “domicile” in New Hampshire while actually residing in another state, according to Scanlan. Those who domiciled in the Granite State could vote in New Hampshire elections. Conversely, Granite Staters who did not domicile in New Hampshire could still claim it as their home. And they could still vote in New Hampshire elections, he said. 

“For most people domicile is black and white, it’s where they live,” Scanlan said.

The New Hampshire Supreme Court has since clarified the definition of a domicile to be closer to the definition of a residency, Scanlan said. At the same time, the law still gives leeway for people whose lives are in transition or in the process of moving.

For example, a person who sold their New Hampshire house and then traveled the country in a motorhome could still claim New Hampshire as their residency, according to Scanlan, so long as they did not establish a home anywhere else.

“They do not lose their original domicile until they establish a new one,” Scanlan said.

Under the law, a person retains their New Hampshire residency until they establish a new residency. Usually, that is done by getting a new driver’s license, or putting a child in a public school in the new location, he said.

If Goodlander in 2008 did nothing to establish a new residency somewhere else in the weeks after her parents sold the Nashua home, she could still claim it as her home for voting purposes. Goodlander left New Hampshire for college, the military, and then a career in Washington, D.C.

The Republican National Congressional Committee says, “Goodlander’s residency issues and lack of local grassroots support goes to show just how little she has to do with New Hampshire as an adult.

“The voters of NH-02 deserve someone who understands their needs, not someone who pretends to be a renter while living in D.C.,” said NRCC spokeswoman Savannah Viar.

Goodlander may be hard to track down, but the campaign checks are still finding their way to her. According to the FEC reports ending in June, she outraised all of the candidates in the race with more than $1.5 million. Her Democratic primary opponent, former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, raised about $1 million.

In the GOP primary, entrepreneur Vikram Mansharamani has about $352,000 cash on hand, and frequent federal candidate Lily Tang Williams has $305,000 in the bank, $80,000 of which she loaned the campaign.

And Goodlander’s house hunting may not be over, regardless of the outcome of the NH-02 election. According to The Wall Street Journal, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris has already made it clear she’s going to clean house on foreign policy if she takes over from President Joe Biden.

On the list of staffers who’ll be shown the door: Goodlander’s husband Jake Sullivan.

Republican candidates Lily Tang Williams and Vikram Mansharamani see a chance to get to Congress representing the Democrat-leaning Second Congressional District, thanks to President Joe Biden’s mishandling of the economy.

“For the first time in 12 to 14 years we have a chance to win this seat,” Mansharamani said.

Mansharamani and Tang Williams met Monday night for the NHJournal CD-02 Primary Debate at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College. One other Republican, Hanover businessman William Hamlen, was invited to participate but declined.

The two Republicans kept the conversation civil, and both focused on the theme that the economy is a mess and Republicans can fix it.

“The voters are in pain. It’s economic pain, it’s pain from inflation created by the government. We have to get control of inflation,” Mansharamani said.

Biden’s disastrous economy “is stealing the American Dream from Granite Staters, and especially young people,” Tang Williams said. People cannot afford groceries, or heating fuel, or health care; young people cannot afford to rent or buy their own home; and immigrants are coming to an America that is now longer the free and prosperous nation they sought.

“I feel obligated to save the American Dream,” Tang Williams said.

Democrat Rep. Annie Kuster’s decision not to seek reelection caught most in Granite State political circles by surprise — with the possible exception of former Executive Councilor Colin Van Ostern, who promptly announced his candidacy and was immediately endorsed by Kuster. Van Ostern is facing former Biden administration official Maggie Goodlander, wife of Biden’s National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.

Add an open seat to the turmoil caused by Biden’s poor performance of late, and the Second Congressional District could be a GOP pick up opportunity. Mansharamani and Tang Williams hit their marks when asked about Biden and his apparent cognitive decline.

“It’s a total mess, it’s a disaster, our president is incapacitated and the world is on fire,” Mansharamani said.

Tang Williams, who talked about watching her mother die after suffering dementia, said she felt sorrow for Biden and anger at the Democrats who hid his seeming infirmities from voters.

“The Democratic machine wants to use a senile man to gain power,” she said.

They both argued Republican policies, in the wake of the economy under Biden, could draw voters across the aisle to back their candidacies.

“I don’t know any Democrats who appreciate inflation,” Mansharamani said. “Republicans have a wonderful message and it works.”

Tang Williams and her firebrand, patriotic personality were on display. During a light-hearted question asking her which superhero she would want to be, she answered “George Washington.”

“I didn’t grow up here. I admired him. He could have become king and he said no,” she said.

She stayed on message throughout the debate with her story of fleeing the repressive Communist regime in China to find freedom and opportunity in the U.S. 

“I’m on the Chinese Community Party blacklist. How more American do you want me to be?” Tang Williams said.

Entrepreneur Mansharamani is running as a business-world political outsider who can make free-market reforms, close the border, and bring fresh ideas to Washington. He also picked Superman.

“I’m an optimist. I believe we can solve these problems,” Mansharamani said.

One obstacle could be the Democrats fundraising advantage. Last week, Van Ostern announced raising $1 million, only to be trumped by Goodlander’s announcement that she’s raised $1.5 million. Asked if he would have the resources to be competitive in November, Mansharamani offered a one-word answer:

“Yes.”

Tang Williams said she has $300,000 in cash on hand, and that her large social media following could make up any financial deficit.

“Money can buy ads, but money cannot buy votes,” she said.

Both Tang Williams and Mansharamani are relatively recent transplants to the Granite State, but that does not make them carpetbaggers, they said. Former Libertarian Tang Williams said she fell in love with New Hampshire and its state motto, “Live Free or Die.”

For Mansharamani, New Hampshire is where he found a place for his family. His special needs daughter got a place in a school in Lincoln where she was embraced and thrived. Mansharamani could see the community was home.

“We moved our life out here to make her life more possible,” he said.

Neither Tang Williams nor Mansharamani supported Donald Trump in the 2024 FITN primary (Mansharamani backed Nikki Haley, and Tang Williams declined to endorse any candidate). But both said they would support the former president.

“Nobody’s perfect, but America needs a leader now,” Tang Williams said.

Mansharamani used Trump talk to take a back-handed swing at Tang Williams, who ran for U.S. Senate in Colorado as a Libertarian Party candidate in 2016. Saying he supported Ambassador Nikki Haley in the primary, Mansharamani said he’d vote for Trump in the general election because he’s always voted Republican in every election. 

“I am a lifelong Republican; I have always voted Republican, and I will vote for the Republican nominee,” Mansharamani said.