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Call him Steve Two Times.

Steve Marchand, the twice-failed progressive candidate for governor, was issued the second warning of his political career by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office, this one for deceptive campaign materials.

Assistant Attorney General Brendan O’Donnell sent Marchand a letter Wednesday stating that he is responsible for double-sided handbills targeting former Portsmouth Mayor Rick Becksted and former City Councilors Paige Trace, Petra Huda, Peter Whelan and Esther Kennedy in the 2021 election. However, that investigation is being closed without further action.

Marchand violated state campaign law with the handbills that he admits he paid for by failing to disclose his name on the materials. But he won’t be charged since he claimed to have acted alone, according to O’Donnell’s letter.

Under the United States Supreme Court ruling in McIntyre v. Ohio, individuals are exempted from disclosure laws as long as they are acting alone and not part of an organized campaign. Marchand earns his living as a political consultant.

Marchand did not respond to a request for comment.

Last year, Assistant Attorney General Myles Matteson concluded Marchand was responsible for the anonymous Preserve-Portsmouth.com and other websites targeting Becksted, Trace, Huda, Whelan, and Kennedy. Again, Marchand was let off with a warning based on the McIntyre ruling.

Marchand targeted the five public officials with anonymous websites, fliers, and robo texts, painting them as too conservative for the city and linking them to former President Donald Trump. According to documents obtained by the Attorney General’s Office, Marchand planned to depress voter turnout among Republicans in order to benefit Democrats on the ballot. 

According to Matteson’s letter, Marchand initially lied to investigator Anna Croteau when she questioned him about his part in the campaign.

“When she first asked about Preserve-Portsmouth.com, you stated that you had heard of the website. You denied you had ever claimed responsibility for the website but noted that other people had been saying you were responsible for it,” Mattson wrote. 

However, Croteau already had screenshots of a text conversation in which Marchand took credit for the content of the websites. 

“To be very clear, I am the one to create the content,” Marchand wrote in the text.

The legal opinion that Marchand acted alone based on his own statements to investigators seems to fly in the face of the evidence of collaboration uncovered in the investigation. 

The Attorney General’s Office has records of Marchand’s communications with at least four other people about the campaign, in which he stated the goal was to create guilt by association aimed at the targeted candidates, linking them to Trump in the mind of Portsmouth voters.

“(i)s really meant to help get Democrats who gave Becksted and others a vote in 2019 to really think about what they were doing in 2021,” Marchand wrote. 

Matteson wrote the purpose of the anonymous campaigns clear from Marchand’s statements to the others involved.

“It is clear from your own correspondence and admissions that your intended purpose of the site was to influence the Portsmouth City Council election,” Matteson wrote.

Marchand’s campaign seemed to work, as none of the candidates targeted by Marchand won their races.

Marchand lost Democratic gubernatorial primaries to Colin Van Ostern in 2016 and Molly Kelley in 2018. In both campaigns,  Marchand painted himself as a progressive champion when he ran, calling for tighter gun control, universal healthcare, and opposition to the Northern Pass electric transmission line project.

Marchand also ran a failed primary campaign from the left against Democratic U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen in 2008. He hasn’t yet declared any plans for a second race for Senate.

Newington residents are asking for help protecting their town’s drinking water from potential contamination some fear could be caused by the Million Air construction project at Pease.

“Everyone is extremely concerned,” said resident Meghann Wayss. “They have a little bit of trauma because they’ve seen this steamroll process.”

Wayss is one of the hundreds of Seacoast residents imploring the Pease Development Authority to listen to their concerns about Million Air and the Texas-based company’s plan to build a new private plane facility at Pease. So far, she told NHJournal, it seems like they are being ignored.

“Due process is not taking place,” Wayss said.

Newington’s Selectboard recently published an open letter detailing the perceived problems with Million Air’s proposed facility. The letter also asks residents to get involved in protecting the town.

Selectboard Chair Bob Blonigen said Newington is running out of options as the PDA gets closer to approving Million Air’s new fixed-base operator facility, which includes plans for a 90,000-gallon jet fuel farm many say is too close to wetlands that feed the region’s drinking water systems.

Residents don’t want the PDA to rubber stamp the project with what they say are unanswered questions remaining regarding the safety of town drinking water.

“There’s a groundswell of concern in Newington that the PDA is not responding to our questions; they are not really giving the project a proper look,” Blonigen said.

More than 1,200 residents have signed an online petition asking the PDA to slow down.

Million Air wants to build its fixed-base operator facility on land that will require dredging and filling of wetlands near the Haven Well, according to the Newington board’s letter. The Haven Well feeds into the drinking water for the town of Newington. Residents already living with PFAS contamination from Pease fear Million Air’s project poses a risk of worsening the problem. They cite a review of the project conducted by Danna Truslow, a hydrogeologist hired to look at the site by Port City Air, an aviation company already at Pease.

Truslow found levels of PFAS within Million Air’s proposed site already 10 times the PFAS levels considered safe. None of this seems to make an impression on the PDA, Wayss said.

Resident Jennifer Wiener said while the PDA meetings about Million Air are taking place in public, they are held at times most members of the public cannot attend. The meetings are in the middle of the workday on weekdays. She said that even if a resident can get to a meeting, they are shut out from commenting or asking questions.

“We feel there’s no transparency to this project,” Wiener said. 

Wayss recalled arriving late to a recent meeting set for 2 p.m., only to find it was already over. Wayss entered the room at 2:09 p.m. to find the board adjourning the meeting.

“It’s very apparent there is a desired result, and the process is being used to get that desired result,” Wayss said.

State Rep. David Meuse (D-Portsmouth) said he and other Seacoast lawmakers have been hearing volumes from residents who are worried about the project. He said the concerns being raised by Newington selectmen and residents ought to be addressed openly.

“All of the concerns the selectmen have raised are more than legitimate,” Meuse said. “These are questions that need to be answered.

Meuse met this week with state Sen. Rebecca Perkins Kwoka (D-Portsmouth) and state Rep. Robin Vogt (D-Portsmouth) to discuss the situation. He said lawmakers want to get all the facts and fully understand the issues before taking the next step. The biggest concern is making sure Seacoast residents don’t again have their drinking water contaminated, he explained.

“We need to do the homework and have the right kind of conversations with people and advocate for people in the community,” Meuse said. “We want to make sure people who have been victimized before won’t get victimized again.”

Residents like Wayss and Weiner want the PDA to conduct a public, third-party peer review of the design of the project, review alternative sites at Pease where Million Air’s facility could be safely located, bring in a professional wetlands engineer to study the current’s site buffer zone; and offer a complete public explanation of what the public benefit is being realized through the Million Air project. 

“We still do not understand how this is a public good when it’s ruining Newington’s drinking water,” Weiner said.

Pease International Tradeport sits on land taken from the town of Newington decades ago when the U.S. government created the Pease Air Force Base, she noted. Since that land went to the Tradeport when the base closed, she said the PDA at least owes residents an explanation.

“We gave away 51 percent of our town when the airbase came in,” Weiner said. “I would expect the PDA to be better partners.”

Supporters of the Million Air project note the Truslow review was funded by Port City Air, a competitor who has no interest in seeing the project move forward.

Peter Bragdon, spokesman for Million Air, said Newington officials and residents have no reason to worry. The wetlands delineation surrounding the proposed facility has been through an independent, third-party review ordered by the PDA already. The New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services has also looked at it. He said the company has agreed to abide by any findings these reviews uncovered.

“Million Air believes the PDA and NH DES are exercising proper independent oversight in this process by ordering an independent third-party review and by having a team of experts, including a certified wetland scientist, walk the property,” Bragdon said. “We look forward to the formal presentation of our proposal to the PDA Board of Directors in the coming months, where the facts can be discussed openly.”

As the Million Air proposal to build a new fixed-based operator facility at Pease International Tradeport gets ready for take-off, a report about the already high PFAS contamination has some area residents concerned.

“There may be safeguards in place, but you’re just too close to this wetland, and there are too many unknowns,” said Danna Truslow, a hydrogeologist hired by Port City Air, to review the available data.

Truslow reviewed data gathered by the Air Force in 2014, the most recent available. Her analysis found the site Million Air wants to use for its FBO construction already has PFAS levels up to 10 times higher than those considered safe. And, she warned, construction that includes any dredging and filling of the adjacent wetlands risks disturbing the contamination, which could migrate to the aquifer that feeds the Haven Well or towards Hodgdon Brook and beyond.

The Air Force cleaned up many known chemicals at the site of its former air base, but PFAS contamination from the site did not start showing in drinking water until recently. The data she used was collected after the cleanup was completed, Truslow said. Questions remain about how much PFAS is in the water and where the chemicals are concentrated.

“A lot of that has been cleaned up, but the PFAS is a more recent concern, and we don’t have a full handle on where it all is,” Truslow said.

Truslow is also concerned that soil dredged from the site and used to create berms, part of Million Air’s proposal, could result in more PFAS exposure.

“They are going to be digging, moving soil around, stockpiling soil; we don’t have a good idea on how much contamination is in there because we don’t have that data,” Truslow said. “There’s a lot of detail that hasn’t really been provided.”

Peter Bragdon, the spokesman for the Texas-based Million Air, dismissed Truslow’s claims, noting she was hired by its competitor Port City Air.

“The report talks about the proposed Million Air site without mentioning what is happening at the site next door, known as Hangar 229, a site occupied by Port City Air,” Bragdon said.

“Sitting behind Port City Air’s Hangar 229, adjacent to the same wetland discussed in the Truslow report, is a large pile of soil put there by Port City Air during their own construction project. Sitting there, uncovered, for months or even years.”

Bragdon said his company’s plans have already met with approval from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, which issued a permit for the company’s construction in the wetlands. Million Air is prepared to deal with all wetland and soil issues that could arise during the construction and operation, he said. 

Bragdon blamed Port City Air for stirring up opposition to the project.

“It is clear to us Port City Air’s objections to Million Air have more to do with a fear of competition than with any concern for the environment,” Bragdon said.

Port City representatives have denied the charge and claim they share concerns about the environmental impact harbored by local residents. Bob Blonigen, chairman of the nearby Newington Board of Selectmen, complained that his town’s issues with the project are going unheard by the Pease Development Authority Board of Directors.

“Most of our concerns are that they are building their fuel farm right on top of an aquifer,” Blonigen said.

PFAS from the Pease base left nearly all of the private wells in Newington too contaminated for safe drinking, he said. He said residents had been forced to hook up to the water system out of Portsmouth, which is now in danger from potential PFAS contamination from the Million Air project.

“Newington has concerns,” Blonigen said.

Truslow and Port City representatives hope to be able to share their questions and concerns with the full PDA board before Million Air is granted its final approval. 

Million Air, the Texas-based company looking to expand into New Hampshire, is heading back to the Pease Development Authority this month for approval of its proposed new fixed-base operator facility and hangar at the Tradeport. 

A public hearing is set before the Pease board’s Technical Review Committee on Jan. 17, even as residents concerned about environmental impacts are galvanizing into opposition.

“Million Air’s dismissive attitude toward these legitimate environmental concerns tells us a lot about their priorities,” said Dania Seiglie, activist and critic of the Million Air proposal.

Meanwhile, Million Air is currently involved in a messy lawsuit with Westchester County, N.Y. where the company said county officials violated the lease agreement at the county airport.

The proposed Million Air facility at the Tradeport includes a new 12,000-square-foot hangar for a total project footprint of 26,000 square feet. Also included is a 90,000-gallon fuel farm that locals say is too close to the region’s drinking water supply.

The Portsmouth region is already dealing with PFAS-contaminated drinking water as a result of the United States Air Force operations at Pease.

Seiglie said the company is not showing it takes the issue seriously. “This is about credibility. When we initially voiced concerns, Million Air’s leadership publicly responded by dismissing us without direct comment and instead claiming the local opposition is about competition. Million Air isn’t listening and judging by the legal fights this company has had in other states around similar projects, they won’t ever listen if it means abandoning their chosen site. That is one of the reasons local opposition is growing. Several hundred area residents have signed a petition opposing the MA plan and that number will likely grow.”

In Westchester County, Million Air’s plans ran afoul of officials who claim the company started moving forward with buildings and a stormwater system never approved by the county. According to Westchester’s counter-complaint, Million Air is trying to build a facility to service private jets after it was initially approved for light general aviation customers.

The company filed the lawsuit when Westchester officials tried to stop their project. Peter Bragdon, the New Hampshire spokesman for Million Air, said the company is simply trying to get the county to honor the original agreement.

“Million Air is trying to force compliance with the lease agreement, which Million Air asserts the County has violated,” Bragdon said.

Seiglie and hundreds of residents have signed a petition asking Million Air to relocate its proposed FBO away from the wetlands, and to another site at Pease. She wants the committee to stop the plan altogether, or at least delay it and allow the FAA to review Million Air’s proposal.

“We believe this proposal before the technical review committee should be rejected based on specific environmental impact concerns, or at least delayed until the FAA has reviewed the proposed project proposal,” Seiglie.

Bragdon said the concerns of the resident are misplaced. Million Air will build a better, cleaner facility than anything at Pease currently, he said.

“Million Air is proposing a state-of-the-art facility that goes above and beyond required containment standards, many of which the two aging fuel farms operated by the existing FBO, Port City Air, do not meet. The new facility will be decades newer and environmentally safer than the aging – and much larger – existing fuel farms,” Bragdon said.

Pease is already home to Port City Air, which has a fuel farm also close to the same wetlands. Bragdon said Million Air’s facility will be safer than Port City’s.

“The proposed Million Air facility has multiple redundancies to protect the environment, including new technologies that would likely have prevented the several documented spills that have occurred as part of Port City Air’s operations,” Bragdon said. “These protections include double-walled storage tanks and piping, retention berms, oil stop valves, oversized containment chambers, and oil-water separators. The system will be backed up with failsafe alarms, control valves, and high-level gauging instrumentation.”

Roger Wiegley, another concerned citizen turned activist, said the Pease bard needs to show leadership and stop Million Air. The project should have been brought to the FAA for review since it would change the layout at the airport, according to Wiegley.

“A revised airport layout plan must be delivered to the FAA and to date, that has not happened. This critical step in the process has been either deliberately avoided or overlooked,” Wiegley said.

The New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said Democrat Steve Marchand lied about his role in a political scheme targeting his opponents in Portsmouth.

Marchand, a progressive Democrat who once served as Portsmouth mayor and sought his party’s nomination for governor, will not face criminal charges, the office said in a letter. Instead, it issued a letter of warning to Marchand for his involvement in Preserve-Portsmouth.com and other websites that targeted sitting city council members in the last municipal election.

“It’s pretty bad,” said Peter Whelan, one of the Portsmouth councilors targeted.

Whelan, Councilors Susan Paige Trace, Ester Kennedy, Greg Mahanna, Petra Huda, and Mayor Rick Becksted were all targeted by anonymous websites, fliers, and robotexts operated by Marchand, according to Myles Matteson with the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office.

“It was shameful. There were robotexts sent by the thousands,” Whelan said.

Trace said the attorney general’s investigation revealed there was an effort to mislead the voters of Portsmouth.

“It’s about being transparent and behaving in an honorable manner,” Trace said.

All of the candidates targeted by Marchand were defeated. Current Portsmouth Mayor Deaglan McEachern declined to comment, as he had not seen Matteson’s letter.

“I didn’t have any interaction with the (Marchand) in my campaign,” McEachern said. “I have no idea what the former mayor was doing or not doing.”

Marchand did not respond to a request for comment. His attorney, Joseph Foster, is currently out of the country and unable to be reached.

Marchand’s bogus website was built to mirror a legitimate site with a similar name, Preserve Portsmouth, and purported to support the same city council candidates the original site endorsed. But it falsely described them as far-right Trump supporters. According to documents obtained by the Attorney General’s Office, Marchand wanted to depress voter turnout among Republicans in order to benefit Democrats on the ballot.

Marchand initially lied to investigator Anna Croteau when she questioned him about his part in the campaign, according to Mattson’s letter.

“When she first asked about Preserve-Portsmouth.com, you stated that you had heard of the website. You denied you had ever claimed responsibility for the website but noted that other people had been saying you were responsible for it,” Matteson wrote.

However, Croteau already had screenshots of a text conversation in which Marchand took credit for the content of the websites.

“To be very clear, I am the one to create the content,” Marchand wrote.

Matteson’s letter states the Attorney General’s Office has records of Marchand’s communications with at least four other people about the campaign, in which he stated the goal was to create guilt by association aimed at the targeted candidates, linking them to Trump in the mind of Portsmouth voters.

“(i)s really meant to help get Democrats who gave Becksted and others a vote in 2019 to really think about what they are doing in 2021,” Marchand wrote.

Whelan suspects the true purpose of the campaign was to get rid of council members who oppose development in the historic sections of the city. Marchand’s record as mayor includes changing zoning ordinances to make development easier, Whelan said. Whelan wants to know who Marchand was working with and for, and who funded the operation.

“Somebody spent a lot of money to do this,” Whelan said.

The attorney general’s report found that while Marchand would have violated campaign finance law by not disclosing who was behind the websites, fliers, and robotexts if it could be proved that he acted in concert with others. However, Marchand claimed, eventually, that while he acted alone in creating the content he did not set up the websites. Matteson noted the claim he acted alone was the last of many explanations Marchand offered to investigators.

New Hampshire law on campaign finance transparency allows a narrow exemption for individuals engaged in advocacy. Marchand was cautioned, however, that if he continues to engage in similar campaigns he could lose the exemption and face possible prosecution.

Last year, Portsmouth Democrat Committee Chair Shanika Amarakoon and New Hampshire Democratic Party Chair Ray Buckley issued a statement condemning Marchand’s campaign.

“We cannot let our local elections be undermined by national-style political tactics. The city councilors who were attacked, after all, are our neighbors. While we may not agree with all of their decisions, they did not deserve this attack, and we do not stand for it,” Amarakoon and Buckley wrote.

Bowing to pressure from a group of “woke” high school activists, the Portsmouth City Council voted to cancel Columbus Day.

For years, the seacoast city known for its liberal politics has recognized both Columbus Day and Indigenous People’s Day on the same date — traditionally October 12. But at Monday night’s council meeting, students with Portsmouth High School’s We Speak club for social justice activism complained that accommodating Columbus Day and the history it celebrates was intolerable.

Olivia Annunziata Blaisdell, with We Speak, called the dual celebrations inadequate and insulting. Emily Stokel, another student with We Speak, said it was time to stop honoring Columbus.

“Continuing to celebrate Christopher Columbus, who committed serious atrocities and massacres among the indigenous populations he encountered is unjust and cruel,” Stokel said.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern said the vote was about honoring the people who came before the city was founded 400 years ago. Portsmouth was home to Abenaki and Wabanaki people.

“We are a nation of immigrants, but it’s good to remember there were people here before us, especially here in Portsmouth,” McEachern.

Critics wondered why the city could not continue to observe both days, why one had to be embraced and the other excluded.

City Councilor Beth Moreau was the only no vote on the measure, saying she feared the change would be a disservice to the city’s Italian American residents.

“Christopher Columbus is a symbol of the important role Catholics have played in this country going back to before the founding,” said Michael McDonald, communications director with the Catholic League. “Attempts to cancel Columbus Day are more than just canceling the legacy of some 15th Century explorer. It sends a message to Catholics that they have a diminished role in the American experience.”

Columbus was adopted as a patron for Catholic Italian immigrants in the 1880s. The Italians connected to Columbus as they sought to be accepted as Americans. In the 1920s, Columbus Day celebrations were at times violently opposed by the Ku Klux Klan due to its hatred of Catholics.

Opponents of Columbus Day claim celebrating Europeans arriving in the New World is tantamount to celebrating slavery, bigotry and genocide. Activists like Nikole Hannah-Jones, author of The 1619 Project, have gone so far as to claim the true founding of America should be dated to the arrival of the first African slaves brought to the continent.

Historians note, however, that slavery, ritual human sacrifice and even cannibalism were practiced by the peoples of the Americas before Europeans arrived. In fact, the Abenaki and Wabanaki are believed to have taken the land they inhabited by violently driving out tribes affiliated with the Iroquois. 

There is no text to the resolution, as the council was voting on the We Speak request to change Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. The matter was introduced as a motion from the council to vote on as an action item.

The Order of Sons and Daughters of Italy in America has been working for years to save Columbus Day from cancellation. The group says the holiday is about celebrating the best in America.

“Columbus celebrates the beginning of cultural exchange between America and Europe. After Columbus, millions of European immigrants brought their art, music, science, medicine, philosophy and religious principles to America. These contributions have helped shape the United States and include Greek democracy, Roman law, Judeo-Christian ethics and the belief that all men are created equal,” the group states.

In an attempt at accommodation earlier this year, state Rep. Jess Edwards (R-Auburn) sponsored legislation declaring August 9 Indigenous People’s Day, to coincide with the United Nations International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples. Progressive activists opposed it, insisting –as the Portsmouth students did — that eliminating Columbus Day was their priority.

“We can’t be honoring violence,” said Asma Elhuni, a leading member of the Granite State’s progressive BIPOC community.

McEachern understands people might have different opinions about keeping the celebration, but he said removing Columbus Day does not harm Italian Americans.

“It doesn’t take away anything from anyone to recognize that to be a nation of immigrants means there were people here before us,” McEachern said.

School districts across the Granite State are putting families’ lives in a state of flux, and increasing parents’ frustrations as they face last-minute school closings.

Nashua parents were informed late Friday there will be no school this coming Monday or Tuesday after close to 200 teachers called out from work.

“The Nashua School District continues to fail its students,” said Alicia Houston, a mother and activist who has butted heads with the district since the start of COVID lockdowns.

Nashua’s Interim Superintendent Garth McKinney sent a letter on Friday stating school is canceled on Jan. 11 and 12 as there will not be enough teachers in the buildings.

“We are alarmed with the high number of staff absences across our schools these last few days,” McKinney wrote.

The Nashua district employs more than 1,000 teachers who are members of the Nashua Teachers Union. Union Vice President Gary Hoffman isn’t sure why approximately 20 percent of the district’s union teaching staff is calling out, but he suspects COVID.

“I am not sure. We’re trying to find out. I assume it’s Covid related mostly,” Hoffman said in an email.

Houston said this is par for the course for the Nashua District, which has not shown enough concern about what shutdowns do to working parents and children. 

“Since March of 2020, the focus has not been on the education of the children and their academic success,” Houston said. “The reasoning behind the mass call out remains unclear. However, very bad timing is creating a very poor optic for some Nashua parents. When will the focus be brought back to the best interest of the students and their learning?”

Nashua School Board member Ray Guarino blamed Gov. Chris Sununu for the shutdowns in a Facebook post.

“Governor Sununu ordered all districts back to school and we had no backup plan as delta and omicron began to surge. We should have done better by our students, teachers, and their families. I would hope that we at least make plans for a remote option,” Guarino wrote.

Parents, on the other hand, have expressed frustration with school systems and teachers unions pushing to keep classrooms closed. Data show remote learning has been an academic disaster, particularly for low-income families and students of color.

Nashua parents are not alone dealing with uncertainty about their schools’ policies. Dover’s School District warned parents this week to be prepared for shutdowns, as the closures may be announced at the last minute.

Dover Superintendent William Harbron wrote to parents that staff shortages due to COVID might shut down individual schools within the district. With no options available for remote learning, parents were told to be ready with a backup plan in case of a closure.

“I fully understand this is not the news you would like to hear,” Harbron wrote in the email.

Contacted Friday. Harbron expressed sympathy for parents who are struggling with the possibility of sudden school closures.

It’s not just closure parents need to watch for. In some municipalities, mask mandates for public spaces are coming fast. While cities like Keene and Nashua voted on new mask mandates in recent weeks, Portsmouth’s City Manager Karen Conard issued a unilateral directive on Friday ordering masks be worn indoors by everyone over the age of five.

“Given the current metrics relative to percent positivity and hospitalization utilization due to COVID, the health officer has determined that in order to protect the public health, proper face coverings must be used in all publicly accessible indoor areas and places of employment,” Conard said in a statement released Friday.

Conard based her decision on a recommendation from the city’s Health Department. While the city directive does not apply to schools, Portsmouth public school students have already been wearing masks indoors at school this year, according to district policy.