The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office sent out several cease and desist letters in campaign finance matters from the 2024 election cycle. Campaigns must follow the state’s campaign laws. These laws require candidates and committees to regularly and in a timely manner report their expenses with receipts and provide the purpose of their expenditures.Four notices were sent out. One was to Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill. Hill owes the treasurer $1,000 for failure to file 2024 election cycle reports that excluded improper expenditures in a timely manner.A letter was also sent to Granite Solutions, a political advocacy organization, specifically Chair Joseph Sweeney. Sweeney is being fined $500 for failing to file an independent expenditure report that the organization had sent out in a timely manner. Sweeney was ordered by the Election Law Unit back in February to file reports from after September, which Sweeney’s team had failed to do. >> Download the free WMUR app to get updates on the go: Apple | Google Play > Subscribe to WMUR’s YouTube channel
The New Hampshire Attorney General’s office sent out several cease and desist letters in campaign finance matters from the 2024 election cycle.
Campaigns must follow the state’s campaign laws. These laws require candidates and committees to regularly and in a timely manner report their expenses with receipts and provide the purpose of their expenditures.
Four notices were sent out. One was to Executive Councilor Karen Liot Hill. Hill owes the treasurer $1,000 for failure to file 2024 election cycle reports that excluded improper expenditures in a timely manner.
A letter was also sent to Granite Solutions, a political advocacy organization, specifically Chair Joseph Sweeney. Sweeney is being fined $500 for failing to file an independent expenditure report that the organization had sent out in a timely manner. Sweeney was ordered by the Election Law Unit back in February to file reports from after September, which Sweeney’s team had failed to do.
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They responded and filed a month later, in March. The NH Department of Justice sent the letter due to the group’s initial failure to file the reports, which violates campaign finance law.
The Committee to Elect House Republicans was the third organization to receive a cease and desist letter. Chairperson and New Hampshire House Majority Leader Jason Osborne and Treasurer Jim Kofalt were cited to pay $1,500 in civil penalties.
Osborne and then-Treasurer Sherman Packard were told in November 2022 that their report for the 2022 cycle was overdue. They were then asked to add additional reports for the CTEHR’s 2024 election cycle reports.
The CTEHR hired an accountant to go through the organization’s accounts and obtain corrected receipts and expenditures. While the Department of Justice ordered that, despite the good faith of the CTEHR, the committee failed to provide the required information when it mattered most.
A separate notice was sent to Osborne and his “Friends of Jason Osborne” committee. Osborne was sent a notice from the Election Law Unit that expenditures from the 2024 election were overdue. Osborne sent the itemized receipts for not just the 2024 cycle, but also the 2022 cycle, which he had also not submitted. The reports from the 2022 cycle were 33 months overdue, according to the notice, and the 2024 cycle was 10 months overdue. Osborne and “Friends of Jason Osborne” are set to owe the treasurer $2,000 in their case.
The payments are due to be paid within the next 30 days, or they could be subject to legal and financial penalties.
