Lynch Vetoes House Redistricting

Gov. vetoed the New Hampshire’s on March 23, but approved of plans created by the state Senate.

In a late afternoon press release, Lynch stated that the controversial plan “violates the constitutional principle for equal representation and local representation; it is inconsistent in its treatment of similarly situated towns and wards, and it unnecessarily changes the boundaries of existing districts.”

In his veto message, Lynch noted that many cities were being broken up, including . Under the House plan, Ward 5 would be combined with a multi-candidate district in Hopkinton. Lynch noted that leaders and governing bodies in Concord and other cities “expressed their strong opposition” to the plan and asked the governor to veto the bill.

Lynch urged the House to address the problems quickly in order to make sure that new plans could be forwarded before the candidate filing periods began. He noted that there were alternative plans presented during the redistricting process that members could consider.

Democrats and other progressive and liberal interest groups applauded the veto.

The minority leader in the House, state Rep. , D-Portsmouth, called the veto “the right decision.”

“Several Republican state representatives have offered plans that would have complied with the New Hampshire Constitution and federal requirements, and House Democrats supported those plans – because this should not be a partisan issue,” she said in a press release. “Inexplicably, Speaker O’Brien does not want to adopt any of those plans, even though his refusal violates our constitution. We remain committed to working with Republicans to pass a compromise plan which follows the will of New Hampshire voters as expressed in the 2006 constitutional amendment.”

, the director of Granite State Progress, agreed.

“Granite State Progress applauds Gov. Lynch’s decision to veto a badly written and unpopular House redistricting plan,” she said a statement. “Speaker O’Brien and his extreme leadership team did everything in their power to draw lines based on political gain instead of communities of interest. They held shoddy, last-minute public input sessions and actively prevented the public and other members of the House from being able to use redistricting software developed at the taxpayer’s expense.”

At the same time he was vetoing the House’s redistricting plans, Lynch signed into law plans for , without comment. Unless there is a future lawsuit challenging those districts, the – Concord, Hopkinton and Pembroke – will lose Pembroke and add Henniker and Warner to the seat.