Mass. Political Mail House Refuses To ID Illegal Mail Customer: NH AG

CONCORD, NH — Four illegal political mailers sent to voters in the Second Congressional District have been identified by state investigators — but both the mailing company that sent the mailers and its politically-connected law firm refuse to identify the customer, the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office said Friday.

Reynolds DeWalt, a direct mail printing company in New Bedford, Massachusetts, admitted to sending the mailers, Michael Garrity, a spokesman for the attorney general’s office, said. He said investigators requested the identity of the person and entity that paid for the mailers but the company, which is a union and Democrat outfit, refused. The company's attorneys, the Elias Law Group, also refused to identify the customer.

The mailers, first reported by NH Journal, tout Bob Burns as the most pro-Trump candidate over Keene Mayor George Hansel in the race. The presumption by politicos is the Democrats are funding the mailers to ensure the most conservative candidate wins the nomination; it was presumed the more conservative candidate would be the easiest to beat. The mailers were followed by around $100,000 in television spots by Democrats Serve, a Democratic PAC. Burns, according to the latest polling and surveys, has a solid lead over Hansel and five other candidates.

A non-disclosure disclaimer, indicating who paid for the mailer, was not printed on the advertising, a violation of state and federal law.

“Reynolds DeWalt and Elias have both refused to disclose to the attorney general’s office the name of the person or entity responsible for the mailers,” Garrity said. “However, following discussions with this office, Elias has confirmed that the four mailers without the ‘paid-for’ information were the only ones sent, and any additional mailers distributed in New Hampshire by Reynolds DeWalt will contain paid-for disclaimers.”

Garrity said the campaigns of Burns, Hansel, and U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-NH, “have all stated that they had no prior knowledge of or coordination with the entity responsible for the four anonymous mailers.” He said the state would still be investigating the mailers and thanked voters who submitted the evidence to the department. It is unknown what, if any, action will be taken against Reynolds DeWalt.

New Hampshire law (RSA 664:14) requires all political advertising to be signed with the name and address of the person responsible for the advertising. An Internet address is allowed as long as that information is prominently online.

Federal law (52 U.S.C. § 30120) also requires political advertising for federal candidates to state who paid for the communication regardless of whether the ads are paid for by the candidate or advocacy ads.

A member of the press office of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the agency that could potentially take action against the company, said the office was declining to comment on the case.

The Elias Law Group was formed by Marc Elias, formerly of Perkins Coie, who has worked on several Democrat campaigns. In May, he acknowledged, during the Michael Sussman trial, to hiring Fusion GPS to conduct opposition research on then-candidate Donald Trump — which led to the only proven foreign meddling in the 2016 election, a former British spy, Christopher Steele, creating a dossier accusing Trump of Russian collusion, that was used to spy on the campaign and later, presidency, despite it being discredited.

Illegal mailers have been a problem in the state and elsewhere.

There has been no investigation of illegal mailers that probably cost Kelly Ayotte her re-election campaign in 2016 — driving thousands of votes to Aaron Day, an independent candidate that year. U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan won the seat by 1,023 votes. Day denied involvement with the mailers at the time. The mailers were sent from a New Jersey mail house and were connected to a similar political experiment in 2014 in both New Hampshire and Montana by Stanford and Dartmouth professors. The schools paid fines in Montana for the illegal mailers; no one in New Hampshire ever investigated the mailers.

Garrity said the attorney general’s office welcomed public information regarding political advertising “they find concerning due to lack of paid-for disclaimers.” Voters should provide copies of the mailer, and the dates received to the state’s election investigation email address: electionlaw@doj.nh.gov.

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