Londonderry Newspaper Publisher Faces Political Advertising Penalties

LONDONDERRY, NH — The publisher of a New Hampshire weekly newspaper was arrested on Wednesday after being accused of not complying with state election laws regarding publishing political ads.

Debra A. Paul, 62, of Londonderry, the publisher of the Londonderry Times, was charged by the New Hampshire Attorney General’s Office with six misdemeanor counts of identification of political advertising.

Prosecutors accused her of failing to properly identify political ads in the newspaper with the appropriate language at the beginning or end of the advertisement.

“Ms. Paul, publisher of the Londonderry Times newspaper, was previously investigated and warned against such conduct on two prior occasions by the Attorney General’s Office Election Law Unit,” Michael Garrity, the director of communications for the department, said. “Those instances ended with formal letters being issued to her in 2019 and 2021. A ‘final warning’ letter issued by the Election Law Unit in September of 2021 warned Ms. Paul that all political advertising must be properly labeled as such in her publication.”

Paul, in an email, said it was her understanding that the matter concerned someone accusing her of neglecting to use the phrase “political advertisements” on “an obvious political ad.” She said she was working with an attorney on the case even though she had not seen the actual charges.

“I would like to think the attorney general’s office has more important matters to deal with than to send press releases out on misdemeanors such as this,” Paul said. “With multiple unsolved homicides over the past year, this seems a bit absurd. This is clearly a case of a small business needing to defend itself against (an) overreaching government. To threaten a small business owner with jail time over something this insignificant is very heavy-handed.”

The charges have a maximum penalty of up to one year in prison each and up to a $2,000 fine, too.

Paul is due in Derry District Court for arraignment on Oct. 19.

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