December 15, 2020 - Following news that newly elected Representative Dawn Johnson (R-Laconia) had shared a post from a neo-Nazi website, Democratic Leader Representative Renny Cushing, (D-Hampton), released the following statement about his plan to introduce a bill to update the Legislative Ethics Guidelines:
“Unfortunately, this is not the first time that a sitting Representative of the New Hampshire House has shared anti-Semitic and hateful beliefs and posts on social media. Our job is to protect all citizens of this state, and I condemn the comments made by Representative Johnson and all hateful and anti-Semitic comments.”
“Tomorrow, members of our caucus and I will be introducing a request to the House Rules Committee for late filing of legislation, amending the Legislative Ethics Committee Statutes to clarify and expand that hate speech, bullying, and all other forms of harassment are not appropriate conduct for elected officials. This change would also mean that such conduct would be subject to the same formal complaint process and range of sanctions as other ethics violations. This request is based upon the urgent and compelling need for the legislature to address hate speech by its members, and I hope the Rules Committee will grant this request.”