Yesterday I posted an article heralding Tuesday’s special election win of Hal Rafter (D-Gorham) to New Hampshire’s House of Representatives. I also included the fact that there are currently three vacant seats due to recent resignations, two of them this week.
Troy Merner (R-Lancaster) apparently doesn’t live in Lancaster, according to an investigation undertaken by NH’s attorney general’s office. Merner resigned not only from his position in the NH House but also from the Lancaster Board of Selectmen. The Boston Globe reported the investigation discovered he hasn’t resided in Lancaster, the district he previously represented, since August, 2022. He and his family live in Carroll, a town in a different legislative district in Coos County. The Lancaster address turned out to be a rented office.
Merner, a four-term representative, was aware of the on-going investigation, but continued to collect the mileage compensation for claiming to travel between his former residence in Lancaster and Concord. The attorney general’s office is now looking into whether Merner broke any laws when he took compensation for mileage and voting in a town he no longer lived in.
This past Monday, Sept. 18th, the attorney general’s office sent a letter to House Speaker Sherman Packard, informing him of the alleged deception. Merner resigned his seat the next day along with his position on Lancaster’s Board of Selectmen.
Question: will former representative Troy Merner be held liable for the compensation he wrongfully took from taxpayers? Asking for a friend . . .
As an aside but should not be forgotten; in 2020, Republicans in the NH House proceeded to gerrymander the district maps. Despite that disenfranchisement to voters, they lost seats in the 2022 midterms.