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OK, this is getting bizarre. First, under pressure, former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte has her "legally deleted" email released to show that there's nothing from her on the FRM ponzi scheme. Which in itself is not exactly a vote of confidence on her behalf.
Now, we learn there's nothing there either from the JUA case (Laconia Daily Sun, available here by then clicking on "Find a Past Issue", under the 2010 file name "30L.pdf"):
CONCORD - Kelly Ayotte, a leading Republican candidate for United States Senate, apparently cannot outrun her role as Attorney General in the decision of Governor John Lynch's Administration to pursue the $110-million surplus of the New Hampshire Medical Malpractice Joint Underwriting Association (JUA).
When Ayotte was Attorney General her office provided the governor with a legal opinion that the state was entitled to the surplus funds. On the strength of the opinion, the $110-million was included in the2010-2011 state budget. Policyholders of the JUA challenged the state's claim to the money and prevailed, first in Belknap County Superior Court and then at the New Hampshire Supreme Court.
Soon after Ayotte announced for the Senate, questions about her role in providing legal opinion dogged her campaign. And yesterday, attorneys representing the policyholders of JUA questioned why not one of the thousands of Ayotte's e-mails disclosed to the public refers to her department's representation of the JUA before the courts, which was a bone of contention during the litigation.
As I remember at the time, and as the article notes, Governor Lynch said Ayotte "was very involved in all of these discussions."
(Civil Rights Leader Kevin Smith is at it again. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Notorious anti-civil rights crusader Kevin Smith of Cornerstone Policy Research (and sadly, a member of the NH Advisory Board to the US Civil Rights Commission) did his best Glenn Beck impersonation this week when he issued a press release wondering if Governor Lynch intended to take all the money held by non-profit organizations in this state, and asking the Governor to pinky-promise he wouldn't it. Seriously.
Both the Governor and Speaker's comments raise a significant concern that they each believe that if an organization has a tax-exempt status, the state has the right to 'steal' any surplus balance that they own. This belief would be of concern to any tax-exempt non-profit, such as a church or charitable organization with "excess" money in the bank.
The reasoning behind notorious anti-civil rights crusader Smith's "concern" is purportedly the Governor's statement about the court decision on the JUA malpractice insurance issue. The Governor's remarks to which Smith takes umbrage were:
These surplus funds belong to the citizens of New Hampshire, who created the Joint Underwriting Association and gave it tax-exempt status.
