Letter: What happened to Kelly Ayotte?

Published: 10-29-2024 12:16 PM

Kelly Ayotte used to be considered a moderate. What happened?

In late August, she sent postcards of her opponent in a car with three dark-skinned "illegals in the driver's seat." She ran a TV ad using a woman's murder to attack another candidate. The bereaved family was horrified and insisted she pull the ad.

Even more worrisome is Ayotte's cozying up to Free Staters and the Liberty Alliance. Ayotte posed with the Moms for Liberty leader who offered a $500 bounty on public school teachers. She posed with Jeremy Kaufman, the Free Stater heading the Libertarian Party of NH. Its Twitter account encouraged New Hampshire to become a White Supremacist homeland.

Ayotte is throwing her support to Free Staters' Liberty Alliance priorities:

-- expanding EFA school vouchers to everyone, even though a sample audit showed 25% of applications were invalid. The program's cost was $8 million in 2022-23. Ayotte's expansion is estimated to up the cost to $100 million.

-- state tax cuts for the wealthy, downshifting the tax burden onto towns. This jacks up rents and property taxes paid by ordinary folks. Meanwhile, Ayotte made $150,000 every year since 2019, serving on the board of Blackstone Group. Blackstone is notorious for buying up houses and jacking up rents. They are one of those worsening the housing crisis in this state and across the nation. Ayotte owns over $2 million of its stock.

Ayotte no longer represents the best interests of the people of New Hampshire.

Jeanne Dietsch

Peterborough