I was shocked to see Peterborough Democratic state Rep. Peter Leishman nominate voting rights opponent and former house Republican Majority Leader Dave Scanlan to be secretary of state.
With Leishman’s help, a small group of Democrats broke with their colleagues and supported Scanlan over longtime voting rights advocate and former state Sen. Melanie Levesque, giving a bipartisan veneer to what has been Scanlan’s partisan and anti-voting-rights tenure. Scanlan strongly supported SB3, which was thrown out by the state Supreme Court as an unconstitutional infringement on voting rights. He advocated for SB418, which further restricts voting rights and makes it harder for active-duty military service members to vote. He gave a platform to Big Lie conspiracy theorists by convening the committee on voter confidence and appointing one of the most-outlandish of the conspiracy theorists to the committee.
Those are some of the many reasons I was taken aback by Leishman’s support of Scanlan. I followed the Democratic primary in Peterborough and read coverage of the candidates’ positions and talking points at forums. Nowhere did Leishman reveal that he was opposed to voting rights. I was therefore stunned by his actions, and many readers might be as well and may want to ask him for an explanation.
This is a seat where Democrats regularly and comfortably beat Republicans. I would imagine the Democrats in Peterborough who selected this rep in a three-way primary and then worked hard to elect him in November as a Democrat would expect him to vote like a Democrat, especially on core issues that are foundational to the Democratic Party like protecting our democracy and our sacred right to vote. If he’s unwilling to do that, then the voters should consider replacing him with a representative that will.
Theo Groh
Francestown