N.H. Democrats elect openly gay party chairman
Controversy filled election
By James W. Pindell, Globe Correspondent | March 25, 2007
GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- Ray Buckley was elected chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party yesterday, after an ugly campaign in which he was accused, then cleared, of possessing child pornography.
Buckley became the only openly gay state party chairman in the country and only the second in US history. He will be a leading player in the state's first-in-the-nation presidential primary at a time when its importance is being challenged by larger states hoping to gain more influence.
Buckley, 47, has been the state party's vice chairman for the past eight years, serving alongside chairwoman Kathy Sullivan . After Sullivan announced in December she was retiring, Buckley quickly amassed enough votes to secure the chairmanship.
It was meant to be a capstone to a dream that started in 1977, when Buckley was in a Manchester high school working at the local Democratic Party headquarters. He has been involved in races at every level in every election year since.
But then came trouble. In late December, Steve Vaillancourt , Buckley's former roommate and a Republican state representative, sent a letter to Governor John Lynch, a Democrat, saying he had personal knowledge that Buckley as a young man had possessed child pornography.
Lynch immediately dropped his endorsement of Buckley's race for party chairman and forwarded the letter to the state's attorney general, Kelly Ayotte . Buckley took himself out of the race. After a two-month investigation, Ayotte, a Republican, found the allegations that Buckley had possessed pornography in the 1980s were baseless.
Weeks later, Vaillancourt helped create two embarrassing videos of Buckley that were posted on YouTube.com. The videos implied he sought to date gay teenage boys. Buckley has said Vaillancourt is pursuing the "politics of personal destruction."
Buckley re-emerged as a candidate when Ayotte's investigation ended, and Buckley was elected with 109 votes at yesterday's state committee meeting at Saint Anselm College, easily outpacing the 17 votes received by longtime state Representative Betty Hall, of Brookline.
Despite the lopsided victory, some politicians are still uneasy about Buckley's election. For example, neither of the state's two US representatives endorsed Buckley.
US Representative Paul Hodes announced a week ago that he would not support Buckley after viewing one of the YouTube videos. Hodes said he feared Republicans would use Buckley as a punching bag and drag the party down.
As the meeting opened, Hodes was given a few minutes to speak about his work in Washington. At the end of his short speech he began explaining why he opposed Buckley for chairman. Manchester activist Judy Reardon immediately called a point of order against Hodes.
"This is not germane," shouted Reardon, former governor Jeanne Shaheen's legal counsel.
The room then briefly erupted with several people yelling at each other. Out of respect to Hodes's congressional position, Sullivan did not rule Hodes out of order but told him to wrap up his comments.
Speaking to reporters afterward, Buckley said he has "moved on" from the controversies from the last 11 weeks. He vowed to work with the new state Republican chairman Fergus Cullen to try to cleanse political discourse in the state.
"After what I have gone through, I have changed, and [ending negative attacks] is my issue," said Buckley.
He takes over the party at a time of great success for Democrats in New Hampshire. In 2006, Democrats had their most successful state election ever. In those elections, Lynch won with 74 percent of the vote, Democrats took control of the state House and Senate and knocked off the state's two incumbent Republican congressmen. |
