(The Center Square) — The New Hampshire Republican Party is still wrangling over a new chairman after the national party challenged its election of Rochester Mayor Paul Callaghan to take over the helm.
Last week, the GOP’s Executive Committee announced that it elected Callaghan to serve as chairman of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee. He replaced Jim MacEachern, who stepped down after less than a year as the party’s chairman.
But former state GOP head Chris Ager fired off a letter to party officials this week challenging Callaghan’s election by the Executive Committee and saying he would throw his hat in the ring for the chairmanship during Saturday’s GOP state committee meeting.
“I’m writing to let you know that IF there is an election for chairman, I am willing to once again take on the role and would appreciate your vote,” Ager wrote to party leaders. “This will be a difficult election cycle and my past experience as chairman from 2023-2025 would help maintain stability.”
But the National Republican Committee has added more confusion to the wrangling over a new chairman. The RNC’s Committee on Membership Disputes issued a report Wednesday claiming NHGOP officials didn’t follow rules when they passed the baton to Callaghan because the party’s deputy chairman Scott Maltzie should have formally resigned beforehand.
The RNC’s report cited Robert’s Rules of Order, the “binding parliamentary authority” of the New Hampshire Republican Party, which states: “if the president resigns, dies, or is removed, the vice president immediately becomes the president for the remainder of the term unless bylaws provide otherwise.”
NHGOP officials say Maltzie decided not to seek the chairmanship after MacEachern’s resignation, but the RNC’s committee said a vice-president “cannot decline to take the higher office once he is automatically promoted. The report said the only recourse for the deputy chairman is to submit his resignation and no longer hold either office.
The committee recommended that the party confirm Maltzie as the rightful chairman, unless he formally resigns.
MacEachern submitted his letter of resignation Monday ahead of a meeting of the party’s Executive Committee to discuss replacing him over a confrontation with a GOP congressional candidate, who later dropped out of a primary race in the First Congressional District race. GOP officials didn’t mention the controversy that led to his resignation.
New Hampshire is expected to be a battleground in the fight over control of Congress in the upcoming midterm elections. Republicans are hoping to retake a U.S. Senate seat currently held by retiring Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and several GOP candidates, including former Sen. John E. Sununu, are seeking the party’s nomination to run for the open seat.
Meanwhile, Republicans are also hoping to flip a U.S. House seat currently held by Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas, who is running for Shaheen’s Senate seat.
