Ed Mosca, consigliere to former state House Speaker Bill O’Brien, has some advice for Free Staters hoping to advance their libertarian/anarchist agenda. Run as Democrats in Democratic-leaning districts, tweets Mosca.
He’s a day late and a dollar short.
Free Staters who ran and won as Democrats in November have already separated from the pack. Tim O’Flaherty (D-Manchester) was the only Democrat voting in favor of a constitutional amendment that would have required a super-majority vote to raise taxes. Michael Garcia (D-Nashua) was the only Democrat voting today in support of right-to-work legislation.
Let the voter beware.
This week, state Senate candidate Josh Youssef took to Facebook to complain that his opponent had created a “fake website” using his name.
My opponent and his clan are getting concerned. They created a fake website using my name and are advertising it like crazy on Facebook and Youtube. I wonder if they know that they are using photos of me for which I own the copyright? These Democrats will use anything they can find to try and steal an election.
In September, the Union Leader reported House Counsel Ed Mosca filed a lawsuit against Youssef for, you guessed it, creating a “fake website” using his name.
Ed Mosca of Manchester filed the complaint against Republican candidate Josh Youssef, alleging Youssef falsely replicated Mosca’s blog to make it appear Mosca supports Youssef’s candidacy.
Mosca filed the complaint alleging Youssef created a false blog, edmoscablog.com, to make it appear Mosca supports the candidacy of Youssef. Mosca runs a blog at edmosca.com.
Screenshot: edmosca.com
Last month, Annmarie Timmins reported that state Senate candidate Joshua Youssef had accused House Legal Counsel Ed Mosca of illegally posting court documents on his blog, edmosca.com, to “sabotage” Youssef’s Senate campaign.
Mosca is representing Youssef’s ex-wife in their contentious divorce case. Youssef demanded Mosca resign as House Counsel and he emailed House Republicans asking them to intervene on his behalf with House Speaker Bill O’Brien.
A copycat version of Mosca’s blog has now appeared that extols Youssef’s virtues. The copycat blog, edmoscablog.com, accuses Mosca of being “not only obsessed, but absolutely consumed with a personal vendetta against Joshua Youssef.” It includes this disclaimer at the bottom of each page:
This site not owned or authored by, or in any way affiliated with NH Attorney Edward C. Mosca, NH Bar ID 9353 or “www.edmosca.com.” All Content provided herein obtained from public sources, is opinion of author, and/or is provided for informational/educational purposes only.
The author is not identified.
Screenshot: edmoscablog.com
When New Hampshire’s Republican lawmakers aren’t using the “All Representatives” email list to publicly embarrass themselves, they generally use Facebook. The latest episode involves a pissing contest between GOP/Free Stater Rep. Seth Cohn and House Legal Counsel Ed Mosca. Eventually Mosca took his ball and went home. He followed House Speaker Bill O’Brien’s lead and defriended Cohn.
Ed Mosca defriended me over this…
by Seth Cohn on Tuesday, June 5, 2012 at 11:12pm ·
Ed posted this, and I saw it thank to my FB ticker, and linked to it a few places, and luckily had it open, and guess what, he defriended me, to hide it from me. Oh well, Ed, too bad. You wrote it, It’s public. Welcome to Facebook, maybe next time, you’ll understand what got DJ into trouble.
When the crowd in the State House gallery voiced their opposition during Wednesday’s contraception debate, GOP Rep. Steve Vaillancourt says Speaker Bill O’Brien dispatched House Counsel Ed Mosca.
[H]e’s apparently not merely pulling down a salary by sitting behind the Speaker on session days and coming up with unconstitutional redistricting plans, but the Speaker is using him to police House galleries. Mosca was sent upstairs Wednesday, intent on silencing those in the crowd who dared express disapproval over the contraception vote.
Hopefully someone got a picture of the legal counsel serving the role of gendarme (Gestapo might be too flamboyant a title, but if you translate the word from German, it would be perfectly accurate, state secret police). Mosca, legal counsel, is certainly playing the role of secret police when so dispatched.
During the contentious House debate over the state budget last spring, Speaker O’Brien cleared the House gallery and locked the public out. Opponents decried the act as unconstitutional. The state Constitution does seem pretty unambiguous:
“The doors of the galleries, of each house of the legislature, shall be kept open to all persons who behave decently, except when the welfare of the state, in the opinion of either branch, shall require secrecy.”
Not so, says Speaker O’Brien. In a response to a lawsuit filied by former state Sens. Maggie Hassan and Bette Lasky, O’Brien and House Counsel Ed Mosca argue the Speaker has the authority to prohibit public access to legislative sessions any time he chooses.
His argument? The State House was built after the Constitution was written, therefore galleries can’t refer to today’s Statehouse galleries. Seriously.
Mosca notes that Part II, Article 8 was written in 1792. The State House wasn’t built until 1819. ”Thus, the voters who passed Part II, Article 8 could not have understood it to specifically refer to the portions of the present Statehouse which we call the House gallery and the Senate gallery,” Mosca wrote.
And besides, O’Brien argues, the House balcony doesn’t even meet the dictionary definition of the term “gallery” at the time.
The definition reads: “A kind of walk along the floor of a house, into which the doors of the apartments open; the upper seats in a church; the seats in a playhouse above the pit.”
Responds Hassan:
“It doesn’t appear to me that he is taking the issue very seriously.”
House Speaker O’Brien’s pride and joy, the Redress of Grievances Committee, has been derided by the state’s newspapers as a “kangaroo court” and an “embarrassing farce.” The committee has apparently become so radioactive that even Speaker O’Brien’s handpicked House Legal Counsel, Ed Mosca, doesn’t want to be associated with it any more.
Projected Democratic seats: 190
