The former U.S. Senator and New Hampshire Attorney General is announcing her campaign for governor Monday, aiming to succeed Gov. Chris Sununu when he leaves office in 2025.
“I want to thank Governor Sununu and Valerie for their dedicated service to New Hampshire over the past seven years,” Ayotte said in a statement provided to News 9. “Governor Sununu is an excellent leader who has worked hard to defend our Live Free or Die values and improve New Hampshire’s quality of life.”
#Yet another anti-abortion anti-clean air GOP piece of garbage. From her bio:
** New Hampshire Attorney General Clean air emissions standards Ayotte joined Attorneys General from eight other states to sue federal regulators over a rules change that made clean air emissions standards for power plants less strict and eliminated clean air reporting and monitoring requirements.[16][17]
In 2005, the court agreed with Ayotte and the others that the Environmental Protection Agency must measure changes in the emissions from power plants and could not exempt power plants from reporting their emissions.[17]
Prosecution of murder cases As assistant attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted two defendants for the 2001 Dartmouth College murders in Etna, New Hampshire.
As attorney general, Ayotte prosecuted the high-profile case surrounding the 2006 murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in the line of duty. It resulted in a conviction and death penalty sentence.[18] Members of Briggs’s family praised her leadership in television ads for her 2010 Senate campaign.[19][20]
Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England Main article: Ayotte v. Planned Parenthood of Northern New England In 2003, the United States District Court for the District of New Hampshire found the Parental Notification Prior to Abortion Act, a New Hampshire law requiring parental notification of a minor’s abortion, unconstitutional, and enjoined its enforcement. In 2004, New Hampshire Attorney General Peter Heed appealed the ruling to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, which affirmed the district court’s ruling. In 2004, Ayotte appealed the First Circuit’s ruling to the Supreme Court, over the objection of incoming Democratic Governor John Lynch. Ayotte personally argued the case before the Supreme Court.[citation needed] The Supreme Court unanimously vacated the district court’s ruling and remanded the case back to the district court, holding that it was improper for the district court to invalidate the statute completely instead of just severing the problematic portions of the statute or enjoining the statute’s unconstitutional applications.[21] In 2007, the law was repealed by the New Hampshire legislature, mooting the need for a rehearing by the district court.[22]
In 2008, Planned Parenthood sued to recover its attorney fees and court costs from the New Hampshire Department of Justice.[23] In 2009, Ayotte, as attorney general, authorized a payment of $300,000 to Planned Parenthood to settle the suit.[24]