CONCORD, N.H.- New Hampshire’s Legislative Ethics Committee has recommended the full House censure State Rep. James Spilllane R-Deerfield for comments he made about democratic lawmakers.

The recommendation comes out of a report issued earlier this month that began last March when Reps. Timothy Horrigan, D-Durham, Paul Berch, D-Westmoreland, and Cathryn Harvey, D-Spofford brought complaints against Spillane for calling Harvey a “liar.”
The details of the report show that when Horrigan pushed back and protested the comment, Spillane then called him “retarded,” and went on to say he dropped acid during the 1960s and that Horrigan’s parents were cousins.
In response to these claims Spillane said his comments amounted to protected free speech and were not made in his role as a legislator or as the chair of the House Committee on Fish and Game and Marine Resources. However, Ethics Chair Ned Gordon called it a personal attack and said it’s not an acceptable defense.
According to the five-page report Gordon wrote; “This is not an acceptable disagreement over a legislative outcome, it is a direct personal attack. It demonstrates a complete lack of respect and absolute lack of concern for the dignity of another representative.”
Following this report and its recommendation Spillane took to the platform X and has backtracked his in his accusations about Horrigan.
At the moment House leadership has yet to comment on the report or Spillane’s documented behavior.

