{"id":10816,"date":"2024-02-11T09:00:25","date_gmt":"2024-02-11T09:00:25","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","slug":"Merrimack-County-GOP-Chair-Karen-Testerman-removed-53957214\/","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/?p=10816","title":{"rendered":"Testerman won\u2019t step down despite removal from Merrimack County GOP leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Karen<\/a>
Karen Testerman<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Karen Testerman is not backing down.<\/p>\n

After the New Hampshire GOP Executive Committee voted 28-0 to remove her from her position as Merrimack County Chair, she refused to resign. Instead, she\u2019ll carry on steering the ship as best she can until county committee members tell her otherwise, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe plan to operate as a committee by the committee. \u2026 It is a ground-up organization,\u201d she said last week. \u201cIt\u2019s not a monarchy.\u201d <\/p>\n

The unanimous vote to remove Testerman and Patricia Jorgensen, the Merrimack County vice chair, comes on the heels of an ongoing lawsuit filed in November to close the party\u2019s primary to allow only registered Republicans to cast ballots, preventing same-day registration and voting from undeclared voters.<\/p>\n

To Testerman, allowing voters to declare party affiliation on the day of the primary enables \u201cfive-minute members\u201d that can influence the outcome of the vote. Instead, the primary should be a time for party members to solidify around a candidate without outside influence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re trying to figure out who is going to represent you on a board of directors of the tennis club, you don\u2019t want the golf club members coming over saying, \u2018Oh well, I think so-and-so is better than them,\u2019 \u201d she said.<\/p>\n

At the party\u2019s annual meeting in January 2023, when Chris Ager was elected chair, a resolution was passed to close the state\u2019s primary. However, tenets of the resolution, like requiring voters to register 30 days before the election, violate state law that allows for same-day registration.<\/p>\n

With that, Ager delivered the resolution to Secretary of State David Scanlan, but the effort failed. An open primary was held in January, where a record number of Republican ballots were cast.<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s not to say the party won\u2019t restrict the primary in the future, said Ager.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have established an ad hoc study committee to review our primary election process,\u201d said Ager. \u201cI have asked the committee to recommend changes, if any, in conducting Republican primaries with a data-driven, methodical approach.\u201d <\/p>\n

Testerman\u2019s suit names the Secretary of State and N.H. GOP Committee, alleging that both parties neglected her resolution and conducted an open primary against the party\u2019s directive.<\/p>\n

Karen and David Testerman, Patricia Jorgensen and Nikki Carter are named as original plaintiffs in the suit. Carter recently requested to be removed from the suit.<\/p>\n

To Testerman, her legal actions are representative of \u201cgood-faith Republicans\u201d who are advocating for complete control over the primary, to ensure that they maintain the right to choose a candidate for the national convention. Undeclared voters participating in the New Hampshire primary do not fall in this camp, she argued.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s where the concern is, that we don\u2019t want somebody coming in to raid it or to support the less-desirable candidate,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the primaries where you really iron out who is closest to the platform.\u201d <\/p>\n

The day before the primary, Testerman filed an emergency injunction, requesting that all ballots cast by undeclared voters be set aside until the suit is resolved. The order was denied.<\/p>\n

But her legal actions have also led to an overhaul of county leadership. Prior to Testerman and Jorgensen\u2019s removal, Alyssa Ehl, Jose Cambrils and Yury Polozov resigned as the clerk, treasurer and finance chair.<\/p>\n

Now an election will be held to replace Testerman and Jorgensen.<\/p>\n

Testerman maintains that her removal violates the party\u2019s bylaws, where members can only be removed if they support an opposing candidate in an election where a Republican is running.<\/p>\n

However, the bylaws also state that any officer may be removed at any time by a two-thirds vote of state committee or executive committee members.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has no authority,\u201d she said of Ager. \u201cI don\u2019t know why he\u2019s taken this retaliatory move to remove me and exercise his authority. He thinks as a dictator.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Karen Testerman is not backing down.After the New Hampshire GOP Executive Committee voted 28-0 to remove her from her position as Merrimack County Chair, she refused to resign. Instead, she\u2019ll carry on steering the ship as best she can until county…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":10817,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_ads_suppress_ads":false,"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_sponsor_sponsorship_scope":"","newspack_sponsor_native_byline_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_native_category_display":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_style":"inherit","newspack_sponsor_underwriter_placement":"inherit","_newspack_byline_active":true,"_newspack_byline":"by [Author id=427]Michaela Towfighi[\/Author] Monitor staff","newspack_content_restriction_is_exempt":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,508],"tags":[24,505],"newspack_spnsrs_tax":[],"coauthors":[509],"class_list":["post-10816","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-top-headlines-cm","tag-facebook","tag-paywall","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/42901342-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10816"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10818,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10816\/revisions\/10818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10816"},{"taxonomy":"newspack_spnsrs_tax","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fnewspack_spnsrs_tax&post=10816"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nne-concord-monitor-2.newspackstaging.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcoauthors&post=10816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}