Tag: Andru Volinsky

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. Democrat Candidate for NH Governor, Andru Volinsky, Blocks Media Outlet on Twitter

 

Andru Volinsky, a Democrat, announced this morning that he will seek the Democrat nomination to run for governor of New Hampshire against incumbent Chris Sununu, a Republican. New Hampshire Journal, run by friend of Ricochet @michaelgraham, naturally wanted to get a comment from the candidate, but noticed that Volinsky has blocked New Hampshire Journal’s twitter account.

Volinsky is engaging in unconstitutional “view point discrimination” according to the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals, which ruled unanimously this past July in upholding a lower court’s decision in Knight First Amendment Institute v. Trump:

This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, “block” a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States. The answer to both questions is no. …blocking of the plaintiffs based on their political speech constitutes viewpoint discrimination that violates the First Amendment.

Contributor Post Created with Sketch. The “Inquisition” of a Christian Nominee in New Hampshire

 

Frank Edelblut’s New Hampshire Commissioner of Education Hearing
Photo credit: Councilor Joe Kenney’s Facebook page.
Frank Edelblut is a New Hampshire businessman and former state representative who ran for governor last year. He lost the Republican primary by 800 votes to Chris Sununu, who went on to win the governorship in November. Governor Sununu has now nominated Edelblut to be the state’s Commissioner of Education. There’s only one problem (for Democrats): Edelblut is a Christian.

During a marathon seven-hour public hearing on Tuesday in Concord, Andru Volinsky, a Democrat, grilled Edelblut about his Christian faith. Volinsky is a freshman member of New Hampshire’s Executive Council, a five-member body that shares some power with the governor and which confirms the governor’s nominees.

The hearing was described as an “inquisition” by Anne Marie Banfield, an education liaison with Cornerstone Action, a New Hampshire think tank.