Marketing firm fined $40,000 for 2022 GOP mailers in New Hampshire

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CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A Virginia-based political marketing company has agreed to pay a $40,000 fine to settle allegations that flyers it designed during the 2022 New Hampshire state primary violated the law. Forms submitted to the U.S. Postal Service identified the owner of the 189,000 mailers as “Robert Burns for Congress,” but Burns had nothing to do with them, and they lacked the required “paid for” language, the attorney general’s office said Thursday. Burns won the GOP primary in the 2nd Congressional District but lost to incumbent Democratic Rep. Annie Kuster in the general election. The attorney general’s office investigated the matter but decided not to bring criminal charges in part due to questions about whether federal law would have preempted the state law at issue. In agreeing to the settlement, Deliver Strategies did not admit to criminal liability. A lawyer for the company called the matter an unintentional postal form error made by a vendor. “None of the mail pieces received by New Hampshire voters contained any false information and all were in compliance with federal law,” Bill Christie said in a statement. In addition to the fine, it agreed to train employees about compliance with relevant laws. ___ This story has been corrected to show that postal forms, not the actual mailers, featured the words “Robert Burns for Congress.”