D.J. Bettencourt Resigns— Twice!

"While it has been an honor to serve in the legislature representing the citizens of Salem and Windham and to serve as Majority Leader, it is time for me to move on to the next exciting phase of my life. I'm getting married next week and I am at a point in my life where my family should and needs to be my first priority. It is also critical that I am able to focus my full attention on my role as Executive Director of the New Hampshire Legal Rights Foundation. This cannot happen while there is the potential for conflict with my role as a member of the House. As such, I will not be running for for re-election this fall and will be leaving the legislature at the conclusion of legislative business on June 6th so I can finish the important work of this legislative session. Once again, I'd like to thank my constituents for the honor of serving them and to my colleagues in the House who I have had the pleasure of working with over the last eight years."

"With deep disappointment, I announce that I am leaving the legislature immediately. Serving the people of Salem and Windham as majority leader has been one of the highest privileges of my life. It is true that I misrepresented work as work I performed for attorney Giuda. I take full responsibility for my conduct; I apologize to my family, friends, colleagues and above all, my constituents. I will continue working with UNH School of Law to resolve this matter and I fully trust the process they have in place. That process is non-public and that is how I plan to proceed."

"Certainly, we are disappointed to hear about Rep. Bettencourt's resignation from the House. He played an important part in achieving a historic budget that closed a nearly $1 billion deficit, in providing tax and regulatory relief to help grow New Hampshire's economy and moving forward an agenda based on Republican principles of lower taxes and limited government. Clearly, he has a number of challenges to work through as he moves forward with his family and career. I wish him the best of luck in the future."

Dear Colleagues:

Early Friday morning, Brandon Giuda contacted me and said that D.J. Bettencourt had submitted to his law school false records relating to an internship that he had with Brandon. I met with both of them later that morning, and it was clear to me that there was substance to that claim. Consequently, it was agreed that D.J. would immediately announce his resignation as majority leader and a House member effective at the end of the June 6 session, and he would cite personal problems as the reason for his resignation. It was also understood that he would immediately contact the law school and begin the process of self-disclosing the wrong that he had committed.

After the announcement by D.J. of his resignation, Brandon again contacted me and said the reasons given by D.J. to the press for resigning were wrong and did not properly state why he was resigning. Brandon stated that it was necessary that Brandon publicly correct the record. [note: this probably should read "Brandon stated that it was necessary that D.J. publicly correct the record."] As we have seen, he has done so.

Today, D.J. announced to the press that he is resigning immediately as a House member. I spoke with him a short time ago for the first time since Friday, and he has confirmed his immediate resignation.

Now we are left with the consequences of this event. There will be those that say that D.J.'s failure and his resignation characterize our current majority. Others will say that it characterizes the leadership of our caucus. Neither is true.

D.J.'s error is personal to him and was a deeply wrong choice he made on his own. His mistake characterizes neither the caucus who elected him as majority leader nor the remaining members of leadership or of our caucus who have relied on him to join our efforts in bringing forward the Republican solutions our state so sorely needed and continues to need.

Indeed, it needs to be said, failure of this sort by a leader is particularly upsetting to all of us because it is so clearly at odds with our party's ideal, and our personal ideal, of selfless service of elected officials on behalf of our state. Moreover, it is a breach of the implicit promise any elected leader - whether elected by voters or in a caucus - to at all time be ethical and honest in not only our legislative efforts, but also in our personal lives. It also is at odds with the direction I gave to all House leadership at the beginning of the session that honesty, integrity and ethical behavior will be the foundation for all our efforts and that I would have no tolerance for any leader who departs from that foundational standard.

Our opposition, of course, decided early on that their agenda of overspending, robust taxes and radical social change would not get them a majority, but that arguments of process, name-calling and false allegations of wrongdoing will be adequate substitutes. Unfortunately, this episode will be used by them to pump life into what up to this point have been vapid arguments that have resonated only with their base. We need to take two steps to avoid this effort from becoming effective because of this episode.

The first thing we need to do is not engage in self-flagellation and ignore those in our caucus who will take delight in using this episode to gain for themselves the relevance they have lost over the prior two years. It is time to be united. We have made amazing gains for New Hampshire over the past two years and we should be proud of those gains. Those successes and not one member's failure outside of his legislative activities are the characteristics of our efforts.

Secondly, we need to focus on the remainder of this session. We have two session days left - one this upcoming week and another on June 6. We will have votes on several constitutional amendments, pension reform, and many other items of important legislation. Much of this legislation will complete our efforts to keep our promises of 18 months ago to the people of New Hampshire. The people deserve us not being distracted from completing our agenda.

I will be in touch again with all of you as we work through the consequences of this episode and the remainder of our legislative term. If anyone of you has a question or concern, please get in touch with me. Send me an email or call me. However, most importantly, let us not turn on each other, but let us instead turn to the reforms for which we sought election and were charged by the people to pursue.

Finally, may I make one additional request of you? Please join me in bringing D.J. and his family into our prayers. He and they will face significant challenges, and I hope that through the Lord he will find the strength of character and the support that will allow him to come to a life of meaning and grace.

Mr. Speaker,

It is with deep sadness that I resign from the New Hampshire House of Representatives, the finest body of citizen legislators in the world. Obviously, this is not how I wished to say goodbye to the wonderful people I have had the pleasure of serving and becoming friends with these past eight years. It is among my many regrets that, through my own fault, I cannot express my thanks and say farewell to you all in person. I want the House to know that I am sorry for my inexcusable lapse of judgment and integrity. We are citizen legislators— our obligations as legislators never relieve us of our obligations as citizens. I have breached those citizen obligations and I stand ready for the consequences. I apologize to the University Of New Hampshire School Of Law, my fellow students, alumni, Dean Broderick, and Representative Giuda. They have offered me a coveted opportunity to learn and be a part of an honorable and rewarding profession. But that profession comes with high expectations that my actions demonstrate I am not yet ready to meet. I can only hope that I will one day be worthy of it. I apologize to the citizens of Salem and Windham. Representing you in the General Court has been an honor of my life, and I gave it my all. I look forward to working to regain your trust and reconnecting with you as a neighbor and friend instead of as an elected official. Finally, I want to apologize to my family. I was raised to be much better than this. To the extent I have fallen short, the fault is entirely my own. Thank you to those who have expressed your love and prayers. Your kindness and compassion to a man who does not deserve it are appreciated beyond my ability to put them into words. Thank you to all Members and staff of the House, both Republican and Democrat, who make the sacrifice to serve our wonderful state. That sacrifice is worth it. Continue to do your best to, in whatever limited way that government can, make New Hampshire the most prosperous, free, fair, and joyous place on Earth. May God bless you and the state that we love.

Best always,

D.J. Bettencourt

A Note of Gratitude to My Friends and Neighbors

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