New Hampshire voters opening their mailboxes this week found three political mailers with no name attached to them at all — no campaign, no group, nothing identifying who paid to put them there. The state Attorney General's Office says that's illegal, and it has now ordered the companies behind the mailers to stop sending them and recall what's already in the mail stream.
The cease-and-desist letters went to Journeyman Press, the Massachusetts-based printer that produced and distributed the mailers, and Pinpoint Campaigns, the Washington, D.C. firm that commissioned them, according to InDepthNH. Officials said the mailers concerned the U.S. Senate race and reached voters without the disclosure New Hampshire law requires, as first reported by WMUR. Three separate mailers were sent to New Hampshire voters, as reported by Patch.
“These mailers do not contain information identifying the person or entity responsible for the advertising,” the Attorney General's Office stated, per the same InDepthNH report. Two of the mailers attacked Republican Senate candidate John Sununu over artificial intelligence and technology companies, while a third praised Constitution Party candidate Edmond Laplante, according to NBC Boston's account of the dispute.
What the Law Requires
New Hampshire's sponsor-statement rules, laid out in RSA 664:14, require political advertising to identify who paid for it. RSA 657:4 concerns forms in absentee voting and applies to communications containing an absentee ballot application form or replica, not candidate-related communications generally. A complaint over the mailers alleged they violated the RSA 664:14 sponsor-statement requirement, NH Journal reported.
The Attorney General's Election Law Unit has opened an investigation into the mailers that remains active and ongoing, the Office said, per the same InDepthNH account. As part of the cease-and-desist order, Journeyman Press was directed to take all necessary steps to recall or prevent further distribution of the mailers already provided to the U.S. Postal Service, the station's report notes. Journeyman Press has since confirmed that no further mailers are scheduled to be sent to voters in New Hampshire, the outlet reported.
Candidates Distance Themselves
The campaigns of Sununu, Laplante and Christopher Pappas, along with the New Hampshire Democratic and Republican parties, have all said they had no prior knowledge of or coordination with Journeyman Press or Pinpoint Campaigns, according to NBC Boston. Investigators have not said whether a candidate or group hired Pinpoint Campaigns for the mailings. Pinpoint Campaigns describes itself as a boutique direct mail firm that works with progressive candidates and causes.
A Familiar Pattern in New Hampshire Elections
Anonymous or improperly labeled mailers are not new to New Hampshire politics. In 2016, three illegal mailers circulated statewide that depressed the vote for then-U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte while steering support toward independent candidate Aaron Day, Patch reported. In 2022, investigators traced a similar anonymous mailer operation back to House Majority Forward, a nonprofit tied to the Democratic House Majority PAC, according to NH Journal. And in August 2024, Deliver Strategies of Arlington, Virginia, agreed to pay a $40,000 fine over a direct-mail scheme connected to the New Hampshire Second Congressional District Republican primary, Patch also reported.
NH Journal's reporting on the complaint also pointed to FEC records showing Journeyman Press received $128,310 from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee during September and October 2024, along with $23,695 from Kamala Harris for President. Whether that history connects to the current mailers has not been established, and investigators have not identified who ultimately paid for or authorized this round.
