NH’s Democratic governor takes GOP opponent to task for letting some felons be foster parents

NH gov. criticizes opponent’s felon-foster rule

CONCORD, N.H. — In a new ad, New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch takes his Republican rival to task for letting some felons be foster parents.

While he was serving as the state’s health and human services commissioner in 2004, John Stephen changed the rules to let social workers decide if someone would make a good foster parent. Stephen said anyone convicted of a violent crime or a crime against a child couldn’t be a foster parent, but other felons could.

The ad also criticizes Stephen, a former prosecutor, for seeking a pardon for a convicted arsonist and for refusing to fire a worker from his 2002 congressional campaign who was accused of stalking.

Stephen spokesman Greg Moore says the Democratic governor is trying to divert attention from a new law allowing early release of felons.