Former New Jersey Assemblyman from Morris County Richard A. Merkt of Westmoreland officially filed this morning as a candidate for the New Hampshire House of Representatives in its Cheshire 1 district, consisting of the towns of Chesterfield, Hinsdale, Walpole, and Westmoreland.  He is the first candidate in the district to file for the November election.

Once a candidate on an unsuccessful assembly ticket with Chris Christie, Merkt said his campaign is focusing on Cheshire County’s need for new voices in the State Capitol because the county is currently, as he described it, “the forgotten corner of New Hampshire.”

“November 2020 marks a critical choice for Cheshire County voters,” said Merkt, who ran unsuccessfully for New Jersey governor in 2009, the same year he retired from the Assembly, amid very sour atmospherics with his former running mate, who would go on to win the statewide general election that year.  “Residents tired of high taxes and little return on their tax dollars will at last have an opportunity to elect new voices who will put their interests first.”