Using an uncommon maneuver, Republican leaders in New Hampshire effectively rejected the candidacy of a man who was convicted 35 years ago of murder.
New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Chris Ager announced late Friday afternoon that he and the state’s two Republican National Committee members had invoked RNC Rule 11 to formally recognize two GOP candidates in the race for a two-seat district in the New Hampshire House of Representatives.
Notably absent from his announcement was any mention of the third GOP candidate in that district, Mark Edgington, 53, whose murder conviction and subsequent legal woes were the subject of news reports this week.
Edgington served eight years in a Florida prison on a second-degree murder conviction for helping a friend kill a motel manager in 1988, when he was 17, according to archived news reports.
After his release in 1998, Edgington filed for bankruptcy in 2004, moved to New Hampshire in 2006, and found himself at odds with the FBI after equipment was seized from his radio station in Keene as part of a sprawling child pornography investigation, according to a report the New Hampshire Bulletin published Friday, noting that Edgington has not been charged in connection with the FBI seizure.
Edgington came to New Hampshire as part of the Free State Project, which seeks to transform the Granite State into a libertarian utopia. His friends have included Ian Freeman, who is serving a federal prison sentence for Bitcoin money laundering, and Jason Osborne, who is serving as majority leader in the New Hampshire House and who expressed support for Edgington’s candidacy.
Edgington did not immediately respond late Friday to a request for comment.
The two party-approved GOP candidates to represent Hillsborough County District 38, which includes the towns of Hudson and Litchfield, in the 400-member House are incumbent state representative Ralph G. Boehm and former state representative Kimberly Rice.
Steven Porter can be reached at steven.porter@globe.com. Follow him @reporterporter.