Free Speech for the Board, Restrictions for the People
On August 4, 2025, the Personnel and Administrative Affairs Committee reviewed an ordinance sponsored by Alderman Rick Dowd to prohibit flags, banners, and signs in the Aldermanic Chamber. The ordinance was poorly drafted and, according to the New England First Amendment Coalition, raised serious constitutional concerns about viewpoint discrimination. Despite the importance of the issue, the City’s legal counsel failed to attend the meeting.
When I spoke during public comment to challenge the ordinance, my remarks were abruptly cut off by Chairwoman Shoshana Kelly because she deemed them “vulgar” and “offensive.” Alderman Dowd made it clear that “politicking” in the chamber would not be tolerated:
Some of the things I’ve seen on some of the signs we’ve had lately, my God I think they’re pretty political. It may not have a person’s name on it running for office, but they’re political.”
Yet only weeks later, on September 9, the Board allowed Alderman Clemons to sit at the alderman’s table and inject national politics directly into the chamber. He mischaracterized a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision, attacked Justice Kavanaugh, and urged Nashua voters to ask candidates where they stood on “Trump politics.”
Where was the Point of Order from Alderman Dowd or Alderwoman Kelly? Where was the enforcement of the same standard used to silence public speech only a month earlier?
Democrats in this city love to say local races are “non-partisan.” They don’t like when you point out they are Democrats, supported and endorsed by the Nashua Democratic Party. Yet here we have an alderman using his seat to tell residents: “Ask candidates if they stand with Trump.”
That’s one-sided, and it’s gross. Why not also ask the Democratic candidates if they stand with President Biden? Do they support the policies that flung open the border, allowing unvetted people to bring fentanyl into communities like Franklin, NH, which just made headlines last week for overdose tragedies? That crisis is not far away. It’s here, and it could just as easily hit Nashua.
Local elections should be about Nashua’s issues, schools, taxes, public safety, housing, redevelopment, not shaming half the city over who they voted for in a presidential race. If this is what “non-partisan” looks like, the double standard couldn’t be clearer.
In November, voters have the chance to change that. Both Alderwoman Kelly and Alderman Dowd’s seats are on the ballot. If Nashua wants a Board that applies the same standard for all, then it is time to elect new aldermen who will uphold fairness instead of hiding behind double standards.