Once a Democrat, now independent, congressional candidate Shawn O’Connor cashes out
After abruptly withdrawing from the Democratic Party to run as an independent in the 1st District congressional race, Bedford businessman Shawn O’Connor paid himself over $539,000 from campaign funds to retire personal loans he made to his campaign last year.
In its most recent filing with the Federal Election Commission, the Shawn for New Hampshire campaign committee reported repaying $500,000 that the candidate loaned his campaign in March, 2015. A second $500,000 loan from O’Connor’s personal funds remains unpaid.
The campaign committee also repaid a separate $39,362 loan from the candidate for expenses related to “testing the water” before O’Connor officially launched his campaign for Congress.
In addition, O’Connor filed a termination report for his leadership PAC, the Pragmatic Progressive PAC. The political committee, which O’Connor established in 2015, reported $10,000 in receipts for the election cycle: $5,000 from Marie O’Connor in 2015 and a $5,000 personal loan from O’Connor this year.
The committee donated $5,000 to Angie Craig, a Democrat running in Minnesota’s 2nd congressional district, and repaid O’Connor for his $5,000 loan before filing the termination report last month.
A contentious primary campaign
O’Connor withdrew from the Democratic Party in June after a contentious primary campaign in which he threatened to sue the New Hampshire Democratic Party and his opponent, former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. The political newcomer accused Shea-Porter of targeting him with a defamatory “whisper campaign” that alleged he was a “perpetrator of domestic violence.”
Writing on Facebook, O’Connor explained his abrupt withdrawal from the party. “[T]he New Hampshire Democratic Party forced me to run as an Independent by consistently excluding me from key events and lying about me even though the NHDP Constitution required that the party remain neutral.”
O’Connor promised to continue the campaign as an independent. “We will seize the power from the party bosses and return it to the people where it belongs in a democracy,” he wrote.