On Tuesday, September 15, the chief justice of the New Hampshire Supreme Court quit.

Gordon MacDonald resigned as part of a deal to end an investigation by the state's Judicial Conduct Committee. He admitted breaking three rules of the state's Code of Judicial Conduct — including that he failed "to avoid favoritism" — over how he handled the job of Dianne Martin, a top court employee and longtime ally. Last year Martin was laid off and immediately rehired into another job, which let her cash out nearly $50,000 in built-up benefits.

Five years ago, Kelly Ayotte stood up in front of the Executive Council and asked them to give MacDonald that job. She told them it wasn't really about his résumé:

"What compels me really to be here has nothing to do with his qualifications. It's really about his character."

Before MacDonald became attorney general, one of the clients he worked for was Purdue Pharma, the company that made OxyContin. And while he did, he helped Purdue fight New Hampshire's own investigation into how opioids were sold here.

That matters, because Purdue Pharma is the center of Ayotte's entire reelection campaign.

Ayotte's campaign is built on Purdue Pharma

Ayotte's Democratic opponent this November is Cinde Warmington. In 2001, as a junior lawyer at the firm Shaheen & Gordon, Warmington went to work for Purdue Pharma, and she led the company's failed attempt to block a state bill that would have made patients try other painkillers before getting OxyContin. That's real, and it's fair game.

And Ayotte has made sure nobody misses it. NHPR counted the ways she has used it against Warmington: television ads, yellow and black campaign signs, a billboard in Manchester, a banner towed behind a plane over Hampton Beach, and an inflatable rat outside the State House.

When Warmington raised MacDonald this week, Ayotte's campaign didn't talk about MacDonald at all. Spokesman John Corbett said it was "laughable that Opioid Lobbyist Cinde Warmington is talking about judgment."

So let's talk about judgment.

The Purdue lawyer Ayotte vouched for

In August 2015, New Hampshire's attorney general sent legal orders — subpoenas — to five opioid makers, demanding documents about how they marketed their pills for chronic pain and what they told doctors and patients. The drug companies first said they'd hand them over. Then they refused.

The fight went all the way to the state Supreme Court. When the court ruled in June 2017, its opinion lists the lawyers on each side. For Purdue Pharma, from the firm Nixon Peabody: "David A. Vicinanzo, Gordon J. MacDonald, Holly J. Barcroft, and Anthony J. Galdieri on the joint brief."

Their stated reason for refusing was the way the state had hired an outside law firm to help with the investigation, on a contingency fee. The lower court had ruled for the drug companies. The Supreme Court reversed that ruling and sent the case back.

MacDonald went on to serve four years as New Hampshire's attorney general. In 2019, when Governor Chris Sununu first nominated him for chief justice, InDepthNH listed his private-practice clients: "Purdue Pharma, the state Republican Party, the Diocese of Manchester, and Dartmouth Hitchcock-Clinic." The Executive Council, then run by Democrats, voted him down 3-2.

To be fair to MacDonald, the record isn't one-sided. As attorney general he led the state into litigation against Purdue Pharma, according to the Valley News. But none of that changes the point here. Ayotte has made Warmington's years as Purdue's lawyer the centerpiece of her campaign. In 2021, a man who had been Purdue's lawyer against New Hampshire got her personal endorsement.

January 2021: "It's really about his character"

After the 2020 election flipped the Executive Council to a 4-1 Republican majority, Sununu tried again. At the January 2021 hearing, Ayotte — then a former senator, not yet governor — came to testify for MacDonald.

"I couldn't think of a more qualified person to serve in this important job for our state," she said, according to the Valley News. And then she said the part that has aged the worst: "It's really about his character. And the things that you can't learn in school."

The next day, the council confirmed him 4-1. The only no vote came from the lone Democrat on the council: Cinde Warmington.

What the "character" turned out to be

Here's what the Union Leader laid out when MacDonald resigned:

• Dianne Martin had been MacDonald's chief of staff when he was attorney general. On the court, she was the $143,800-a-year administrative director.
• In 2025, she was laid off effective April 1. Three days later, on April 4, she started a new job as general counsel to the office that reviews every lawyer's application to practice in New Hampshire — a job that pays $154,000 a year, in an office the Supreme Court oversees.
• She was then paid nearly $50,000 in leave and other benefits.
• MacDonald went on a sudden medical leave on July 31. Seven weeks later he resigned instead of facing a public hearing, admitting that he broke three provisions of the Code of Judicial Conduct.

A letter from the Judicial Conduct Committee described more. It wrote that MacDonald was reported to have yelled at Justice Patrick Donovan "using profane language in anger," and to have "engaged in a similar behavior in a heated exchange" with Justice Melissa Countway later that day. "This was not the first time in your tenure," the committee wrote.

After he quit, Ayotte said she was "extremely disappointed."

Now she gets to pick his replacement — maybe before you vote

MacDonald's resignation hands Ayotte another seat on the state's highest court. And she has a track record on those picks: her first Supreme Court nominee was Bryan Gould, who had been legal counsel to her own campaign for governor, and whom she had already named to her judicial selection commission.

Warmington has asked Ayotte to leave the seat empty until after the November 3 election. Ayotte has declined to rule out naming a justice before then.

That's a different answer than the one she gave ten years ago. In 2016, as a U.S. Senator, Ayotte joined other Republicans in blocking President Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland, citing the upcoming election. Her words then, as NHPR reported: "I believe the American people deserve to have a voice in the direction of the court."

Ayotte's own record on Purdue Pharma goes deeper than one endorsement, too. As attorney general in 2007, she kept New Hampshire out of the states' case against Purdue, then led the state's politicians in drug-industry campaign money in the Senate.

What the record shows

Kelly Ayotte is running for reelection by attacking her opponent for working for Purdue Pharma 25 years ago. In January 2021 she personally urged the Executive Council to make Gordon MacDonald chief justice, saying it was "really about his character" — even though MacDonald had been one of Purdue's lawyers fighting New Hampshire's opioid investigation in a case the state Supreme Court decided in 2017. This week MacDonald resigned after admitting he broke three rules of judicial conduct, including favoritism, in a staffing move that let his former chief of staff collect nearly $50,000. Ayotte now gets to name his replacement, and unlike in 2016, she won't promise to let voters weigh in first.

Source

Warmington accuses Ayotte of hypocrisy over MacDonald's resignation, opioid ties — Kevin Landrigan, New Hampshire Union Leader, September 15, 2026. Photo: Gov. Kelly Ayotte, Todd Bookman / NHPR.