Although his term expired last Saturday, New Hampshire Attorney General Philip McLaughlin will remain in office indefinitely as a "holdover," giving him the chance to continue the sort of service to the community he has sought out since college.
Since his initial nomination and confirmation to the post four years ago, McLaughlin's office has overseen many high profile cases, including the investigation into the murders of Dartmouth Professors Half and Susanne Zantop.
For the 56-year-old McLaughlin, born and bred in New Hampshire, becoming attorney general was completely unexpected. But it was a chance he was not going to let pass him by, nor one that he sees giving up any time soon.
The making of the man
It might seem that McLaughlin -- who peppers his conversation with literary analogies and historical references -- has distanced himself from his upbringing in the heart of what he called Nashua's "Irish Acre" in the years following World War II.
But that's probably not an accurate perception of a person who says that he drives by the place where he grew up -- the corner of Mason and Foundry Streets -- every single time he returns to Nashua.
"Times have changed so drastically," McLaughlin said yesterday during an interview with The Dartmouth. "[Visiting Nashua] distinctly gives me a sense of roots."
But when he went to high school, McLaughlin had no trouble adjusting from the focus of a small Irish neighborhood to the diversity of a city wide high school in an immigrant town.
The mid-1960s, when McLaughlin attended college at Holy Cross, were years of transition for both the young man and the nation. When he graduated, he applied to the Navy, the Peace Corps and law school.
Accepted to all three, he chose the Navy, becoming a first lieutenant on a destroyer escort and later a naval tactics instructor. McLaughlin said he has vivid memories of his Naval career.
In fact, of McLaughlin's five children, two sons currently serve as officers in the Marine Corps. His three younger children, a son and twin daughters, are currently enrolled in college.
During his final year in the Navy, spent on land as an instructor, McLaughlin earned a master's degree in public administration. The day after receiving his discharge from the Navy, McLaughlin enrolled in law school at Boston College.
"You have no idea what a cultural change that was," he said with a laugh.
On the job
For almost 25 years after he graduated from Boston College Law School in 1974, McLaughlin had a general law practice in Laconia, where he lived with his wife and children.
At various points, he was elected to the school board, the city council and as the county attorney -- an exemplary member of the community.
But after he was defeated in a run for the state Senate, McLaughlin lost interest in political office. Lost interest, that is, until New Hampshire Governor Jeanne Shaheen called up on the phone one day and asked him to consider joining her administration as attorney general.
Asked if the last four years have lived up to expectations, McLaughlin replies, "It's been a ride, man. It's been an adventure."
Cases, credit and criticism
Over the last four years, the New Hampshire attorney general's office has dealt with a number of important civil cases, as well as a series of brutal homicides.
McLaughlin, though, is proudest of his office's efforts to improve the way the state addresses certain topics, including children's issues, domestic violence and civil rights.
In particular, the passage and signing two years ago of civil rights legislation drafted by his office is something McLaughlin says he considers one of his principle achievements as attorney general.
"For years, New Hampshire had resisted implementing a civil rights law," he said. "I felt the state needed to make a statement about the equality of all citizens.
During his term, the attorney general's office has won part of the national settlement with tobacco companies and received praise for its handling of what was found to be an illegal merger of several Manchester hospitals.
Under McLaughlin, the attorney general's office also conducted an investigation that led to the impeachment of the Chief Justice of the state Supreme Court. He was later acquitted by the Senate.
McLaughlin will be on hand a week from Monday when attorneys from his office argue before the U.S. Supreme Court in a border dispute case, entitled "New Hampshire vs. Maine," revolving around the Portsmouth Ship Yard, an issue on which he has focused during his term.
However, McLaughlin has been criticized for his office's handling of the challenge to a property tax instituted by the state to raise funds for education.
In January, a judge ruled against the state and ordering the repayment of the $880 million collected under the tax, a decision which is currently being appealed.
Since then, there have been several calls for McLaughlin's resignation. A state representative filed and then withdrew a bill calling for McLaughlin's censure for what he described as abuse of power.
McLaughlin defended the actions of his office, however, saying that claims that attorneys from his office agreed in court, in the name of the state, to pay back the tax money collected if the court found against them were simply not accurate.
Renomination
The fact that his future as attorney general is uncertain, partly as a result of the fallout of the property tax case, does not faze McLaughlin.
"[Governor Shaheen] wanted an independent attorney general, and although she hasn't always agreed with Attorney General McLaughlin, she believes he's done a good job and he has her full support," Shaheen's press secretary Pamela Walsh said.
Shaheen has not nominated him for another term because his confirmation by the state's executive council -- all five members of which are Republicans -- currently appears unlikely.
State law says McLaughlin remains in his position until replaced by another candidate nominated by the governor. Since, according to Walsh, the governor currently has no intention of submitting another name to the Council, McLaughlin will stay in the position indefinitely.
