Did the Bank of New England Discriminate Against a Candidate of Color?

We are getting real curious about New England these days, and this latest case isn’t helping.

A Hispanic woman running for a seat in the New Hampshire Legislature is calling out an area bank for what appears to be a blatant act of discrimination against her and her campaign when in May they disallowed her from opening an account for that campaign with them.

“When I was running for State Representative for the state of New Hampshire, I called the Bank of New England,” Gracie Gato wrote [https://www.granitestatebuzz.com/blog/bank-of-new-england-sucks/] on her blog Granite State Buzz. “The woman on the phone seemed to be pleased to help. However – It was too early to open it yet. I loved her customer service tone and told her I’ll be back with all 3 items and set up an ACTBLUE account.”

Gato says that two months later was when the problems began. “I called back to open my account and I was transferred to an Account Manager at the bank,” she wrote. “She collected my information and said she will have her Senior Manager go over the details, and go from there. I sent her VERY sensitive information via E-mail.”

After awhile, Gato again contacted the bank concerned because it was in the midst of campaign season and she was still not able to open an account. The person noted that the bank was conducting an “investigation” on the account, and one week later she was told by the bank manager “This isn’t the bank for your campaign,” saying further that the Bank of New England wanted accounts that would be more long term. However, she asked a White friend running for office to try and open an account in the same bank and within a day and a half it was opened without any investigation.

“Once my friend got his account, I immediately called the bank and questioned them point blank on why I didn’t get an account but my friend did?” she wrote. “The Account Manager cried. She told me she will contact the higher ups to give me an explanation. A simple, why? I just want to know WHY? To my face.”

That friend wanted to know why as well. “When I first heard Gracie may have been denied an account for state representative due to discrimination, I thought that could not be possible,” he told Idavox.  “I thought many banks simply do not like to open political accounts due to campaigns being so unpredictable.  Just to be sure, I decided and applied for an identical account Gracie tried to open. I thought it would take a few days to hear as Gracie’s denial took over a week. My account was approved within 24 hours.

Gato’s friend later asked the bank why my account was approved and hers wasn’t. “The bank representative said the account manager did not know how to properly open a campaign account for Gracie, he said. “New Hampshire has over 400 state reps which run for office every two years. With literally thousands of campaigns being run, I thought it was odd Gracie was the first one to try to open an account at the Bank of New England. Something didn’t feel right to me.”

The Bank of New England did not return inquiries before posting.