Archive for the ‘Political Standing’ Category

Weekend water cooler questions

1. Which New Hampshire Congressional candidate celebrated “Draw Mohammad Day” this week?
2. Will there be a serious discussion of Democratic State Party finances at tomorrow’s state Democratic Party convention? In 2008 the party boasted offices everywhere and now we are hearing it is each local party committee for themselves.
3. How many in the state’s elite actually read the entire Gaming Commission Report? If they actually got to the juicy stuff they’d discover a good argument for a North Country facility.  But what does that mean anyway?
4. What are the odds that State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark announces on June 2 that she is not running for re-election? (The percentage has been getting higher all week.)

UP

Jim Splaine and Sheila Roberge: Both announced their retirements this week capping off a decades of classy service.

All Senate District 9 Republicans: For 26 years Republican State Representatives and others were blocked if they wanted to move to the upper chamber. Now they have an open seat.

Mark Bodi: Digs in his heals and hits back at his friend Gov. John Lynch. Then Bodi gets editorial support from Union Leader calling for open hearings about his removal. It now looks like he has nothing to hide and he is becoming the more sympathetic figure — for now.

Base/insurgent candidates: For this type of NH candidates the primary elections in Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Utah and Kentucky over the last week gave more of an argument to their campaigns than Scott Brown ever did.

Andy Demers: Former Manchester political operative wins big in Kentucky as the #2 in Rand Paul’s campaign.

Jim Demers: Got on the very short invite list to this week’s White House State Dinner. One has to wonder what he said about Paul Hodes to his table mate Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Bob Menendez.

Carol Shea-Porter: It was a bi-partisan accepted fact just months ago that Shea-Porter had no chance of re-election. But now there is a growing counter-narrative suggesting that, as one Republican put it, “Carol might not be screwed.” For all the pounding (and no offense or campaign from her to fight back) she is still even with all of her likely Republican opponents. While it is never good for an incumbent to have the poll numbers or fund-raising numbers she has, there were signs this week that the Republican primary is getting very personal and very nasty. That worked out for her in 2008, didn’t it?

PUSH

Coins: It was a complicated week for coins. Usually dismissed as simply spare change the coin was arguably one of the most powerful figures in state government this week. (Did anyone ever save the coin used in the famous flip? We’ll pay good money to charity for it!) Coins will also be a huge celebrity when it comes to direct mail this fall. But the bad news for coins was the Gaming Commission report that suggests the state should slow down on the slots idea. Coins would have been relevant then. In addition to the complicated coin week was the word of the new $1 coin the U.S. Mint has released. The bad news: in order of the presidents this one features own our Franklin Pierce.

DOWN

Peter Hildreth: An ethics complaint and embarrassing release of unredacted documents dogged him this week. Why does this “buffoon” (FRM investors word’s, not mine) still have a job?

Gambling interests: The commission gives Lynch enough ammo to veto gaming — if he wants to. It didn’t help with momentum.

House and Senate Democratic leadership:  OK, we get that the coin toss was designed to placate the various caucuses.  However, to make it a public spectacle gives the appearance that the state is being governed by whim at a time when voter dissatisfaction with government is at a zenith makes no sense at all. When it comes to Republican rallies this summer we can already hear the audience call out chant “flip a coin.”

State Sen. Bob Letourneau: We learned he is more likely than not to get a primary opponent who will run entirely against his record. That is never a good thing.

That was a rough week. But cheer up, hit a happy hour, and discuss the following questions:

Who will have a higher September primary vote percentage: Jennifer Horn or Tim Robertson?
Republican U.S. Senate candidate Kelly Ayotte launched her first television ads this week. The ads helped give a sense about who she [...]

Weekend water cooler questions
1. Jennifer Horn is having her Last Stand this weekend (Kuster is in the other primary). Most have written her off, so tomorrow’s district runaround with controversial Iowa Rep. Steve King is her last chance to raise some serious money and show some organizational heft. Question: On Saturday [...]

UP
Dan Barrick: On Sunday this Concord Monitor reporter did a rare thing locally: produce a real piece of political journalism. His story looked into Republican gubernatorial candidate John Stephen’s record as state Health and Human Services Commissioner. He considered the Democratic criticism and the Stephen boasts on his handling of his agency’s budget. Then, instead [...]

Overview
This past week will go down as one of the most politically clarifying of year. We will look back at this week and rank it in importance only behind those with the September primary and November general elections. We’ll find it stunningly more important than even the filing period.
Sean Mahoney and [...]