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John DiStaso, the New Hampshire Union Leader's senior political writer, began writing "Granite Status" in 1982. His influential reports on behind-the-scenes politics in the first-primary state are must reading every Thursday for insiders from Concord to Washington, D.C. Watch for "Granite Status" updates on UnionLeader.com whenever New Hampshire political news breaks.
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May 16. 2012 11:56AM
John DiStaso's Granite Status: Biden to return (again!) to NH next week; John Kerry fund-raising for Maggie Hassan
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, UPDATE. JOE LOVES IT HERE. It's becoming almost a monthly event - Vice President Joe Biden visiting New Hampshire.
The Granite Status has learned that plans call for Biden to make his fifth visit to the state in the past six months on Tuesday, May 22.
A campaign official confirmed that Biden will appear at a "political event," as opposed to an official taxpayer-paid event, in Keene.
Biden last visited the state on April 12 promoting what the Obama administration calls the “Buffet Rule” to ensure that the wealthy do not pay lower taxes than the middle class. He also visited in November, January and February.
Meanwhile Wednesday, state Democratic chair Raymond Buckley told the Status that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will be the keynote speaker at the party's 2012 state convention.
The event is scheduled for June 2 at Memorial High School in Manchester.
As chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, O'Malley will be in the state “to underscore the commitment that the DGA has to continue the great Democratic leadership New Hampshire has enjoyed with governors John Lynch and Jeanne Shaheen.”
O'Malley is a rising star in national Democratic politics and is in the mix with those mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2016.
Buckley said the convention will hear from Shaheen, honor Lynch for his eight years as governor and also hear from candidates for congress and governor.
The party will also pass its platform, adopt resolutions and hold workshops.
Buckley said about 295 people have signed up so far.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, UPDATE: Conservative activist and entrepreneur Andrew Hemingway will not run for Congress this year, the Granite Status has learned.
After considering running against U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass in a primary, Hemingway, a Bristol native and the former state presidential primary campaign manager for Newt Gingrich, will instead run a new political action committee aimed at electing a Republican governor.
The new PAC will not take sides in the GOP gubernatorial primary between Kevin Smith and Ovide Lamontagne and will focus its pre-primary efforts on Democrats.
The PAC's formation will be announced next week, a source directly involved confirmed.
“A New Hampshire Republican can, will, and must secure the corner office,” the source said.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: KERRY FOR HASSAN. Democratic candidate for governor Maggie Hassan is picking up high-powered support this week.
The Granite Status has learned that Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry is the special guest at a fund-raiser for Hassan at an undisclosed location in Boston on Friday morning.
Tickets for the breakfast reception range from $250 to $2,500.
Hassan is in a party primary against another former state senator, Jackie Cilley.
We've also learned that another Massachusetts Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano, is the scheduled the guest speaker at at the Manchester City Democratic Committee's annual Flag Day Dinner June 11 at the Puritan Backroom honoring former state Sen. and Manchester alderman Betsi DeVries.
By the way, Capuano's nephew, Chris Evans, is currently starring in “The Avengers” movie as Captain America.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, UPDATE: “BROKEN PROMISES” CHARGED. As the Granite Status reported first on Tuesday, the nonprofit self-described issues advocacy group Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (GPS), will begin television advertising Thursday in New Hampshire.
The group, co-founded by Karl Rove, the former senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, plans to spend $535,000 on an ad accusing President Barack Obama of “broken promises” on issues from taxes to the deficit to home foreclosures to key aspects of his health care plan.
The New Hampshire ad is part of a $25 million “issue advocacy initiative over the next four weeks in 10 states,” Crossroads GPS announced Wednesday.
It said it hopes to “frame the national debate on jobs, the economy, ObamaCare and government debt.”
The new ad, entitled “Obama's Promise,” is described in the Crossroads announcement as “the first phase of the initiative” and is tied to a new program it calls the “New Majority Agenda,” which is detailed at www.newmajorityagenda.org.
Crossroads said, that in addition to New Hampshire, the initial television buy includes network affiliates in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. They are all swing states in the November election.
In a statement, Crossroads GPS president Steven Law said, “President Obama made commitments on core issues to the American people, and this ad holds him to account. Our country faces serious economic and fiscal problems which require practical solutions and not just promises. If we don't hold Washington politicians accountable, we won't fix these problems that are holding our country back.”
(For more on Crossroads GPS, see our item below.)
The Democratic National Committee returned fire at what it called “Karl Rove's latest deceptive ad.
“President Obama has proposed a plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade while creating an economy built to last through investments in education, infrastructure, and research,” the DNC said. “As promised, the President has cut taxes for every working American and cut taxes for small business 18 times, bringing federal taxes for middle class households near historic lows.
“The facts are that, as governor, Mitt Romney increased state spending by 6.5 percent each year and increased Massachusetts long-term debt by 16 percent in just four years, leaving it with the largest per-capita debt of any state in the nation,” the DNC said.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: A new poll released today has President Barack Obama with a 12-percentage-point lead over challenger Mitt Romney in the battle for New Hampshire's four electoral votes.
North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling says it surveyed 1,163 New Hampshire voters from May 10 to 13 and found Obama leading Romney 53 to 41 percent, with 6 percent undecided.
PPP said the poll is a reversal from those it conducted last year, which showed Romney in statistical dead heats with Obama.
The pollster said Obama “is more popular than he was for most of last year and Romney's a good deal less popular.”
It said 52 percent of those polled approved of Obama's job performance while 45 percent disapproved.
Meanwhile, Romney was viewed favorably by 40 percent and unfavorably by 54 percent of Granite Staters polled.
Even if U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte were Romney's running mate, she would not help Romney in the state, according to the poll.
The Obama-Biden ticket out-polled a hypothetical Romney-Ayotte ticket, 52 to 42 percent.
PPP said 35 percent of those polled described themselves as independents, while 34 percent described themselves as Democrats and 31 percent said they were Republicans.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: NYQUIST MAKES IT OFFICIAL. Attorney and New Boston town moderator Lee Nyquist made it official today:
“I am definitely running for state Senate in district 9 and I am in this race to win.”
Democrat Nyquist has been organizing a candidacy for several week and so his announcement came as no surprise. But he said he has receive encouragement from Granite Staters “who want their representatives in Concord to focus on the economy and helping working families, not advancing their own narrow agendas.
“Above all, these voters want a citizen legislator who will listen to them first and foremost, and who will help restore the tone of civility and respect that we expect and deserve in New Hampshire. And that is exactly what I intend to do,” he said in a statement.
In an interview, Nyquist also said, “I've become increasingly convinced that my decision to run and to be a part of the restoration of civility and collegiality to the State House was the right decision.
“An awful lot of hard work needs to be done as the atmosphere appears to be more and more otherwise with each passing day,” Nyquist said.
He also said he received the endorsement this week of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1445.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: CROSSROADS ON THE AIR. Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit self-described issues advocacy group that works in conjunction with the pro-Republican Super PAC American Crossroads, is planning political advertising in New Hampshire.
The organization was co-founded by Karl Rove, the former senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, and was viewed as having played a major role in helping Republicans gain big victories nationally in the 2010 elections.
The Granite Status has learned that Crossroads GPS will air at least two ads on WMUR television beginning later this week and at least into the middle of next week at a cost of at least $75,000.
It is unclear what the ads will say or what Democrat they will target. President Barack Obama's campaign recently began advertising in New Hampshire as well.
The state is viewed as a key swing state in the upcoming general election.
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies is sometimes described as a sister organization to American Crossroads, which, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, is a Super PAC that has raised about $28 million in the current cycle.
While American Crossroads, as a Super PAC, must disclose its donors, Crossroads GPS as a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit, does not.
Crossroads GPS's tax forms for 2010 and 2011 showed it raised about $77 million.
Crossroads GPS cannot expressly advocate for or against the election of a candidate, but it can air an ads praising or complaining about a candidate's position and encourage viewers to call the candidate.
Word of Crossroad GPS's New Hampshire advertising plans comes just a few days after Democratic former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter called on Republican Rep. Frank Guinta to join her in calling on Super PACs not to advertise in their race for the 1st District U.S. House seat (see item below).
Guinta's campaign rejected the call.
It remains to be seen if Shea-Porter will be the target of the Crossroads GPS ads or if they will focus on Obama or another candidate.
A spokesman for Crossroads GPS said today the group had "nothing to announce."
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
FRIDAY, MAY 11, UPDATE: SHEA-PORTER WANTS NO SUPER PAC ADS. Republican U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta's campaign is calling Democratic challenger Carol Shea-Porter hypocritical for her call today that both publicly demand Super PACS do not advertise during the campaign in their district.
Shea-Porter told the Granite Status that her call goes for CREDO, a liberal San Francisco-based Super PAC friendly to her that has vowed to target Guinta and nine other conservative congressmen, as well as conservative groups, but does not cover grassroots organizing and “ground” activities.
Her call is symbolic, since Super PACS are independent of candidates and free to advertise as they wish. They played a huge role in the GOP presidential nomination race and will have an equally influential role in the general elections for President and Congress.
But she hopes that if she and Guinta join in making such a call, they may have some effect in the state's 1st Congressional District.
“Just stay off the airwaves,” Shea-Porter said. “I don't care what they do on the ground,” but, she said, advertising should be off limits, as should automated telephone calls.
Guinta campaign manager Ethan Zorfas responded, “Carol Shea-Porter's hypocrisy is amazing. It knows no bounds.
“Carol Shea-Porter already has a Super PAC (CREDO) up engaging negative ground activities, phone calls and election persuasion,” he said.
“Any pledge Carol Shea-Porter makes, voters need to read the fine print because there is always a loophole as big as the Merrimack River is wide,” Zorfas said.
Super PACs are political action committees that can raise unlimited donations and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for or against a candidate. Their expenditures must be independent and not coordinated with a candidate.
Shea-Porter lost the 1st District U.S. House seat she had held for two terms to Guinta in 2010 and is trying to regain it.
She said in a statement that Super PACS “will try to influence NH-01 voters. These groups on either side have ground workers. The Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity has had a permanent staff in New Hampshire for several years now, and CREDO has recently arrived.
“However, Super PACs should not run television or radio or any type of media ads,” she said.
She called on Guinta to “sign an agreement with me next week” to:
- “Send out a joint press release that Super PAC money is not welcome in NH-01
- “Jointly publicly denounce any Super PACs that use the airwaves or any form of media ads to attack or support either of us and
- “Jointly sign a public statement to the offending Super PAC that it stop running the ads immediately.”
Shea-Porter said that she and Guinta “should work together to try to reduce the constant barrage of ads that offend NH-01 voters and try to reduce outside influence by Super PACs.”
Shea-Porter in January wrote an op-ed urging voters to “speak up” and “ask candidates if they will support legislation to take this kind of money out of politics.”
Republicans accused her of hypocrisy when, several days later, CREDO was unveiled and said it would be targeting Guinta in a program it called “Take Down the Tea Party Ten.”
CREDO campaign manager Matthew Arnold, in announcing the group's plans, said of Guinta and the others, “We're talking about some of the most odious members of Congress. Even for Republicans these guys are low.
“We're going to empower local activists to organize their friends and neighbors to lay out the truth about their representatives in the most basic terms,” Arnold added. “They are anti-woman. They are anti-science. They are hypocritical, bigoted, and have said and done things that are downright crazy.”
Zorfas of the Guinta campaign said of the CREDO criticisms, “It's a San Francisco-based organization and their political rhetoric is laughable.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org, CREDO as of May 11 had raised about $2 million and spent $480,000 nationally. The conservative American Crossroads, by comparison, had raised $28 million and spent about $1 million so far, according to the CRP web site.
Shea-Porter said in an interview, “I don't care what (Super PACs on either side) do on the ground. Americans for Prosperity has been here a lot longer and has lots of boots on the ground.”
Americans for Prosperity is actually not a Super PAC. It is a 501 (c) (4) nonprofit that is engaged in “issues advocacy” and unlike Super PACS, is not required to disclose its donors, as Super PACs do.
“On the ground, you're talking to one, two or five people and you have to work it,” Shea-Porter said. “I'm not trying to prevent that.
“But when you go to the airwaves, and you have a hidden agenda, because people don't even know who it is or what it is and you reach out and you can talk to 100,000 people with a false message, an absolute falsehood, or you can swing it by virtue of people in other states who decide that a candidate is worth an investment.
“I would like to see it stay as much as possible a NH-01 election between two candidates who have different views,” said Shea-Porter, “but we're the ones who actually get to be heard about it.
“I'm asking all of them to stay off the air,” she said. “No advertising. If you can get your troops together and go out there and work it, OK. You can't stop that.
“But then people see who you are,” she said. “Let them be in New Hampshire and work in New Hampshire. Then that's cool.”
(An earlier update and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
THURSDAY, MAY 10, UPDATE: "A WINNING POSITION." State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley believes President Barack Obama's statement in favor of same-sex marriage was not politically motivated, but he said it will only help Obama politically in the Granite State.
But Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the state Republicans, said that while the position will probably help Obama shore up his base, it will have little impact in New Hampshire, a state which already has a same-sex marriage law on the books.
“Anyone who may be against the President because of his position on this was most likely against him before this, anyway,” said Buckley, who is also Democratic National Committee vice chair and the highest-ranking openly gay member of the DNC.
As a result, he said, the position won't cost Obama votes in New Hampshire, where, he noted, polls have shown that 60 percent of Granite Staters opposed repeal of the state's same-sex marriage law. New Hampshire is viewed as a key swing state in the general election.
“What it does do is excite young voters,” Buckley said. “This is an issue important to young people and it will help them become more involved and be more active in the campaign. But I don't think it was a political calculation.”
In a statement Wednesday, Buckley called Obama's statement “a watershed moment in this deeply important civil rights issue.”
MacDonald acknowledged there are divisions in the GOP on the issue, as illustrated by the vote on the same-sex marriage repeal bill.
“The focus from everyone I'm talking to continues to be on jobs and the economy. Regardless of how people fee about gay marriage, I think people will be focusing on the economy,” MacDonald said.
For most people, MacDonald said, same-sex marriage “will weigh somewhat, but it will be down the list.”
MacDonald said he was “a little surprised that the President came out so strongly in an election year. But he wants to solidify his base, and it is a strong position in the Democratic Party in that respect.”
(The full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
THURSDAY, MAY 10: JACK COMES BACK. Former state GOP Chairman Jack Kimball, now heading one of the largest Tea Party organizations in the state, will make his formal return to the GOP fold at its May 30 fundraiser featuring former Arkansas Gov. and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Kimball credits newly elected party vice-chair Cliff Hurst with convincing him to attend the event, which will benefit a party establishment that includes many who virtually forced him to resign as party chair last summer.
Hurst, said Kimball in an email to the Granite Status, “is, and will be, the unifying figure in the GOP.”
Kimball resigned the party chairmanship last Sept. 1 as the party's executive committee was preparing to vote to remove him, after U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Reps. Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass, as well as House Speaker Bill O'Brien and Senate President Peter Bragdon, called on him to step down.
The resignation was the culmination of a series of controversies that first focused on what some viewed as a lack of strong fundraising by the party under his leadership, although Kimball said he'd helped the party raise about $193,000.
Key State House special election losses and word that Kimball signed a petition to allow the Libertarian Party on the ballot in the 2012 election didn't help his cause. Some were also upset that Kimball fired Executive Director Will Wrobleski.
Earlier this year, Kimball returned to head the influential Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC, which he founded in 2009, and he has since been working to fire up the Tea Party troops to work for the GOP in November.
Kimball called Hurst “a man of the utmost integrity, and my respect for him, and what he is trying to accomplish, is one of the key factors for my decision” to allow the party to list him as an honorary dinner chair, along with 13 other former party chairs.
“Secondly,” wrote Kimball, “the stakes are way too high in this upcoming presidential and gubernatorial election for me not to stay involved and help get the voters motivated to come out in 2012, the same way they did in 2010.
“Everything else is secondary to these factors at this point in time,” he wrote. “I want all my supporters to know that, feelings aside, we are all Americans first and as Americans we have a duty to protect and defend our Constitution and this great Republic. To do that, we must vote for candidates that understand those issues and that means getting behind the GOP presidential nominee as well as a strong conservative gubernatorial candidate, who, for me, is Ovide Lamontagne.”
Whether Kimball's name on the dinner invitations and his presence at the party's biggest fundraiser in a long time is enough to convince rank-and-file Tea Party activists to get behind Mitt Romney, and the state party in general, remains to be seen. But for the state GOP leadership and the Romney team in New Hampshire, it's definitely better to have Jack Kimball with you than against you — or ambivalent toward you.
“NOT GOING ANYWHERE.” State GOP Finance Chairman and former U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie says he has “no immediate plans” to step down from his party post, despite speculation that he'll leave after the May 30 fundraiser.
Yet, Binnie, in an interview, said that under his leadership the party's finances have rebounded and the finance committee is in good hands with a strong bench.
Binnie said the dinner and a golf tournament fundraiser scheduled for next Monday at his Wentworth-by-the-Sea Country Club are doing “exceptionally well.”
“When I took over as finance chair, we had literally $2,000 cash on hand and almost $200,000 in debt,” Binnie said. “Today, we have almost $125,000 in cash and pledges on hand and essentially no debt.”
Binnie said those numbers do not count the two fundraisers, which, he said, appear to be “sold-out affairs.”
Does this mean he feels he can leave the post?
“I can guarantee you that sometime after May 30 I will be stepping down as chair,” Binnie said, “whether it's in one month or 10 years. I don't know.
“If I step down on the first of June or the first of September or first of December, I can say I haven't thought about it today at all,” Binnie said.
“That doesn't preclude me from doing that, but I can honestly tell you I have made absolutely no decisions except to say jokingly and tongue-in-cheek that I know I'll be stepping down sometime after the 30th of May.”
Binnie said the party has a “full and active and vibrant finance committee” in place now.
“The party has never been healthier and (current NHGOP chair) Wayne MacDonald is doing a terrific job,” he said. “There really is a strong bench now and I'm really pleased with where we are.”
Binnie recently made a successful bid in a Chapter 11 auction of most of Nassau Broadcasting's New England radio stations. Partnering with veteran New England radio station owner Jeff Shapiro, the joint bid was $12.5 million, according to Radio-Info.com. Binnie also heads WBIN television in Derry.
If he does step down, will it be to focus on business and/or to mount a candidacy for governor?
Binnie said he continues to be asked to consider running, “and it's one of those things at the appropriate time I will think hard about. But right now, that's not the time.”
DINNER CHAIRS. Honorary chairs for the Huckabee dinner are Ayotte, Guinta and Bass, along with MacDonald and former state chairs, in addition to Kimball, former Gov. John H. Sununu and former First Lady Nancy Sununu, Fergus Cullen, Wayne Semprini, Warren Henderson, Jayne Millerick, John Dowd, Steve Duprey, Rhona Charbonneau, John Stabile, Elsie Vartanian, former House speaker Donna Sytek and former Ambassador Gerald Carmen.
Sponsors so far are former Ambassador Joseph and Augusta Petrone, Executive Councilor Ray Wieczorek, activists Mike and Mar-Mar Rogers, former congressional candidate Rich Ashooh, former state Sen. Bob Clegg and former congressional aide Deb Vanderbeek.
FORBES' ADVICE FOR MITT. Financial magazine publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes was back in the state yesterday for the second time in a week, this time to promote Lamontagne for governor.
Forbes said he appreciated Lamontagne's “substance,” and said he has been involved in state primary races in other states as well.
He said he endorsed Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock, who defeated Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana, and Pat McCrory, who easily won the North Carolina gubernatorial GOP primary, both on Tuesday.
Forbes had endorsed Lamontagne in his close 2010 GOP Senate primary loss to Ayotte, but said yesterday that since Ayotte has been in Washington, she has shown “she gets it.”
As for speculation about Ayotte being Romney's running mate, Forbes said that in the next few months, “we'll get about 300 names, all the 'thank you's'” given “five minutes in the sun.”
Forbes backed Rick Perry for the nomination but said he's now behind Romney, who he predicted will win in November.
“The (nomination) process, messy that it was, was good,” said Forbes. “He is a much better candidate than he was four years ago or three months ago. He's had to come out with a real tax proposal, he got close to (U.S. Rep. Paul) Ryan on entitlement reform.
“He has started to defend free enterprise and he's going to have to learn to do it,” said Forbes. “If he can do it in a positive way, as Ronald Reagan did, he will win.”
Forbes said Romney and the Republicans will have enough money to wage a battle against Obama “one way or another.”
Super-PACs, he said, “are a way station to undoing the crazy campaign finance reforms of 1976 and onward, which tries to restrict how to get a message out.
“They should get rid of all the rules and regs and give what you want as long as it's on the Internet,” he said.
Forbes said U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's supporters “will go to the end” with their candidate, but Romney must “make some noises that he doesn't think it's good to trash the dollar.
“You can't go through Ron Paul to get to Ron Paul supporters. You go directly,” he said.
“If Romney tutors himself enough to at least make clear he does not like what the Fed is doing, and start to articulate that what (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke does to manipulate interest rates is actually profoundly counter-productive, especially with small businesses, that should bring most of the Ron Paul people on board or at least not push them to Obama.”
WORKING THE GRASSROOTS. Veteran grassroots organizer Pat Morris of Manchester will be announced today as the third co-chair of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan's grassroots committee.
Morris will focus on organizing support in Manchester and throughout Hillsborough County. She joins Chaz Proulx of Raymond and state Rep. Jennifer Daler of Temple in that key role.
Morris called Hassan the “real deal” and said she will appeal to people in Manchester and across the state.
DEMS OPTIMISTIC. The decision by former state Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Woodburn to run for the District 1 state Senate seat is just one piece of a puzzle that has state Democratic leaders optimistic they can make inroads into the 19-5 Republican majority in the Senate in November.
Party Chair Raymond Buckley believes he has 11 seats well on their way to either remaining or turning blue and views 14 or more seats as a strong possibility.
In addition to the four returning Democratic incumbents — Molly Kelly, Lou D'Allesandro, Sylvia Larsen and Amanda Merrill — the party believes it can retain the District 5 seat, where Matthew Houde is leaving, with the winner of a potential primary between Claremont firefighter Brian Rapp and state Rep. David Pierce of Etna, who yesterday announced he filed paperwork to form a political committee to explore a run.
In District 4, the new Dover-based seat where Republican James Forsythe is not running again, Democrats think they have a good chance with the winner of a potential primary between state Reps. Dale Sprague of Somersworth and David Watters of Dover.
“Definite targets” for the party, which means they're seats viewed not as guaranteed but as strong possibilities, are District 1 with Woodburn, District 2 with former bank executive Bob Lamb, District 7 with Andrew Hosmer, District 13 with former Sen. Bette Lasky and District 18 with Donna Soucy.
The party also believes that Lee Nyquist of New Boston has the party's best opportunity in many years to win the newly reconfigured District 9 seat, and that former Sen. Peg Gilmour should not be counted out in her attempt to regain the District 12 seat.
Buckley is also pushing hard for a strong candidate to take on Jack Barnes in District 17 and is looking for candidates for districts 23 and 24, currently held by Republicans Russell Prescott and Nancy Stiles.
SO IS THE GOP. On the Republican side, a candidate stepped forward yesterday to run for the District 6 seat being vacated by Fenton Groen.
State Rep. Peter Bolster, R-Alton, said he is most likely going to run. Rep. Sam Cataldo, R-Farmington, is also seriously considering a candidacy. Also said to be looking at it are Groen's brother, state Rep. Warren Groen, activist Gary Dworkin and state Rep. Susan DeLemus and her husband, Jerry DeLemus, all of Rochester.
Three Republicans are eyeing District 7 — activists Thomas Garfield and Josh Youssef as well as Laconia school board member Scott Vercon.
WOMEN'S SUMMIT. Republican National Committeewoman Phyllis Woods has organized a Republican “Women's Summit” Saturday at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
The idea is to encourage women to consider running for office or at least become more active in the party.
Speakers include Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker, Vermont Republican National Committeewoman Susie Hudson, state Sen. Nancy Stiles and Reps. Laurie Sanborn, Regina Birdsell and Lynne Blankenbeker, Christine Peters of the Federation of Republican Women, former state GOP Executive Director Jen Wrobleski and media consultant Alicia Preston. Keynote speaker is Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau.
The event is free but pre-registration is required.
NEW MEDIA CONSULTANT. New Hampshire's Patrick Hynes has joined Romney's campaign as a new media consultant, according to various reports this week.
Hynes heads Hynes Communications, based in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., and has worked on several campaigns over the years. He had been consulting for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty prior to Pawlenty entering the 2012 GOP presidential race.
Hynes was recruited for the post by Romney's Deputy National Press Secretary Ryan Williams, the former spokesman for the state GOP, who worked with Hynes during the 2010 elections.
Williams said Hynes' employee Leonardo Alcivar will be full time on the Romney campaign, while Hynes will consult on “outreach to conservative media.”
MORE NEW HAMPSHIRE TIES. More people with New Hampshire ties continue to play key roles in Romney's campaign.
The latest are Jill Neunaber and Danny O'Driscoll, who were deputy state directors of Romney's presidential primary effort.
Neunaber, who was also political director of Lamontagne's 2010 Senate campaign, was named state director of Romney's campaign in Iowa this week, while O'Driscoll is now Northeast political director.
CAHILL ON BOARD. Now that his presidential candidate has dropped out of the race and endorsed Romney, businessman and former Executive Councilor Bill Cahill of Piermont has done the same.
The former New Hampshire Rick Santorum campaign co-chair said, “I worked hard for Rick but he has made a decision that he is going to endorse the presumptive candidate, so I'll also be there to do whatever I can.”
Cahill said he is also backing Lamontagne for governor, saying he respected Lamontagne's graciousness toward Ayotte after narrowly losing to her in 2010.
QUICK TAKES:
-- Democratic 2nd District U.S. House candidate Ann McLane Kuster has once again earned the support of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Council 35.
-- Republican 1st District U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta launched his campaign website, www.TeamGuinta.com, this week.
-- Conservative activist Jennifer Horn been named chair of the state GOP's platform committee, with co-vice chairs Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield and party Area Vice-Chair Rob Kaspar.
John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso.
The Granite Status has learned that plans call for Biden to make his fifth visit to the state in the past six months on Tuesday, May 22.
A campaign official confirmed that Biden will appear at a "political event," as opposed to an official taxpayer-paid event, in Keene.
Biden last visited the state on April 12 promoting what the Obama administration calls the “Buffet Rule” to ensure that the wealthy do not pay lower taxes than the middle class. He also visited in November, January and February.
Meanwhile Wednesday, state Democratic chair Raymond Buckley told the Status that Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley will be the keynote speaker at the party's 2012 state convention.
The event is scheduled for June 2 at Memorial High School in Manchester.
As chairman of the Democratic Governors Association, O'Malley will be in the state “to underscore the commitment that the DGA has to continue the great Democratic leadership New Hampshire has enjoyed with governors John Lynch and Jeanne Shaheen.”
O'Malley is a rising star in national Democratic politics and is in the mix with those mentioned as a potential presidential candidate in 2016.
Buckley said the convention will hear from Shaheen, honor Lynch for his eight years as governor and also hear from candidates for congress and governor.
The party will also pass its platform, adopt resolutions and hold workshops.
Buckley said about 295 people have signed up so far.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, UPDATE: Conservative activist and entrepreneur Andrew Hemingway will not run for Congress this year, the Granite Status has learned.
After considering running against U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass in a primary, Hemingway, a Bristol native and the former state presidential primary campaign manager for Newt Gingrich, will instead run a new political action committee aimed at electing a Republican governor.
The new PAC will not take sides in the GOP gubernatorial primary between Kevin Smith and Ovide Lamontagne and will focus its pre-primary efforts on Democrats.
The PAC's formation will be announced next week, a source directly involved confirmed.
“A New Hampshire Republican can, will, and must secure the corner office,” the source said.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: KERRY FOR HASSAN. Democratic candidate for governor Maggie Hassan is picking up high-powered support this week.
The Granite Status has learned that Massachusetts U.S. Sen. John Kerry is the special guest at a fund-raiser for Hassan at an undisclosed location in Boston on Friday morning.
Tickets for the breakfast reception range from $250 to $2,500.
Hassan is in a party primary against another former state senator, Jackie Cilley.
We've also learned that another Massachusetts Democrat, U.S. Rep. Mike Capuano, is the scheduled the guest speaker at at the Manchester City Democratic Committee's annual Flag Day Dinner June 11 at the Puritan Backroom honoring former state Sen. and Manchester alderman Betsi DeVries.
By the way, Capuano's nephew, Chris Evans, is currently starring in “The Avengers” movie as Captain America.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, UPDATE: “BROKEN PROMISES” CHARGED. As the Granite Status reported first on Tuesday, the nonprofit self-described issues advocacy group Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies (GPS), will begin television advertising Thursday in New Hampshire.
The group, co-founded by Karl Rove, the former senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, plans to spend $535,000 on an ad accusing President Barack Obama of “broken promises” on issues from taxes to the deficit to home foreclosures to key aspects of his health care plan.
The New Hampshire ad is part of a $25 million “issue advocacy initiative over the next four weeks in 10 states,” Crossroads GPS announced Wednesday.
It said it hopes to “frame the national debate on jobs, the economy, ObamaCare and government debt.”
The new ad, entitled “Obama's Promise,” is described in the Crossroads announcement as “the first phase of the initiative” and is tied to a new program it calls the “New Majority Agenda,” which is detailed at www.newmajorityagenda.org.
Crossroads said, that in addition to New Hampshire, the initial television buy includes network affiliates in Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, Nevada, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Virginia. They are all swing states in the November election.
In a statement, Crossroads GPS president Steven Law said, “President Obama made commitments on core issues to the American people, and this ad holds him to account. Our country faces serious economic and fiscal problems which require practical solutions and not just promises. If we don't hold Washington politicians accountable, we won't fix these problems that are holding our country back.”
(For more on Crossroads GPS, see our item below.)
The Democratic National Committee returned fire at what it called “Karl Rove's latest deceptive ad.
“President Obama has proposed a plan to reduce our deficit by $4 trillion over the next decade while creating an economy built to last through investments in education, infrastructure, and research,” the DNC said. “As promised, the President has cut taxes for every working American and cut taxes for small business 18 times, bringing federal taxes for middle class households near historic lows.
“The facts are that, as governor, Mitt Romney increased state spending by 6.5 percent each year and increased Massachusetts long-term debt by 16 percent in just four years, leaving it with the largest per-capita debt of any state in the nation,” the DNC said.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: A new poll released today has President Barack Obama with a 12-percentage-point lead over challenger Mitt Romney in the battle for New Hampshire's four electoral votes.
North Carolina-based Public Policy Polling says it surveyed 1,163 New Hampshire voters from May 10 to 13 and found Obama leading Romney 53 to 41 percent, with 6 percent undecided.
PPP said the poll is a reversal from those it conducted last year, which showed Romney in statistical dead heats with Obama.
The pollster said Obama “is more popular than he was for most of last year and Romney's a good deal less popular.”
It said 52 percent of those polled approved of Obama's job performance while 45 percent disapproved.
Meanwhile, Romney was viewed favorably by 40 percent and unfavorably by 54 percent of Granite Staters polled.
Even if U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte were Romney's running mate, she would not help Romney in the state, according to the poll.
The Obama-Biden ticket out-polled a hypothetical Romney-Ayotte ticket, 52 to 42 percent.
PPP said 35 percent of those polled described themselves as independents, while 34 percent described themselves as Democrats and 31 percent said they were Republicans.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: NYQUIST MAKES IT OFFICIAL. Attorney and New Boston town moderator Lee Nyquist made it official today:
“I am definitely running for state Senate in district 9 and I am in this race to win.”
Democrat Nyquist has been organizing a candidacy for several week and so his announcement came as no surprise. But he said he has receive encouragement from Granite Staters “who want their representatives in Concord to focus on the economy and helping working families, not advancing their own narrow agendas.
“Above all, these voters want a citizen legislator who will listen to them first and foremost, and who will help restore the tone of civility and respect that we expect and deserve in New Hampshire. And that is exactly what I intend to do,” he said in a statement.
In an interview, Nyquist also said, “I've become increasingly convinced that my decision to run and to be a part of the restoration of civility and collegiality to the State House was the right decision.
“An awful lot of hard work needs to be done as the atmosphere appears to be more and more otherwise with each passing day,” Nyquist said.
He also said he received the endorsement this week of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, Local 1445.
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
TUESDAY, MAY 15, UPDATE: CROSSROADS ON THE AIR. Crossroads GPS, a nonprofit self-described issues advocacy group that works in conjunction with the pro-Republican Super PAC American Crossroads, is planning political advertising in New Hampshire.
The organization was co-founded by Karl Rove, the former senior advisor to former President George W. Bush, and was viewed as having played a major role in helping Republicans gain big victories nationally in the 2010 elections.
The Granite Status has learned that Crossroads GPS will air at least two ads on WMUR television beginning later this week and at least into the middle of next week at a cost of at least $75,000.
It is unclear what the ads will say or what Democrat they will target. President Barack Obama's campaign recently began advertising in New Hampshire as well.
The state is viewed as a key swing state in the upcoming general election.
Crossroads Grassroots Policy Strategies is sometimes described as a sister organization to American Crossroads, which, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics, is a Super PAC that has raised about $28 million in the current cycle.
While American Crossroads, as a Super PAC, must disclose its donors, Crossroads GPS as a 501 (c)(4) nonprofit, does not.
Crossroads GPS's tax forms for 2010 and 2011 showed it raised about $77 million.
Crossroads GPS cannot expressly advocate for or against the election of a candidate, but it can air an ads praising or complaining about a candidate's position and encourage viewers to call the candidate.
Word of Crossroad GPS's New Hampshire advertising plans comes just a few days after Democratic former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter called on Republican Rep. Frank Guinta to join her in calling on Super PACs not to advertise in their race for the 1st District U.S. House seat (see item below).
Guinta's campaign rejected the call.
It remains to be seen if Shea-Porter will be the target of the Crossroads GPS ads or if they will focus on Obama or another candidate.
A spokesman for Crossroads GPS said today the group had "nothing to announce."
(Earlier updates and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
FRIDAY, MAY 11, UPDATE: SHEA-PORTER WANTS NO SUPER PAC ADS. Republican U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta's campaign is calling Democratic challenger Carol Shea-Porter hypocritical for her call today that both publicly demand Super PACS do not advertise during the campaign in their district.
Shea-Porter told the Granite Status that her call goes for CREDO, a liberal San Francisco-based Super PAC friendly to her that has vowed to target Guinta and nine other conservative congressmen, as well as conservative groups, but does not cover grassroots organizing and “ground” activities.
Her call is symbolic, since Super PACS are independent of candidates and free to advertise as they wish. They played a huge role in the GOP presidential nomination race and will have an equally influential role in the general elections for President and Congress.
But she hopes that if she and Guinta join in making such a call, they may have some effect in the state's 1st Congressional District.
“Just stay off the airwaves,” Shea-Porter said. “I don't care what they do on the ground,” but, she said, advertising should be off limits, as should automated telephone calls.
Guinta campaign manager Ethan Zorfas responded, “Carol Shea-Porter's hypocrisy is amazing. It knows no bounds.
“Carol Shea-Porter already has a Super PAC (CREDO) up engaging negative ground activities, phone calls and election persuasion,” he said.
“Any pledge Carol Shea-Porter makes, voters need to read the fine print because there is always a loophole as big as the Merrimack River is wide,” Zorfas said.
Super PACs are political action committees that can raise unlimited donations and spend unlimited amounts of money to advocate for or against a candidate. Their expenditures must be independent and not coordinated with a candidate.
Shea-Porter lost the 1st District U.S. House seat she had held for two terms to Guinta in 2010 and is trying to regain it.
She said in a statement that Super PACS “will try to influence NH-01 voters. These groups on either side have ground workers. The Koch Brothers' Americans for Prosperity has had a permanent staff in New Hampshire for several years now, and CREDO has recently arrived.
“However, Super PACs should not run television or radio or any type of media ads,” she said.
She called on Guinta to “sign an agreement with me next week” to:
- “Send out a joint press release that Super PAC money is not welcome in NH-01
- “Jointly publicly denounce any Super PACs that use the airwaves or any form of media ads to attack or support either of us and
- “Jointly sign a public statement to the offending Super PAC that it stop running the ads immediately.”
Shea-Porter said that she and Guinta “should work together to try to reduce the constant barrage of ads that offend NH-01 voters and try to reduce outside influence by Super PACs.”
Shea-Porter in January wrote an op-ed urging voters to “speak up” and “ask candidates if they will support legislation to take this kind of money out of politics.”
Republicans accused her of hypocrisy when, several days later, CREDO was unveiled and said it would be targeting Guinta in a program it called “Take Down the Tea Party Ten.”
CREDO campaign manager Matthew Arnold, in announcing the group's plans, said of Guinta and the others, “We're talking about some of the most odious members of Congress. Even for Republicans these guys are low.
“We're going to empower local activists to organize their friends and neighbors to lay out the truth about their representatives in the most basic terms,” Arnold added. “They are anti-woman. They are anti-science. They are hypocritical, bigoted, and have said and done things that are downright crazy.”
Zorfas of the Guinta campaign said of the CREDO criticisms, “It's a San Francisco-based organization and their political rhetoric is laughable.”
According to the Center for Responsive Politics' OpenSecrets.org, CREDO as of May 11 had raised about $2 million and spent $480,000 nationally. The conservative American Crossroads, by comparison, had raised $28 million and spent about $1 million so far, according to the CRP web site.
Shea-Porter said in an interview, “I don't care what (Super PACs on either side) do on the ground. Americans for Prosperity has been here a lot longer and has lots of boots on the ground.”
Americans for Prosperity is actually not a Super PAC. It is a 501 (c) (4) nonprofit that is engaged in “issues advocacy” and unlike Super PACS, is not required to disclose its donors, as Super PACs do.
“On the ground, you're talking to one, two or five people and you have to work it,” Shea-Porter said. “I'm not trying to prevent that.
“But when you go to the airwaves, and you have a hidden agenda, because people don't even know who it is or what it is and you reach out and you can talk to 100,000 people with a false message, an absolute falsehood, or you can swing it by virtue of people in other states who decide that a candidate is worth an investment.
“I would like to see it stay as much as possible a NH-01 election between two candidates who have different views,” said Shea-Porter, “but we're the ones who actually get to be heard about it.
“I'm asking all of them to stay off the air,” she said. “No advertising. If you can get your troops together and go out there and work it, OK. You can't stop that.
“But then people see who you are,” she said. “Let them be in New Hampshire and work in New Hampshire. Then that's cool.”
(An earlier update and the full May 10 Granite Status follow.)
THURSDAY, MAY 10, UPDATE: "A WINNING POSITION." State Democratic Party Chairman Raymond Buckley believes President Barack Obama's statement in favor of same-sex marriage was not politically motivated, but he said it will only help Obama politically in the Granite State.
But Wayne MacDonald, chairman of the state Republicans, said that while the position will probably help Obama shore up his base, it will have little impact in New Hampshire, a state which already has a same-sex marriage law on the books.
“Anyone who may be against the President because of his position on this was most likely against him before this, anyway,” said Buckley, who is also Democratic National Committee vice chair and the highest-ranking openly gay member of the DNC.
As a result, he said, the position won't cost Obama votes in New Hampshire, where, he noted, polls have shown that 60 percent of Granite Staters opposed repeal of the state's same-sex marriage law. New Hampshire is viewed as a key swing state in the general election.
“What it does do is excite young voters,” Buckley said. “This is an issue important to young people and it will help them become more involved and be more active in the campaign. But I don't think it was a political calculation.”
In a statement Wednesday, Buckley called Obama's statement “a watershed moment in this deeply important civil rights issue.”
MacDonald acknowledged there are divisions in the GOP on the issue, as illustrated by the vote on the same-sex marriage repeal bill.
“The focus from everyone I'm talking to continues to be on jobs and the economy. Regardless of how people fee about gay marriage, I think people will be focusing on the economy,” MacDonald said.
For most people, MacDonald said, same-sex marriage “will weigh somewhat, but it will be down the list.”
MacDonald said he was “a little surprised that the President came out so strongly in an election year. But he wants to solidify his base, and it is a strong position in the Democratic Party in that respect.”
(The full May 10 Granite Status follows.)
THURSDAY, MAY 10: JACK COMES BACK. Former state GOP Chairman Jack Kimball, now heading one of the largest Tea Party organizations in the state, will make his formal return to the GOP fold at its May 30 fundraiser featuring former Arkansas Gov. and 2008 presidential candidate Mike Huckabee.
Kimball credits newly elected party vice-chair Cliff Hurst with convincing him to attend the event, which will benefit a party establishment that includes many who virtually forced him to resign as party chair last summer.
Hurst, said Kimball in an email to the Granite Status, “is, and will be, the unifying figure in the GOP.”
Kimball resigned the party chairmanship last Sept. 1 as the party's executive committee was preparing to vote to remove him, after U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, U.S. Reps. Frank Guinta and Charlie Bass, as well as House Speaker Bill O'Brien and Senate President Peter Bragdon, called on him to step down.
The resignation was the culmination of a series of controversies that first focused on what some viewed as a lack of strong fundraising by the party under his leadership, although Kimball said he'd helped the party raise about $193,000.
Key State House special election losses and word that Kimball signed a petition to allow the Libertarian Party on the ballot in the 2012 election didn't help his cause. Some were also upset that Kimball fired Executive Director Will Wrobleski.
Earlier this year, Kimball returned to head the influential Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC, which he founded in 2009, and he has since been working to fire up the Tea Party troops to work for the GOP in November.
Kimball called Hurst “a man of the utmost integrity, and my respect for him, and what he is trying to accomplish, is one of the key factors for my decision” to allow the party to list him as an honorary dinner chair, along with 13 other former party chairs.
“Secondly,” wrote Kimball, “the stakes are way too high in this upcoming presidential and gubernatorial election for me not to stay involved and help get the voters motivated to come out in 2012, the same way they did in 2010.
“Everything else is secondary to these factors at this point in time,” he wrote. “I want all my supporters to know that, feelings aside, we are all Americans first and as Americans we have a duty to protect and defend our Constitution and this great Republic. To do that, we must vote for candidates that understand those issues and that means getting behind the GOP presidential nominee as well as a strong conservative gubernatorial candidate, who, for me, is Ovide Lamontagne.”
Whether Kimball's name on the dinner invitations and his presence at the party's biggest fundraiser in a long time is enough to convince rank-and-file Tea Party activists to get behind Mitt Romney, and the state party in general, remains to be seen. But for the state GOP leadership and the Romney team in New Hampshire, it's definitely better to have Jack Kimball with you than against you — or ambivalent toward you.
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“NOT GOING ANYWHERE.” State GOP Finance Chairman and former U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie says he has “no immediate plans” to step down from his party post, despite speculation that he'll leave after the May 30 fundraiser.
Yet, Binnie, in an interview, said that under his leadership the party's finances have rebounded and the finance committee is in good hands with a strong bench.
Binnie said the dinner and a golf tournament fundraiser scheduled for next Monday at his Wentworth-by-the-Sea Country Club are doing “exceptionally well.”
“When I took over as finance chair, we had literally $2,000 cash on hand and almost $200,000 in debt,” Binnie said. “Today, we have almost $125,000 in cash and pledges on hand and essentially no debt.”
Binnie said those numbers do not count the two fundraisers, which, he said, appear to be “sold-out affairs.”
Does this mean he feels he can leave the post?
“I can guarantee you that sometime after May 30 I will be stepping down as chair,” Binnie said, “whether it's in one month or 10 years. I don't know.
“If I step down on the first of June or the first of September or first of December, I can say I haven't thought about it today at all,” Binnie said.
“That doesn't preclude me from doing that, but I can honestly tell you I have made absolutely no decisions except to say jokingly and tongue-in-cheek that I know I'll be stepping down sometime after the 30th of May.”
Binnie said the party has a “full and active and vibrant finance committee” in place now.
“The party has never been healthier and (current NHGOP chair) Wayne MacDonald is doing a terrific job,” he said. “There really is a strong bench now and I'm really pleased with where we are.”
Binnie recently made a successful bid in a Chapter 11 auction of most of Nassau Broadcasting's New England radio stations. Partnering with veteran New England radio station owner Jeff Shapiro, the joint bid was $12.5 million, according to Radio-Info.com. Binnie also heads WBIN television in Derry.
If he does step down, will it be to focus on business and/or to mount a candidacy for governor?
Binnie said he continues to be asked to consider running, “and it's one of those things at the appropriate time I will think hard about. But right now, that's not the time.”
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DINNER CHAIRS. Honorary chairs for the Huckabee dinner are Ayotte, Guinta and Bass, along with MacDonald and former state chairs, in addition to Kimball, former Gov. John H. Sununu and former First Lady Nancy Sununu, Fergus Cullen, Wayne Semprini, Warren Henderson, Jayne Millerick, John Dowd, Steve Duprey, Rhona Charbonneau, John Stabile, Elsie Vartanian, former House speaker Donna Sytek and former Ambassador Gerald Carmen.
Sponsors so far are former Ambassador Joseph and Augusta Petrone, Executive Councilor Ray Wieczorek, activists Mike and Mar-Mar Rogers, former congressional candidate Rich Ashooh, former state Sen. Bob Clegg and former congressional aide Deb Vanderbeek.
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FORBES' ADVICE FOR MITT. Financial magazine publisher and former presidential candidate Steve Forbes was back in the state yesterday for the second time in a week, this time to promote Lamontagne for governor.
Forbes said he appreciated Lamontagne's “substance,” and said he has been involved in state primary races in other states as well.
He said he endorsed Tea Party candidate Richard Mourdock, who defeated Sen. Richard Lugar in Indiana, and Pat McCrory, who easily won the North Carolina gubernatorial GOP primary, both on Tuesday.
Forbes had endorsed Lamontagne in his close 2010 GOP Senate primary loss to Ayotte, but said yesterday that since Ayotte has been in Washington, she has shown “she gets it.”
As for speculation about Ayotte being Romney's running mate, Forbes said that in the next few months, “we'll get about 300 names, all the 'thank you's'” given “five minutes in the sun.”
Forbes backed Rick Perry for the nomination but said he's now behind Romney, who he predicted will win in November.
“The (nomination) process, messy that it was, was good,” said Forbes. “He is a much better candidate than he was four years ago or three months ago. He's had to come out with a real tax proposal, he got close to (U.S. Rep. Paul) Ryan on entitlement reform.
“He has started to defend free enterprise and he's going to have to learn to do it,” said Forbes. “If he can do it in a positive way, as Ronald Reagan did, he will win.”
Forbes said Romney and the Republicans will have enough money to wage a battle against Obama “one way or another.”
Super-PACs, he said, “are a way station to undoing the crazy campaign finance reforms of 1976 and onward, which tries to restrict how to get a message out.
“They should get rid of all the rules and regs and give what you want as long as it's on the Internet,” he said.
Forbes said U.S. Rep. Ron Paul's supporters “will go to the end” with their candidate, but Romney must “make some noises that he doesn't think it's good to trash the dollar.
“You can't go through Ron Paul to get to Ron Paul supporters. You go directly,” he said.
“If Romney tutors himself enough to at least make clear he does not like what the Fed is doing, and start to articulate that what (Federal Reserve Chairman Ben) Bernanke does to manipulate interest rates is actually profoundly counter-productive, especially with small businesses, that should bring most of the Ron Paul people on board or at least not push them to Obama.”
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WORKING THE GRASSROOTS. Veteran grassroots organizer Pat Morris of Manchester will be announced today as the third co-chair of Democratic gubernatorial candidate Maggie Hassan's grassroots committee.
Morris will focus on organizing support in Manchester and throughout Hillsborough County. She joins Chaz Proulx of Raymond and state Rep. Jennifer Daler of Temple in that key role.
Morris called Hassan the “real deal” and said she will appeal to people in Manchester and across the state.
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DEMS OPTIMISTIC. The decision by former state Democratic Party Chairman Jeff Woodburn to run for the District 1 state Senate seat is just one piece of a puzzle that has state Democratic leaders optimistic they can make inroads into the 19-5 Republican majority in the Senate in November.
Party Chair Raymond Buckley believes he has 11 seats well on their way to either remaining or turning blue and views 14 or more seats as a strong possibility.
In addition to the four returning Democratic incumbents — Molly Kelly, Lou D'Allesandro, Sylvia Larsen and Amanda Merrill — the party believes it can retain the District 5 seat, where Matthew Houde is leaving, with the winner of a potential primary between Claremont firefighter Brian Rapp and state Rep. David Pierce of Etna, who yesterday announced he filed paperwork to form a political committee to explore a run.
In District 4, the new Dover-based seat where Republican James Forsythe is not running again, Democrats think they have a good chance with the winner of a potential primary between state Reps. Dale Sprague of Somersworth and David Watters of Dover.
“Definite targets” for the party, which means they're seats viewed not as guaranteed but as strong possibilities, are District 1 with Woodburn, District 2 with former bank executive Bob Lamb, District 7 with Andrew Hosmer, District 13 with former Sen. Bette Lasky and District 18 with Donna Soucy.
The party also believes that Lee Nyquist of New Boston has the party's best opportunity in many years to win the newly reconfigured District 9 seat, and that former Sen. Peg Gilmour should not be counted out in her attempt to regain the District 12 seat.
Buckley is also pushing hard for a strong candidate to take on Jack Barnes in District 17 and is looking for candidates for districts 23 and 24, currently held by Republicans Russell Prescott and Nancy Stiles.
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SO IS THE GOP. On the Republican side, a candidate stepped forward yesterday to run for the District 6 seat being vacated by Fenton Groen.
State Rep. Peter Bolster, R-Alton, said he is most likely going to run. Rep. Sam Cataldo, R-Farmington, is also seriously considering a candidacy. Also said to be looking at it are Groen's brother, state Rep. Warren Groen, activist Gary Dworkin and state Rep. Susan DeLemus and her husband, Jerry DeLemus, all of Rochester.
Three Republicans are eyeing District 7 — activists Thomas Garfield and Josh Youssef as well as Laconia school board member Scott Vercon.
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WOMEN'S SUMMIT. Republican National Committeewoman Phyllis Woods has organized a Republican “Women's Summit” Saturday at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics.
The idea is to encourage women to consider running for office or at least become more active in the party.
Speakers include Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker, Vermont Republican National Committeewoman Susie Hudson, state Sen. Nancy Stiles and Reps. Laurie Sanborn, Regina Birdsell and Lynne Blankenbeker, Christine Peters of the Federation of Republican Women, former state GOP Executive Director Jen Wrobleski and media consultant Alicia Preston. Keynote speaker is Nashua Mayor Donnalee Lozeau.
The event is free but pre-registration is required.
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NEW MEDIA CONSULTANT. New Hampshire's Patrick Hynes has joined Romney's campaign as a new media consultant, according to various reports this week.
Hynes heads Hynes Communications, based in New Hampshire and Washington, D.C., and has worked on several campaigns over the years. He had been consulting for former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty prior to Pawlenty entering the 2012 GOP presidential race.
Hynes was recruited for the post by Romney's Deputy National Press Secretary Ryan Williams, the former spokesman for the state GOP, who worked with Hynes during the 2010 elections.
Williams said Hynes' employee Leonardo Alcivar will be full time on the Romney campaign, while Hynes will consult on “outreach to conservative media.”
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MORE NEW HAMPSHIRE TIES. More people with New Hampshire ties continue to play key roles in Romney's campaign.
The latest are Jill Neunaber and Danny O'Driscoll, who were deputy state directors of Romney's presidential primary effort.
Neunaber, who was also political director of Lamontagne's 2010 Senate campaign, was named state director of Romney's campaign in Iowa this week, while O'Driscoll is now Northeast political director.
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CAHILL ON BOARD. Now that his presidential candidate has dropped out of the race and endorsed Romney, businessman and former Executive Councilor Bill Cahill of Piermont has done the same.
The former New Hampshire Rick Santorum campaign co-chair said, “I worked hard for Rick but he has made a decision that he is going to endorse the presumptive candidate, so I'll also be there to do whatever I can.”
Cahill said he is also backing Lamontagne for governor, saying he respected Lamontagne's graciousness toward Ayotte after narrowly losing to her in 2010.
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QUICK TAKES:
-- Democratic 2nd District U.S. House candidate Ann McLane Kuster has once again earned the support of the Professional Fire Fighters of New Hampshire and the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades Council 35.
-- Republican 1st District U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta launched his campaign website, www.TeamGuinta.com, this week.
-- Conservative activist Jennifer Horn been named chair of the state GOP's platform committee, with co-vice chairs Franklin Mayor Ken Merrifield and party Area Vice-Chair Rob Kaspar.
John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso.
