Home » News » Politics » Granite Status
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.
Recent Granite Status
0
John DiStaso's Granite Status: NH Dems 'welcome' back Scott Brown with 'Desperado' web ad
0
John DiStaso's Granite Status: Equipment manufacturers hire prominent NH attorney to fight dealers 'bill of rights'
7
John DiStaso's Granite Status: Just who is looking to build a New Hampshire casino?
0
John DiStaso's Granite Status: Gabrielle Giffords' gun control advocacy group critical of Ayotte in new radio ad
2
Granite Status: Guinta visits Washington as he weighs 2014 options
July 11. 2012 3:38PM
John DiStaso's Granite Status: Key pick-up: Assistant House Majority Leader backs Republican Kevin Smith for governor
STRONG ENDORSEMENT FOR SMITH. The Granite Status has learned that GOP candidate for governor Kevin Smith has picked up the endorsement of influential state Rep. Steve Stepanek, a key member of the House Republican leadership.
Stepanek, now in his fourth term, is the assistant majority leader and chairman of the powerful House Way and Means Committee.
He also heads the House Republican Victory PAC, which raises money for campaigns aimed at keeping Republicans in the majority in the House.
Stepanek said he was impressed is by the specificity of Smith's economic plan.
“New Hampshire needs a governor who can hit the ground running and has a plan for moving the state forward. Kevin Smith is that person, hands down,” said Stepanek.
“Others in the race are long on rhetoric, but short on ideas for making a real impact for our state's small businesses and improving our economic climate,” Stepanek said.
Stepanek said Smith “will not simply administer government, but instead make government more efficient, more effective, and more responsive to our citizens and the small businesses that are so vital to our economy.”
He called Smith “a bold leader who isn't afraid to take a stand and make the tough decisions.
“I've seen it first-hand; when people see and speak to Kevin, they come away supporting him, because he stands out among his competition. Kevin is smart and very strong on the stump, and he's getting stronger everyday. There are few surprises in politics, but I think Kevin Smith is going to surprise a lot of people this year,” Stepanek said.
Smith called Stepanek “a proven leader in the New Hampshire House, and he's developed a strong reputation for being a problem solver and for getting things done. I appreciate his support in my campaign.”
Smith has now had several House committee chairs endorse his campaign, including House Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
TUESDAY, JULY 10, UPDATE: UNHAPPY JACK. Retiring state Sen. Jack Barnes says state Rep. John Reagan lied when he announced several weeks ago that Barnes had personally asked him to run for the District 17 seat Barnes is vacating after nine terms.
Reagan says Barnes is “changing his story” and that the senator did in fact ask him to seek the seat.
Barnes is livid that Reagan featured him -- and, he says, misrepresented his position -- on his campaign web site and in a press release.
Reagan said Tuesday he would pull down the Web page after an angry Barnes called him to complain.
But Reagan insisted that he did not lie about or in any way misrepresent what Barnes had told him.
Barnes, of Raymond, said he is endorsing neither Reagan, of Deerfield, nor Reagan's Republican primary opponent, Howard Pearl of Loudon, in the Sept. 11 primary. The winner of that primary will face Democrat Nancy Fraher of Chichester in November.
Barnes, 81, the state's senior state senator, told the Granite Status that when he decided in June not to run for a 10th term, he fulfilled a promise he had made several years ago to Reagan's wife, former State House lobbyist Elizabeth Murphy.
He said he telephoned Murphy last month even though she was at a hospice battling a form of cancer that took her life just last week.
Barnes said that when Reagan answered Murphy's telephone, “I told John I have decided not to run and if you want to run, then go ahead and do it.”
He said Reagan asked him if he was endorsing him, “and I said, 'I'm not going to give you an endorsement but you can work around the fact that I called you up to let you know.”
But Barnes maintained he did not endorse Reagan or ask Reagan to run.
At that point, Barnes left for a week-long Florida vacation.
Reagan then issued a press release saying, “Senator Barnes has announced his retirement and personally called upon Representative Reagan to be his successor.”
Barnes said Reagan did not call him to check whether the press release was accurate, which, Barnes said, would have been “common courtesy.”
Barnes said that on Monday night he met with Reagan opponent Pearl and Pearl's campaign consultant, veteran lobbyist Michael Dennehy, before both Pearl and Reagan spoke to a group of Raymond residents at a town selectman's meeting.
Barnes said he told them he was not endorsing either candidate and then said again at the open meeting, televised on a local television outlet, that he was not endorsing Reagan or Pearl.
Barnes became more upset Tuesday when he saw Reagan's campaign web site. It contained a “latest news” item that said:
“Jack Barnes, the longest serving Republican member of the Senate, has decided to retire, and he has asked House Health and Human Services Chair John Reagan of Deerfield to run for his seat.”
Reagan said he would remove the item from his site but did not retract the statement.
Reagan said that a day or two after Barnes initially called him at the hospice, “I called him back and said that I had to get something clear: 'Are you endorsing me?'
“And he said, 'This is what you can tell people -- that I personally asked you to run for this seat,' which is not an endorsement. But that's what I put in” his press release and on his Web site.
“Now what he's saying is that he told me only that the seat is open,” said Reagan. “But that's not what he said. He's changing his story.”
Barnes called Reagan's claim a “damned lie,” but used stronger language.
“I told him he could work around the fact that I called him,” said Barnes.
“I told him he'd better take that (stuff) off of the Internet or I'm going to call my lawyer,” Barnes continued. “And if he has it in his brochures he'd better throw his brochures away and print new ones.”
Barnes also called for “a written apology.”
Reagan blamed Dennehy for stirring the pot.
“When my primary opponent hired Mike Dennehy, this is when all this brouhaha started,” Reagan said. “All this was decided weeks ago, and nothing was said. Now Mike Dennehy's involved and he's got to Jack and he's got Jack all upset.”
But Barnes said the issue “has nothing to do with Mike Dennehy. You know me well enough to know lobbyists and other folks don't have any influence over me.”
Reagan said that when he heard Barnes say at the selectmen's meeting that he was not endorsing in the primary, he was not surprised, but “I was a little disappointed he drew that far back.
“I knew he didn't say, 'I endorse you,' so I didn't say that,” Reagan said.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
MONDAY, JULY 9, UPDATE: HUMPHREY BACKS OVIDE. We're back after a week away and have learned that former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey today joined fellow former Sens. Judd Gregg and Bob Smith in endorsing Ovide Lamontagne for governor.
Humphrey, though mostly out of the public eye in recent years, is still regarded as a key conservative leader with Tea Party ties.
Gregg and Smith endorsed Lamontagne in May
Humphrey also backed Lamontagne for the U.S. Senate in 2010, when Lamontagne narrowly lost in a primary to current Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
Humphrey called Lamontagne “a conservative champion and a defender of freedom and liberty, whose honor and integrity are well known.”
Lamontagne is a “tell-it-like-it-is” and trustworthy leader, Humphrey said.
Humphrey served in the Senate from 1979 to 1990, where he developed a reputation as a tight-fisted fiscal conservative. He later served in the state Senate -- the only former U.S. senator to do so -- and was the GOP nominee for governor in 2000, losing to Jeanne Shaheen.
Lamontagne thanked Humphrey and commended his “principled stands for balanced budgets and smaller government.”
MONDAY, JULY 9, UPDATE: FIRST ON THE AIR. Kevin Smith, Lamontagne's rival for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, today became the first candidate for any New Hampshire office to air television advertising.
The 30-second ad, titled “Commute,” has Smith,” highlights Smith's economic plan.
He also takes a shot at his opponents, who he does not name in the ad, saying they “only offer empty rhetoric” while he offers “bold new leadership.”
“Over the past several months, people have noticed that I'm the one candidate in this race with a detailed plan for making New Hampshire both more economically competitive and a magnet for good-paying jobs,” said Smith in a statement. “Support for my campaign is growing, because voters are choosing substance over rhetoric, and principles over platitudes.
“Voters want bold, new leadership, not the go-along-to-get-along politics that gets us nowhere,” Smith says.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
THURSDAY, JUNE 28: BALLOT, YES; COLUMN, NO. Secretary of State Bill Gardner says the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire will have its candidates on the November ballot, but not in its own separate column, as the Republican and Democratic parties will.
Gardner said it will be no different than two years ago, when candidates of the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and other parties shares a column marked “Other.”
A story this week on the Ballot Access News website said Gardner has “decided” not to give the LPNH its own party column on the ballot, “even if it successfully qualifies.”
The story says that according to a 2011 federal appeals court ruling, a group can qualify as a “political organization” in New Hampshire and be entitled to its own column on the ballot if its gubernatorial or U.S. Senate candidate received at least 4 percent of the votes in the prior general election or if the party submits a petition containing a number of signatures equal to 3 percent of the total number of votes cast in the previous election.
The story said the LPNH is “mostly finished” with its petition and “expects its petition to succeed.”
An official of the LPNH did not respond to our request for comment, but Gardner told us this week that the LPNH has not qualified for its own column on the ballot since the mid-1990s.
He said it won't qualify this year, either, because the 4 percent threshold was not reached in 2010 by its candidate for governor or the U.S. Senate.
Gardner said submitting 13,842 signatures, or 3 percent of the 461,423 ballots cast in 2010, does not in fact automatically entitle a group to a separate column on the ballot.
He said it entitled the Libertarians to be able to submit their own slate of candidates without each candidate needing to submit 3,000 signatures of his or her own to get on the ballot.
Ballot Access News charged that denying the Libertarians its own party column, “certainly violates the spirit” of a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that banned as unconstitutional any discrimination in ballot placement. Gardner said, however, that a state law since passed says a party with only a partial slate of candidates can share a column on the ballot with other parties.
LOTS OF CANDIDATES, LOTS OF INTEREST. Gardner reported 1,501 Republican and Democratic candidates on the Sept. 11 primary ballot, the most since 1982.
He said 439 Republicans and 379 Democrats filed for the New Hampshire House, 53 Republicans and 37 Democrats are running for the state Senate, Executive Council, the U.S. House and governor, while 85 Republicans and 52 Democrats have filed for county offices.
In addition, he said , 456 Republicans are running for delegate posts to the GOP state convention, the most since 1986. Democrats do not choose their convention delegates in the primary election.
Gardner said that aside from the GOP delegate candidates, 1,045 names will appear on the ballot, “the most that I have records for going back over 30 years.”
He said that the 1,501 number compares to 1,377 in 2010; 1,300 in 2008; 1,243 in 2006; and 1,242 in 2002.
Gardner said it shows that while apathy may be on the rise in other states, that's certainly not the case in New Hampshire.
CONSERVATIVE ENDORSEMENT. The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire this week endorsed 21 new candidates for office in New Hampshire.
The RLCNH said the endorsements are based on the results of a first round of candidate surveys.
The group said that in 2010, 107 of the candidates it endorsed were elected to office, “and those endorsed Republicans have led the restorative, common sense changes desperately needed after years of wasteful Democratic spending and the resultant taxes and fees that left the economy in shambles.”
The survey covers economic, social and liberty-oriented issues.
The endorsed candidates for the state Senate are Cynthia Coolidge Howard in District 5; Phyllis Woods in District 4; and Joshua F. Youssef in District 7.
The endorsed candidates for the House are Omer Beaudoin in Manchester; Robert Boyle, Kyle Scofield and Tracy Emerick in Rockingham County; Kenneth A. Deshaies and Kevin Leandro in Belknap County; Joe Frazier and Robert Hill in Grafton County; Doris Hohensee and Greg Surbey in Nashua; Antonio Luciani in Farmington; Richard Meaney in Goffstown; Susan Olsen and Brandon Ross in Merrimack County; Steven Smith and Bill Walker in Sullivan County; Christopher Suprock in Exeter; and Kurt Wuelper in Strafford County.
BRICKLAYERS FOR JACKIE. Democratic candidate for governor Jackie Cilley this week picked up her fifth union endorsement.
The Bricklayers and Allied Craftsman, Local No. 3, field representative Michael Sara said Cilley “has been an advocate for construction workers since her first days in the House.”
Cilley also made a strong hire in former New Hampshire Freedom to Marry executive director Mo Baxley, who will be the field director of Cilley's campaign.
HOUSE GOP FUNDRAISER. The House Republican Victory PAC will have a fundraiser featuring Wall Street Journal columnist and CNBC commentator Stephen Moore next month.
The continental breakfast will be held on July 10 at 8 a.m. at Murphy's Diner in Manchester.
COFFEE WITH CHARLIE. Cheshire County activists are holding a coffee with U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass at the home of Edward and Mabel Bergeron of Chesterfield Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets for the fundraiser are $50.
MEDIA TEAM. Ovide Lamontagne's campaign has hired The Tarrance Group as its pollster and Sandler-Innocenzi as its media and advertising consultant.
The Washington-based Tarrance Group is well-known in political circles. Among those it has worked for are Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio, as well as Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, John Kasich of Ohio, Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Rick Snyder of Michigan. It also recently worked with Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
The company's work with Bass' campaign in 2010 resulted in it being mentioned in a civil suit filed by the Attorney General's Office against the Bass Victory Committee in April. It charged the victory committee (not the Tarrance Group) violated the state's push-polling statute in that election.
Although the Tarrance Group is not the defendant in the suit, the attorney general's petition says it prepared the script of the push poll in question.
The AG said that when it first subpoenaed the Bass committee for all correspondence between the committee and the Tarrance Group, the committee told the AG that it could not locate any correspondence between the two.
The attorney general said in its suit that after “further investigation,” it issued a second subpoena to the Bass committee specifically requesting “all communications” between the Bass campaign and the Tarrance Group relating to the polling calls made in 2010.
At that point, the AG said in its suit, Bass' campaign provided it with “over 500 pages of e-mail records, including drafts of the script and numerous e-mail communications between employees and agents of the Bass Committee and the Tarrance Group.
The suit is currently pending as Bass and the attorney general's office argue over whether it should be heard in state or federal court.
Sandler-Innocenzi (which has nothing to do with the push-polling suit) worked with Lamontagne in his U.S. Senate campaign in 2010 and his gubernatorial campaign in 1996, when he won the GOP nomination, but lost in the general election to Jeanne Shaheen.
It also worked for candidate for governor Jim Rubens in 1998, and in 2000, it designed an ad for a group affiliated with the Republican National Committee. The ad was critical of Shaheen .
Much more recently, the company has worked for Governors Dave Heineman of Nebraska and Butch Otter of Indiana as well as U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney and John Mica of Florida, Mike Turner of Ohio, Steve Buyer of Indiana and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and former Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida.
THOMSON'S PLEDGE REDUX. Long-time anti-taxer and Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire chairman Tom Thomson was expected to roll out his “Pledge to the New Hampshire Citizens” at yesterday's legislative session for candidates to sign.
The pledge says that as a candidate, “I will work tirelessly” to cut taxes, spending and the size of government, support right-to-work legislation and “uphold and protect both the New Hampshire and United States constitutions.”
CAROLINE'S VISIT CONTINUES. Caroline Kennedy's scheduled two-day visit to New Hampshire to campaign for President Barack Obama continues today with a visit to Hart's Turkey Farm in Meredith.
John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. He can be reached at jdistaso@unionleader.com. Twitter: @jdistaso.
Stepanek, now in his fourth term, is the assistant majority leader and chairman of the powerful House Way and Means Committee.
He also heads the House Republican Victory PAC, which raises money for campaigns aimed at keeping Republicans in the majority in the House.
Stepanek said he was impressed is by the specificity of Smith's economic plan.
“New Hampshire needs a governor who can hit the ground running and has a plan for moving the state forward. Kevin Smith is that person, hands down,” said Stepanek.
“Others in the race are long on rhetoric, but short on ideas for making a real impact for our state's small businesses and improving our economic climate,” Stepanek said.
Stepanek said Smith “will not simply administer government, but instead make government more efficient, more effective, and more responsive to our citizens and the small businesses that are so vital to our economy.”
He called Smith “a bold leader who isn't afraid to take a stand and make the tough decisions.
“I've seen it first-hand; when people see and speak to Kevin, they come away supporting him, because he stands out among his competition. Kevin is smart and very strong on the stump, and he's getting stronger everyday. There are few surprises in politics, but I think Kevin Smith is going to surprise a lot of people this year,” Stepanek said.
Smith called Stepanek “a proven leader in the New Hampshire House, and he's developed a strong reputation for being a problem solver and for getting things done. I appreciate his support in my campaign.”
Smith has now had several House committee chairs endorse his campaign, including House Finance Committee Chairman Kenneth Weyler, R-Kingston.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
TUESDAY, JULY 10, UPDATE: UNHAPPY JACK. Retiring state Sen. Jack Barnes says state Rep. John Reagan lied when he announced several weeks ago that Barnes had personally asked him to run for the District 17 seat Barnes is vacating after nine terms.
Reagan says Barnes is “changing his story” and that the senator did in fact ask him to seek the seat.
Barnes is livid that Reagan featured him -- and, he says, misrepresented his position -- on his campaign web site and in a press release.
Reagan said Tuesday he would pull down the Web page after an angry Barnes called him to complain.
But Reagan insisted that he did not lie about or in any way misrepresent what Barnes had told him.
Barnes, of Raymond, said he is endorsing neither Reagan, of Deerfield, nor Reagan's Republican primary opponent, Howard Pearl of Loudon, in the Sept. 11 primary. The winner of that primary will face Democrat Nancy Fraher of Chichester in November.
Barnes, 81, the state's senior state senator, told the Granite Status that when he decided in June not to run for a 10th term, he fulfilled a promise he had made several years ago to Reagan's wife, former State House lobbyist Elizabeth Murphy.
He said he telephoned Murphy last month even though she was at a hospice battling a form of cancer that took her life just last week.
Barnes said that when Reagan answered Murphy's telephone, “I told John I have decided not to run and if you want to run, then go ahead and do it.”
He said Reagan asked him if he was endorsing him, “and I said, 'I'm not going to give you an endorsement but you can work around the fact that I called you up to let you know.”
But Barnes maintained he did not endorse Reagan or ask Reagan to run.
At that point, Barnes left for a week-long Florida vacation.
Reagan then issued a press release saying, “Senator Barnes has announced his retirement and personally called upon Representative Reagan to be his successor.”
Barnes said Reagan did not call him to check whether the press release was accurate, which, Barnes said, would have been “common courtesy.”
Barnes said that on Monday night he met with Reagan opponent Pearl and Pearl's campaign consultant, veteran lobbyist Michael Dennehy, before both Pearl and Reagan spoke to a group of Raymond residents at a town selectman's meeting.
Barnes said he told them he was not endorsing either candidate and then said again at the open meeting, televised on a local television outlet, that he was not endorsing Reagan or Pearl.
Barnes became more upset Tuesday when he saw Reagan's campaign web site. It contained a “latest news” item that said:
“Jack Barnes, the longest serving Republican member of the Senate, has decided to retire, and he has asked House Health and Human Services Chair John Reagan of Deerfield to run for his seat.”
Reagan said he would remove the item from his site but did not retract the statement.
Reagan said that a day or two after Barnes initially called him at the hospice, “I called him back and said that I had to get something clear: 'Are you endorsing me?'
“And he said, 'This is what you can tell people -- that I personally asked you to run for this seat,' which is not an endorsement. But that's what I put in” his press release and on his Web site.
“Now what he's saying is that he told me only that the seat is open,” said Reagan. “But that's not what he said. He's changing his story.”
Barnes called Reagan's claim a “damned lie,” but used stronger language.
“I told him he could work around the fact that I called him,” said Barnes.
“I told him he'd better take that (stuff) off of the Internet or I'm going to call my lawyer,” Barnes continued. “And if he has it in his brochures he'd better throw his brochures away and print new ones.”
Barnes also called for “a written apology.”
Reagan blamed Dennehy for stirring the pot.
“When my primary opponent hired Mike Dennehy, this is when all this brouhaha started,” Reagan said. “All this was decided weeks ago, and nothing was said. Now Mike Dennehy's involved and he's got to Jack and he's got Jack all upset.”
But Barnes said the issue “has nothing to do with Mike Dennehy. You know me well enough to know lobbyists and other folks don't have any influence over me.”
Reagan said that when he heard Barnes say at the selectmen's meeting that he was not endorsing in the primary, he was not surprised, but “I was a little disappointed he drew that far back.
“I knew he didn't say, 'I endorse you,' so I didn't say that,” Reagan said.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
MONDAY, JULY 9, UPDATE: HUMPHREY BACKS OVIDE. We're back after a week away and have learned that former U.S. Sen. Gordon Humphrey today joined fellow former Sens. Judd Gregg and Bob Smith in endorsing Ovide Lamontagne for governor.
Humphrey, though mostly out of the public eye in recent years, is still regarded as a key conservative leader with Tea Party ties.
Gregg and Smith endorsed Lamontagne in May
Humphrey also backed Lamontagne for the U.S. Senate in 2010, when Lamontagne narrowly lost in a primary to current Sen. Kelly Ayotte.
Humphrey called Lamontagne “a conservative champion and a defender of freedom and liberty, whose honor and integrity are well known.”
Lamontagne is a “tell-it-like-it-is” and trustworthy leader, Humphrey said.
Humphrey served in the Senate from 1979 to 1990, where he developed a reputation as a tight-fisted fiscal conservative. He later served in the state Senate -- the only former U.S. senator to do so -- and was the GOP nominee for governor in 2000, losing to Jeanne Shaheen.
Lamontagne thanked Humphrey and commended his “principled stands for balanced budgets and smaller government.”
MONDAY, JULY 9, UPDATE: FIRST ON THE AIR. Kevin Smith, Lamontagne's rival for the GOP gubernatorial nomination, today became the first candidate for any New Hampshire office to air television advertising.
The 30-second ad, titled “Commute,” has Smith,” highlights Smith's economic plan.
He also takes a shot at his opponents, who he does not name in the ad, saying they “only offer empty rhetoric” while he offers “bold new leadership.”
“Over the past several months, people have noticed that I'm the one candidate in this race with a detailed plan for making New Hampshire both more economically competitive and a magnet for good-paying jobs,” said Smith in a statement. “Support for my campaign is growing, because voters are choosing substance over rhetoric, and principles over platitudes.
“Voters want bold, new leadership, not the go-along-to-get-along politics that gets us nowhere,” Smith says.
(Earlier Granite Status reports follow.)
THURSDAY, JUNE 28: BALLOT, YES; COLUMN, NO. Secretary of State Bill Gardner says the Libertarian Party of New Hampshire will have its candidates on the November ballot, but not in its own separate column, as the Republican and Democratic parties will.
Gardner said it will be no different than two years ago, when candidates of the Libertarian Party, the Green Party, and other parties shares a column marked “Other.”
A story this week on the Ballot Access News website said Gardner has “decided” not to give the LPNH its own party column on the ballot, “even if it successfully qualifies.”
The story says that according to a 2011 federal appeals court ruling, a group can qualify as a “political organization” in New Hampshire and be entitled to its own column on the ballot if its gubernatorial or U.S. Senate candidate received at least 4 percent of the votes in the prior general election or if the party submits a petition containing a number of signatures equal to 3 percent of the total number of votes cast in the previous election.
The story said the LPNH is “mostly finished” with its petition and “expects its petition to succeed.”
An official of the LPNH did not respond to our request for comment, but Gardner told us this week that the LPNH has not qualified for its own column on the ballot since the mid-1990s.
He said it won't qualify this year, either, because the 4 percent threshold was not reached in 2010 by its candidate for governor or the U.S. Senate.
Gardner said submitting 13,842 signatures, or 3 percent of the 461,423 ballots cast in 2010, does not in fact automatically entitle a group to a separate column on the ballot.
He said it entitled the Libertarians to be able to submit their own slate of candidates without each candidate needing to submit 3,000 signatures of his or her own to get on the ballot.
Ballot Access News charged that denying the Libertarians its own party column, “certainly violates the spirit” of a 2006 state Supreme Court decision that banned as unconstitutional any discrimination in ballot placement. Gardner said, however, that a state law since passed says a party with only a partial slate of candidates can share a column on the ballot with other parties.
- - - - - - - -
LOTS OF CANDIDATES, LOTS OF INTEREST. Gardner reported 1,501 Republican and Democratic candidates on the Sept. 11 primary ballot, the most since 1982.
He said 439 Republicans and 379 Democrats filed for the New Hampshire House, 53 Republicans and 37 Democrats are running for the state Senate, Executive Council, the U.S. House and governor, while 85 Republicans and 52 Democrats have filed for county offices.
In addition, he said , 456 Republicans are running for delegate posts to the GOP state convention, the most since 1986. Democrats do not choose their convention delegates in the primary election.
Gardner said that aside from the GOP delegate candidates, 1,045 names will appear on the ballot, “the most that I have records for going back over 30 years.”
He said that the 1,501 number compares to 1,377 in 2010; 1,300 in 2008; 1,243 in 2006; and 1,242 in 2002.
Gardner said it shows that while apathy may be on the rise in other states, that's certainly not the case in New Hampshire.
- - - - - - - -
CONSERVATIVE ENDORSEMENT. The Republican Liberty Caucus of New Hampshire this week endorsed 21 new candidates for office in New Hampshire.
The RLCNH said the endorsements are based on the results of a first round of candidate surveys.
The group said that in 2010, 107 of the candidates it endorsed were elected to office, “and those endorsed Republicans have led the restorative, common sense changes desperately needed after years of wasteful Democratic spending and the resultant taxes and fees that left the economy in shambles.”
The survey covers economic, social and liberty-oriented issues.
The endorsed candidates for the state Senate are Cynthia Coolidge Howard in District 5; Phyllis Woods in District 4; and Joshua F. Youssef in District 7.
The endorsed candidates for the House are Omer Beaudoin in Manchester; Robert Boyle, Kyle Scofield and Tracy Emerick in Rockingham County; Kenneth A. Deshaies and Kevin Leandro in Belknap County; Joe Frazier and Robert Hill in Grafton County; Doris Hohensee and Greg Surbey in Nashua; Antonio Luciani in Farmington; Richard Meaney in Goffstown; Susan Olsen and Brandon Ross in Merrimack County; Steven Smith and Bill Walker in Sullivan County; Christopher Suprock in Exeter; and Kurt Wuelper in Strafford County.
- - - - - - - -
BRICKLAYERS FOR JACKIE. Democratic candidate for governor Jackie Cilley this week picked up her fifth union endorsement.
The Bricklayers and Allied Craftsman, Local No. 3, field representative Michael Sara said Cilley “has been an advocate for construction workers since her first days in the House.”
Cilley also made a strong hire in former New Hampshire Freedom to Marry executive director Mo Baxley, who will be the field director of Cilley's campaign.
- - - - - - - -
HOUSE GOP FUNDRAISER. The House Republican Victory PAC will have a fundraiser featuring Wall Street Journal columnist and CNBC commentator Stephen Moore next month.
The continental breakfast will be held on July 10 at 8 a.m. at Murphy's Diner in Manchester.
- - - - - - - -
COFFEE WITH CHARLIE. Cheshire County activists are holding a coffee with U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass at the home of Edward and Mabel Bergeron of Chesterfield Friday at 5:30 p.m.
Tickets for the fundraiser are $50.
- - - - - - - -
MEDIA TEAM. Ovide Lamontagne's campaign has hired The Tarrance Group as its pollster and Sandler-Innocenzi as its media and advertising consultant.
The Washington-based Tarrance Group is well-known in political circles. Among those it has worked for are Senators Kelly Ayotte of New Hampshire and Rob Portman of Ohio, as well as Governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, John Kasich of Ohio, Brian Sandoval of Nevada and Rick Snyder of Michigan. It also recently worked with Scott Walker in Wisconsin.
The company's work with Bass' campaign in 2010 resulted in it being mentioned in a civil suit filed by the Attorney General's Office against the Bass Victory Committee in April. It charged the victory committee (not the Tarrance Group) violated the state's push-polling statute in that election.
Although the Tarrance Group is not the defendant in the suit, the attorney general's petition says it prepared the script of the push poll in question.
The AG said that when it first subpoenaed the Bass committee for all correspondence between the committee and the Tarrance Group, the committee told the AG that it could not locate any correspondence between the two.
The attorney general said in its suit that after “further investigation,” it issued a second subpoena to the Bass committee specifically requesting “all communications” between the Bass campaign and the Tarrance Group relating to the polling calls made in 2010.
At that point, the AG said in its suit, Bass' campaign provided it with “over 500 pages of e-mail records, including drafts of the script and numerous e-mail communications between employees and agents of the Bass Committee and the Tarrance Group.
The suit is currently pending as Bass and the attorney general's office argue over whether it should be heard in state or federal court.
Sandler-Innocenzi (which has nothing to do with the push-polling suit) worked with Lamontagne in his U.S. Senate campaign in 2010 and his gubernatorial campaign in 1996, when he won the GOP nomination, but lost in the general election to Jeanne Shaheen.
It also worked for candidate for governor Jim Rubens in 1998, and in 2000, it designed an ad for a group affiliated with the Republican National Committee. The ad was critical of Shaheen .
Much more recently, the company has worked for Governors Dave Heineman of Nebraska and Butch Otter of Indiana as well as U.S. Reps. Tom Rooney and John Mica of Florida, Mike Turner of Ohio, Steve Buyer of Indiana and Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and former Rep. Adam Putnam of Florida.
- - - - - - - -
THOMSON'S PLEDGE REDUX. Long-time anti-taxer and Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire chairman Tom Thomson was expected to roll out his “Pledge to the New Hampshire Citizens” at yesterday's legislative session for candidates to sign.
The pledge says that as a candidate, “I will work tirelessly” to cut taxes, spending and the size of government, support right-to-work legislation and “uphold and protect both the New Hampshire and United States constitutions.”
- - - - - - - -
CAROLINE'S VISIT CONTINUES. Caroline Kennedy's scheduled two-day visit to New Hampshire to campaign for President Barack Obama continues today with a visit to Hart's Turkey Farm in Meredith.
- - - - - - - -
John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News. He can be reached at jdistaso@unionleader.com. Twitter: @jdistaso.
