At the last Belknap County Republican Committee meeting, former Governor John H. Sununu came to speak to the group as he has now cast his hat in the running for the Chair of the NH GOP. With that spin of the brim, it seems that all of the others who were contemplating running have pulled out, leaving a clear path for the Gov. Still, it was a chance for me to hear him speak (as he was "before my time" – before I became more fully aware of the politics swirling around me and my family) and get a glimpse of what he would be doing.
He spoke well (you can watch the video here,) and did allow for a Q&A. I did have the chance to ask a question (at about 49:18 during the meeting). My question was "One of my favorite questions is what is the proper role of government? I guess I am going to try to apply that principle to the Chairmanship; my question is what is the top 5 priorities that you see that you have to do as Chair if you are indeed elected?
I appreciated the fact that he quickly answered that when you have too many priorities, you have no priorities. Five is too many; he has three:
- Organize the Party so that there are comfort zones for all different groups but no battle lines between them.
- Help articulate, define, and get out the message of the difference between the Republican Party and the Republican Party.
- To raise the money and do the work to communicate in such a way that we win the elections we have to win.
My question also included "How?" His answer?
"The power of the benevolent dictator "
Which did get a laugh from the crowd and he then quickly moved onto another questioner. The problem that I have with his answer is that is can be taken in many different ways:
- What can I think of quickly to avoid answering the question but get a laugh and allow me to move on?
- Haven’t figured it out – see number 1
- The answer is too complicated for this setting – see number 1
- He’s not ready to tip his hand just yet – once again, see number 1
- He actually expects that when he gives an order, everyone will jump to carry it out (don’t need a number 1 – jokes on us).
I rather doubt the last one, but the use of the word "dictator" does give rise to that usage, doesn’t it?
Don’t get me wrong – I did accept a lot of what he’s saying. Given the financial mismanagement that the Democrats have wreaked upon NH since taking completely over, the NH Advantage is very much at risk. And I agree that Republicans have not had the discipline or the courage to espouse Republican philosophies or policies to the general public (I’ll leave the other two points for another time).
Methinks, however, that the former Gov is probably going to have a lot on his hands to carry out his three principles. For instance…
…let’s take the local County Republicans to task again for lack of media awareness and the pounding that Liberals give Republicans day in and day out. Regular readers of this blog know that we have two "major" dailies, a grouping of weeklies for many of the areas of the Lakes Region, and two competing conservative radio shows on Saturdays (one being, obviously, Your’s Truly on Meet The New Press).
To counter this in advance of the elections and to try to "shape the battlefield", I had proposed a "media response team" to any Democrat leaning Letters To The Editor (the local Dems have done quite well in doing just that) to the local County Chair, Frank Tilton; I had even formally written up a proposal of staffing and duties so as not put a heavy burden on just a few people. The Laconia Town Chair, Tom Brown, basically said that he already had people in place to do just that…..long story short, nothing ever happened.
In that same vein, getting the message out, the only person who did so with any regularity was a Mr. Ewing from Meredith. My hat tip goes to him as not ONE Republican candidate bothered to comment on the Republican message except for the obligatory "Vote for me as I’m a Republican" – and not all even did that. Meanwhile, Democrat after Democrat sent in letter after letter (and oh, by the way, they picked up more seats locally and captured a County Commissioner seat).
I finally got enough people interested in getting a County Republican website up and running here. Well, go on over and see how many Republicans decided to take advantage of being able to post their thoughts up onto the intertubes – even after I offered to train people or post their stuff up for them.
Oh, remember the Recountings from the County – the Ambush edition? I talked with Steve Nedeau after Gov. Sununu spoke at the meeting. During the conversation, I let him know how unhappy I was with the refusal of Republicans to use the media to reach the general public and I gave him two specific examples.
The first was concerning the local Republican "rah-rah" fundraiser in the fall, this year held at County owned Gunstock Resort area. At that time, Frank Tilton sarcastically asked "why don’t you do a remote from the Picnic?" (I was supporting his opponent in the primary for County Commissioner). My response was "hey, if the County Republicans want to help defray part of my cost doing the remote, I’ll even add a third hour and I’ll make sure to give air time and interview each and every Republican that is running for office here in the County.
Needless to say, Steve was shocked what I told him about this – he had never heard this (frankly, I never had bothered to tell anyone else other than Doug) as Frank never brought up the opportunity to anyone else in the County leadership.
Then, as happenchance seemed to work, Tom Brown (Laconia Town Chair) walked up as I was in full stride, so I took advantage of that situation. "Steve", I said, "did you know that I offered to host a radio debate between Frank and Tom on the Republican side and their Democrat counterparts to contrast our political beliefs with theirs, to show the public why ours are better? And that I was shown such respect for doing so that my emails to Frank and Tom weren’t even acknowledged? That the opportunity, a free opportunity, was just thrown away – what a waste!"?
Yeah, Steve just looked at me like I had hit him with a bat – not word one had filtered out from either the County or Laconia Chair. Tom sputtered something about the Dems weren’t running and that they’d have said almost anything. I thanked him for the lack of respect (in a rather pointed manner) and also corrected him that the Belknap County Dem Chair WAS running for office and also pointed out that both Doug and I (probably the two most conservative and outspoken Republicans in the County) would be in studio and would not allow any shenanigans to happen.
I was also quite politically incorrect – I then pointed out that Tom was too scared to come on MTNP because the rigor mortis conservative that runs the other show would never allow him to come back on if he DARED to come on ours (we are personna non-grata with Neil Young – but that will be fodder for another yet another post) as to why Governor Sununu is going to have his hands full.
So why all this? Well, if the Belknap County Republicans have this many problems (an many more yet to be documented), what do the other Counties (and therefore, the State) have that will have to be patched up?
Oh, another result of that meeting? I resigned from being the Gilford Town Chair. Why bother? And after this post, it probably will be a very interesting meeting….
