I Beg To Differ - Granite Grok

I Beg To Differ

 

An editorial in this morning’s UL attempts to suggest the voting results demonstrate a unique character to New Hampshire’s electorate but it makes some assumptions that to me seem a bit naive

That’s not to say the premise is wholly wrong, just that anyone who was really paying attention to the finer details during the primary would not have been fooled.

In the case of the Senate race, Binnie and Ayotte were what made it a two-candidate race.  In the end, however Binnie fell off a cliff, but he went over that cliff two weeks before the primary so his demise was neither surprising nor indicative of anything except his own self-immolation on the fiery altar of negative politics.

The second example, the outcome of CD-1, is predicated on a false premise that Mahoney was ever the number two guy.  But I provided plenty of evidence that this was all a media fabrication by the campaign’s communications apparatus–including a phony poll that showed him leading in the last two weeks by well paid and politically motivated Mahoney insiders.  It was simply a well-orchestrated political tactic–and that’s fine for what it’s worth–but it’s only successful if you refuse to look past the shiny paper and the crap underneath it.  But the news is news is news and a media with a potential bias against Guinta picked it up and repeated the myth despite evidence that there was never any financial or grassroots foundations on which to support the kind of significant support for Sean that the poll needed to be taken seriously.

Ashooh was always a bigger threat, having a well connected political family with a history of influence and charity in the state, and the savvy of a lobbyist.  Could we have expected it to be that close a race?  Probably not, but then why not?  These guys are all decent candidates.  But I don’t see any evidence that New Hampshire again failed to conform to some outside political narrative because if that were really the case we’d have never elected (and re-elected) John Lynch and accepted a majority democrat state house based on promises of rainbows and sunshine from a party whose policy toolbox is as hollow as their rhetoric.

Of course, there is one New Hampshire tradition I would like to see confounded–the one where losers take their toys and go home and hope the winner is fried by the democrat.  Early evidence is that there is a committed effort to come together and give the party a win no matter who was victorious in the primary.  But until I see boots on the ground, and checks in the campaign coffers, please don’t be offended if I maintain a healthy skepticism.

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