Cryans Concedes - Joe Kenney Wins Executive Council District One - Granite Grok

Cryans Concedes – Joe Kenney Wins Executive Council District One

Cryans Concedes

“A few minutes ago, I left a message for Joe Kenney and wished him the best of luck on the council,” Cryans said in a written statement. “I want to thank him for running a hard-fought campaign, thank all the people who volunteered and supported either of us, and the Burton family for their support.”

James Pindell provides some takeaway on this and another important election in Florida…(this is cut and paste, any errors are his, not mine.)

On Tuesday there were two closely watched elections. In one, a reportedly flawed Republican candidate beat a wealthy Democrat for a Florida Congressional seat. The Republican based his entire campaign on opposing Obamacare, while the Democrat tested a new lines about being bi-partisan and willing to get things done. Given the the messages and the swing district nature of the seat there, it might make sense to suggest compare it to this fall’s elections.

You cannot make these same comparisons to the other race closely watched: New Hampshire’s special election for Executive Council in District 1. Not only were the results to close to serve as a mandate for anything, but it was also an election not really about any particular issue other than turnout. And when turnout is less than 40,000 and with the added dynamics of it being town meeting day, it is hard to even say what voters were saying.

Here’s my takeaway…

While the final reports have yet to be filed as of Feb 19th Cryans reported to the Sec-o-State as having received $108,900.00 and change in donations; of that he had spent $28,973.00.

Between the Feb 19 filing and the March 5th filing, Cryans “total raised” increased to $135,164.00 and total spent to $80,948.83.

Joe Kenney’s Feb 19 filing shows$ 68,971.00 rasied and $24,946.00 spent; his March 5 filing shows total receipts at 78,831.00 and expenditures at 38,729.00.  (Joe was his own biggest contributor.)

Without seeing the last filings we know that Cryans outraised Kenney by $30,000.00, and outspent him by $43,000.00, with Democrats (probably) putting up close to $100,000.00 total for Cryans and losing.

But to Pindell’s point, you could argue that it is inconclusive.  You could also argue that special elections have not been going the NH-GOP’s way, even in the wake of the misery and lies of the Obama Administration.  But when given the opportunity to vote for a Conservative (with a history of bucking the state establishment), Republican voters turned out enough numbers to win a close election, something the NH-GOP has been unable to do, except in 2010 when the TEA Party was their friend instead of their enemy.

Note: It would have been nice to see a few more Sununu’s on Joe’s donor list.  Executive Councilor Chris Sununu was the only one I found.  Charlie Bass made a contribution in the final weeks.

 

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