While We're Asking Questions About Dan Innis - Granite Grok

While We’re Asking Questions About Dan Innis

Bucket Of MoneyYesterday I hinted that Dan Innis, who is running for congress in New Hampshire’s Congressional District 1, should probably be running as a Democrat–but can’t.  He’s got progressive positions, has been a registered Democrat voter, supported a far left Democrat candidate, but has chosen to run as a Republican.

Why? My guess is political influence.

He can’t be more left than Democrat Carol-Shea Porter, who has the benefit of incumbency on top of being exactly the shade of Trotsky-esque central planner that Democrat primary voters swoon over, so he has a better chance at attaining that influence by running from the middle as a so-called moderate Republican, than from the left.

There has been some debate about who encouraged Innis to change his party registration or to run as a Republican?   The current favorite is someone named Peter T. Paul.

Paul throws a lot of money around.  He has donated to Republicans, including Lamontagne, Smith, Stiles, and Ayotte.  And he has donated to Democrats, mostly in California, but he did donate to Jeanne Shaheen and a few others.  His giving appears entirely political, not ideological.  He lightly feathers whatever nests he may later need a sliver of access.  Lightly, being donations in the $1000.00 to $3000.00 dollar range, nothing too significant, nothing to set off any alarms.

But where Dan Innis is concerned, Paul appears to be all-in.  He is the guy reported to be running the Super PAC that is backing Innis in NH.  He is rumored to be the guy that suggested Innis should run in the first place, with the promise that he’d provide or find money to back him–which makes the decision a lot easier for Innis.  If you don’t need to spend as much time chasing donations or finding support you can spend more time pretending to be a Republican.

Paul clearly doesn’t care what party Innis claims to be from, he’s just running the numbers.  If he wants  a congressman, someone he knows well, Innis does not beat Shea-Porter in a primary.  But he has a shot at her as a moderate ‘Republican’ in a likely midterm wave election that favors people who are not running as Democrats.

The source of Paul’s money has also been a matter of some speculation.  Arnie Arnesen did some heavy lifting last April over at New Hampshire Business Review, to unravel the curious relationship between the financier and candidate.

UNH Alumn Peter Paul  has a UNH Business school named after him, the product of a huge sum donated to the school, secured by Dean Innis, who oversaw the project.  By mid 2013 someone encourages Innis to run.  Early 2014 Peter T. Paul (for whom a UNH business school is named) drops half a million into a Super PAC to help Innis.  Paul, by the way, has been fingered as a leader in the development of mortgage backed securities, which he appears to have profited from, whose failure inevitably resulted in the housing market collapse.

True or not asking someone to run is not illegal, nor is supporting them or funding their Super PAC.  But the question of ethics is important.  Arnie Arnesen asks several questions about the relationship, these in particular are of interest to me.

Question 4: Does anyone think that the situation, where the former dean of the new Peter T. Paul College is now the new Republican candidate for Congress being supported by the generous benefactor of the UNH business school that bears his name, smacks of the appearance of impropriety?

Question 5: Given Peter T. Paul’s line of work that involved the packaging and selling of mortgage debt to investors – an activity that was specifically cited as a key factor leading to the economic meltdown of 2008 – does Innis believe he can provide oversight and regulation of such activity in Washington, if it might affect the lucrative activity currently employed by his financial benefactor?

Given that Innis was a registered Democrat, whose only major donation appears to be in support of a far left Democrat candidate for Governor of New Hampshire, the party switch to run for congress is seriously suspect.  Add the money and the relationship between Innis and Peter T. Paul, plus the timing, and we may now have a signficant problem.

You cannot dismiss the likelihood that Innis is willing to change his stripes at the behest of large investors in his political future. No, that is not a new feature of politics, and it is the driving motivation in DC on both sides of the aisle. But if Washington is Broken, and it is, and you want to try to begin to repair it rather than watch as trillions more are wasted, can you, as a Republican primary voter, send a guy there who probably changed his party affiliation at the behest of another guy, who may have enriched himself off mortgage backed securities, because it would be easier to win the seat pretending to be a Republican?

Maybe Innis is a Democrat, but not a Democrat faculty lounge plant. Maybe he is a different sort of infiltrator altogether?

Whatever the circumstances, there are questions of ethics, and questions of ideology, which many in the establishment Republican leadership in New Hampshire are happy to ignore if there is enough campaign money next to the (R), but Republican voters should have different priorities. They should begin by asking a lot of questions about the party registration change, the relationship between that and the promise of financial backing, why he didn’t run as a Democrat, who encouraged him to run, was it Peter T. Paul, what was it Innis liked so much about Democrat Jackie Cilley just two years ago that he’d give her $500.00 as encouragement to run (and possibly win the race) for Governor of New Hampshire when as a “Republican” they could share almost nothing politically in common?

There are too many contradictions here to be ignored.

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