In August of 2014 I made, what seemed to me to be, an obvious inference. Two of the candidates on the 2014 ballot in the town of Goffstown, NH, were not good Republicans. This was because prior to filing as Republicans they were Democrats. In at least one case they were still on the voter checklist as a Democrat even though they were running for office as a Republican.
The Democrat party even made room for them on the Goffstown ballot by only running Three Democrats for 5 seats, even though (or is that because?) they had two Democrats running as Republicans
And yes, they were elected, and while this is unfortunate it gives us the opportunity to evaluate “how Republican” they are (or are not) thanks to this thing called “a voting record.”
The final session results are not available because the session is not compete. But we have the mid session numbers from the New Hampshire House Republican Alliance or NHHRA. This group scores House reps against the Republican Platform and grades them, giving us a measuring stick by which to evaluate their “Republican-ness.”
Democrat turned Republican Barbra J. Griffin, scored a 63.9 at the midway point, which is better than I would have expected, but well below the oft-stated 80-20 “big tent” benchmark. While the remaining half of the session provides plenty of opportunity to improve it also offers ample means to continue the downward slide. She does not have enough bad votes (yet) to roam the faded-blue fields of Kidder-Country, but with history as our guide, if left in office long enough her ‘voting habits’ will degrade until she is knocking on the Democrat party door–where that other candidate immediately took up residence.
Democrat David Pierce (not the Senator but the Goffstown House Rep) wasted no time being who he is. His mid session grade placed him among much-valued Democrat water-carriers Carolyn Gargasz, David Kidder, and Charlene Takesian. Pierce scored a 41% making him a Democrat six out of ten times he votes.
The Pierce to Kidder RINO sextuplets have a combined mid-session NHHRA average of 37.56. This barely makes them Blue Dog Democrats if, that’s IF, we are being generous.
The typical big-tent response to these sorts of revelations is ‘Well, that’s the best Republican we could get elected in that district. We should be happy to have them voting with us x times when a Democrat would give us nothing.”
But we are talking about Goffstown New Hampshire. This isn’t Hanover, or Keene, or Durham. Goffstown is where you have to run Democrats as Republicans to get them elected.
There are plenty of 80-20 (and better) taxpayer friendly libertarians and conservatives who could run and win as Republicans in Goffstown. There is no reason to settle for a 6 out of 10, and certainly not 4 out of 10, given the demographics of the town. But that is what has happened. And it doesn’t just happen in Goffstown.
If that is not reason enough, this is also why we have Democrat elected Speaker Shawn “The Disaster” Jasper. Yes, NH Senate Republicans, the State GOP, and Senator Ayotte’s office are also to blame–we have not forgotten your melding–but had we elected stronger libertarian and Conservative representation in the first place they never would have had the votes that inevitably allowed Jasper to run and seize power.
There is much accounting to be balanced in 2016, and most of it, despite the hype, is right here within our own borders.
The First in the Nation primary is nice if you like the attention, but the real battle is on the ground, for every State House seat, State Senate seat, Executive Council seat, and the Governors office.
If we refuse to take out the trash that is being heaped on us by Democrats and their moderate offal-carriers (including the state party leadership in the NHGOP), New Hampshire can kiss what is left of its ‘advantage’ goodbye. All the result of more than decade of letting Democrats foul the corner office and voting for any ass that puts an R after their name.
[ Weare? No Goffstown. Dope. No idea why I kept writing Weare.]
