Pam Tucker Suspends Congressional Campaign and I Smell Machine Oil. - Granite Grok

Pam Tucker Suspends Congressional Campaign and I Smell Machine Oil.

Tucker Family
Not really ready for the congressional mud or phone call from Kelly Ayotte?

Pam Tucker has ended her 2016 run for Congress and her challenge of Congressman Guinta for the District 1 seat in New Hampshire.

State Rep. Pam Tucker announced an end to her campaign for the 1st Congressional District seat in New Hampshire on Monday, citing family obligations.

“Today, I’m announcing the suspension of my congressional campaign. I am so grateful to the many friends and supporters who have sacrificed so much for this campaign,” Tucker, R-Greenland, said in a statement.

“But with a young family and three daughters, it has become increasingly clear in recent days that now is not the right time for a congressional campaign,” she said.

And not the right time to dilute the vote in a primary when the state party wants to replace it’s own sitting Republican incumbent. Well, that’s what I’m thinking.

I like Pam, and I’m sure the rigors of a congressional campaign are a challenge to any relationship but I suspect everyone was on board with that going in. So while I appreciate the sense she makes in extracting herself, there are some hard truths at play which cannot be ignored.

The State party wants Guinta out. A Crowd of insiders including Senator Kelly Ayotte tried to get Guinta to resign. But he didn’t listen, and he is running again.

As an incumbent he has the ability to get money without the leave of Clan Sununu or the State party machine.

He has name recognition so with three or more people running in a primary, he still stands the best chance of winning.

What the state party needs is one challenger with a name and resources.

The Ashooh clan is a well known and well connected political family in New Hampshire. Put another way, Rich can beat Guinta and the party wants him beat.

Dan Innis stepped out of the CD-1 race in late March and with Pam choosing family over a congressional bid that leaves Rich Ashooh alone to challenge Guinta in the primary.

Exactly what the state party wants.

So we are clear, I think Rich is a great guy, and he’s not a step backward from where we are now. But he has connections to the machine so it might not necessarily be a step forward for conservatives and libertarians. He just wouldn’t be Frank Guinta.

As for Pam, I don’t think it would take much convincing, to be honest, given the public abuse you would have to embrace for yourself and your family. And there are certainly less treacherous political paths that the State party would be more than happy to encourage and support, especially for someone who has endorsed Kelly Ayotte.

Pam will take high road publicly on this, but I smell machine oil.

 

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