NHGOP Scheming to Get Boutin Back in Senate Dist. 16? - Granite Grok

NHGOP Scheming to Get Boutin Back in Senate Dist. 16?

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Image c/o: Girard at Large

Several anonymous sources are suggesting that the NHGOP is pining for the return of recently retired NH State Senator David Boutin. But Boutin is not running you say. The primary is next week you say. This is all wild speculation you say.

Maybe, but here’s the rumor as I understand it if you are interested.

A complaint has been filed with the Ballot Law Committee that questions Republican candidate Don Winterton’s eligibility to run for the Senate Seat. The existence of the complaint is not in question. As I understand it, the ballot law committee needs to rule on it.

The rumor begins with the NHGOP applying internal pressure to get the committee to delay the hearing until after the primary next Tuesday.

If Winterton wins the primary, and the NHGOP is said to believe it can make that happen, and the committee then finds Winterton ineligible, the State Party picks a general election replacement. That would be, according to the rumors, no longer retiring Dist 16 State Senator David Boutin.

If Winterton is found ineligible before Tuesday, Joe Duarte wins the primary by default and The Establishment would prefer to keep the seat than have to give it up to avoid letting another conservative win a Senate Seat. (I embellished the rumor a bit there. It is my opinion that the NHGOP would rather lose the seat than support the conservative. I’m jaded. Get over it.)

The NHGOP is not in any sense a strong defender of conservative values. State Party leadership scorns its own platform. It kowtows to national moderates and the donor class. So almost any scheme to keep a platform conservative out of office probably has the air of truth in it somewhere. But how much air, and what temperature?

I can’t say. I didn’t try to do any follow-up, I’m just too damn busy for that at the moment. I’m just sharing what some little birds are whispering. Feel free to do with it what you will.

 

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