Yesterday the Rubens campaign issued a short press release explaining why he was absent from the Republican Unity Breakfast the day after the New Hampshire Primary.
Jim Rubens and his wife Susan had every intention of attending and were looking forward to Wednesday’s Unity Breakfast and publicly supporting Senator Ayotte and the entire Republican ticket. Unfortunately, the Rubens campaign was denied tickets.
And yes, as a matter of fact, there is a story behind why tickets were denied.
It was all about Kelly. It’s always about Kelly. Kelly, Kelly, Kelly.
Since the elevation of Kelly Ayotte to the US Senate the entire state party machine appears to turn on her every whim.
She was the impetus behind the opposition to Bill O’Brien becoming Speaker. Bill would have tried to run the NH House based on Conservative Republican principles. Bill would have lead efforts to limit an overly moderate State Senate. But Kelly Ayotte didn’t want to have to run for reelection through the noise the Democrats might raise about increasing personal liberty, lowering taxes, or devolving power to towns and counties. So she meddled in the speaker’s race, the result being the elevation by Democrats of part-time Republican Shawn Jasper who was essentially their bitch for the past two years.
So, Ayotte put her political career above the wishes of the Republican House Caucus and voters. The NHGOP, elected and appointed RINO leadership went along and helped the cause.
Ayotte, Democrat talking points in hand, went after Frank Guinta for FEC violations, during his term. The number of members of Congress who run afoul of the FCC is too long to list. Like most of them, Frank did as the FEC asked. But Democrats were still going to make a stink and Kelly didn’t want to have to hear it so in her mind he had to go. She pushed him to resign, and the NHGOP and Elected RINO leadership, old and not so old, piled on behind her.
Guinta, in not so many words, told them all to f-off.
They rewarded Frank with a Primary challenge from Rich Ashooh, who–while he is a nice enough guy–is more Ayotte than O’Brien.
Ashooh failed to beat Guinta by a few hundred votes. I have not heard Frank’s remarks from the breakfast, but he had to be pleased. The win, even that slim, is another f-off to Ayotte’s bitches in the state party apparatus. Who, by the way, made everyone show up the next morning for breakfast after a late primary night with several close races, all because Kelly couldn’t do it any other day.
Kelly, Kelly, Kelly!
So, back to Jim Rubens and this morning’s press release.
“After the results came in on election night, Senator Ayotte and I had a warm and personal conversation. I will keep the promise I made on the first day of my campaign that I will support and endorse the nominee. I therefore urge my 20,000 supporters to do likewise and work to elect Kelly Ayotte in November,” said Jim Rubens.
That was, more or less, what he planned to say all along, from the first day of the campaign, but state Party Executive Director, Ross Barry, I am told, demanded something more. What more is there? I think it’s a distinction without a difference but to the NHAYOTTE Party, for reasons I still don’t quite understand, it wasn’t good enough. And if Rubens refused to commit to the sort of endorsement the Party machine demanded he would not be permitted to attend.
He was not allowed to attend.
Nice Unity you got there. One size, one color, and it’s called Ayotte.
But it’s not a new problem. Back on July 19th, the Rubens campaign issued an impressive list cataloging incidents of bias and mistreatment by the NHAYOTTE Party machine during his primary challenge.
– Being banned from speaking at certain county and town Republican events;
– Being gaveled down at a recent Hillsborough County GOP meeting during an open floor segment of the meeting when Jim Rubens gave a short comment contrasting issues positions;
– NHGOP operatives campaigning and holding Kelly Ayotte signs in front of her offices;
– NHGOP operatives are door knocking on behalf of Ayotte asking who they support Maggie Hassan or Kelly Ayotte with no mention of a primary;
– Not once has NHGOP Chair Jennifer Horn ever reached out to Jim during this election cycle; and
– Horn has not attended a single Rubens event this cycle, but appears at Ayotte events and shares her social media posts but not any Rubens posts.
– County GOP chair berating Rubens Political Director Sarah De La Cerda for simply asking local GOP groups to sponsor a Rubens-Ayotte debate.
And Whynotte? It’s their party; they can cry if they want too.
But the NHGOP is systematically turning itself into the very sort of Republican that Kelly Ayotte has become. A Ruling Class placeholder wearing a “Hello my name is” sticker on that blue blazer she loves so much, with the words “Token Republican” penned neatly in black sharpie. And Kelly’s heavy dosing of DC flavored Koolaid, and chronic Georgetown Flu has infected the State level apparatus to a degree not seen in recent memory.
Yes, the Sununu’s have always had it, but this feels like things have elevated to a new level of intolerance.
This is the Party that demands her opponent verbally prostrate themselves before The Ayotte but does not require that Ayotte does the same for the Party’s Presidential nominee. Because, Kelly!
People are sick of it and Kelly and perhaps the nation, deservedly or not, will pay the price.
I can say with some confidence that those 20,000 or so voters Jim speaks of are not going to vote for Kelly. They will vote for Independent US Senate candidate Aaron Day, or not vote the race at all.
Why prop up a Republican Senator who advances the progressive agenda when you can have the real thing?
Many would also like to see an end to the meddling. Either way, Ayotte can’t count on any of those votes.
Oddly enough, the only chance Ayotte has of beating Hassan is if she appeals to the thousands of Trump voters and independents who had given up voting before The Donald energized them. They are an unknown quantity. An un-polled mass that set records during the First in the Nation Presidential Primary (and in primaries all across the nation).
But they are not yet attuned to the importance of showing up for local races, and the pathetic turnout in last Tuesday’s primary attests to this. They are Trump voters and little else. And if they don’t also turn out for Ayotte as well, come November, her political career comes to a screeching halt.
No longer will her name be whispered as a potential VP every time a Republican is nominated to be President. She’ll be the private citizen with the word ‘Senator’ in front of her name deserving of our awe and appreciation. The one who started out as the Conservative Republican from New Hampshire but quickly became another mule for the Progressive agenda. Or another lawyer/political consultant with a direct line to the RINO-Money mothership and the legislative puppet-masters running the roost.
Those are a dime a dozen in Washington. And quickly overpopulating the Granite State. Nothing special about them at all.
And it will be her fault. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise.
