Yesterday I reported on an inside move by Shawn Jasper and Dick Hinch to use the House PAC to back incumbent RINO’s and shun Conservatives in the Republican primary. That post produced a facebook comment that I responded to with this.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard party folk squawk about leadership (or whoever) endorsing in primaries. And that’s what this is. As to whether they can do it, of course, they can. But the real question you should ask is why is the House legislative leadership abandoning small government, pro-liberty candidates? Why are they abandoning the pillars of their own party?
Today Shawn Jasper and Dick Hinch have answered my question. The reason House legislative leadership is abandoning small government, pro-liberty candidates is because they want to abandon small government, pro-liberty policies.
(WMUR) The two top lawmakers propose removing some of the core conservative principles from the existing platform, including: the platform’s stated current support for right-to-work legislation and merit pay; its call for limiting state spending to the rate of inflation plus population growth; its opposition to casino video and slot machines; and even the party’s opposition to the implementation of “Obamacare” in the state – meaning Medicaid expansion.
Jasper and Hinch are the front men for the progressive Republicans in the State Senate and State Party apparatus who want the platform to conform to their own voting habits and progressive policy desires so that they can continue to vote like Democrats without paying a political price for claiming to be Republicans. It shows just how badly they both need to be torn out of the bassinet up in Concord and tossed squealing back into the real world.
But I will give them some credit. Typically, you don’t get these sorts of honest and open admissions until after an important election. Admitting you are nothing more than policy bitches for the Democrat party just days before facing voters in a primary is ballsy as hell.
I think I should point out that Dick Hinch will not likely suffer for this. He should, but Merrimack is a large town and the Hinch name has not typically suffered from the actions of the man bearing it. He’ll lose some support but to lose enough that he’d fail to claim one of eight seats out of thirteen candidates is unlikely.
Jasper ought to be toast. A smoking hole dragging into last place and off the general election ballot when the polls close. He wasn’t that popular before the Democrats elected him speaker. He’s not pretty. It’s grating to listen to him speak. And he is not a well-liked or pleasant person.
That doesn’t mean he’ll lose. If enough Democrats registered as independent they could save his bacon from the embarrassment of a primary drubbing. But after this latest revelation, I can’t imagine Hudson Republicans checking the box for a guy who thinks its time for the GOP to abandon Right to Work, low taxes, low spending, and that supports the roadmap to single payer government-run health care.
Or maybe they do.
In which case article 10 of the New Hampshire Constitution is looking prescient. But before we go there, maybe we can convince the Republican State Party delegation that it’s time to clean house over on Water Street in Concord.
No, I’m not holding my breath.
