
What NH Republicans do best? (GG photo)
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Brian Lawson, writing at PolitickerNH.com reports that
Republican congressional candidate John Stephen said the Real ID bill passed by Congress was an example of the "DC values" his primary opponent, former U.S. Rep. Jeb Bradley stands for.."That’s another example of DC values creeping into New Hampshire," Stephen (R-Manchester) told the Goffstown and Weare Republican town committees last week. "Jeb Bradley was a sponsor of that bill.".Stephen and Bradley are battling each other for the right to take on freshman U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-Rochester), who defeated Bradley in the Democratic landslide election in 2006.
Make no mistake about it– I know that politics is a rough and tumble sport, but I just wish that sometimes our guys in the GOP would just run their campaigns on ideas. I know that painting your opponent in a negative light has proven to be successful time and again– it’s just that there are times when such activities seem counterproductive when it comes to the larger task at hand which is dislodging the incumbent Democrat.
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So it is with Carol Shea Porter and Bradley and Stephen. I just have this nagging feeling that if Stephen and Bradley work throughout the primary season to cut each other to shreds, Ms. Shea Porter will waltz right back to Washington DC with the dazed Republicans wondering what happened. The ONLY way Republicans will regain what they have lost here in the Granite State will be by careful planning and intense nurturing of the electorate at large as to the benefit of Republican representation versus that provided by left wing Democrats like CSP. The spectacle of two men in the GOP slinging brickbats at each other for months on end will do nothing to accomplish such a goal.
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It seems to me that both Bradley and Stephen are very capable at articulating a Republican approach to the problems at hand, and outlining a clear path to victory over the cider-sipping antiwar Carol Shea Porter come November. Let New Hampshire Republicans hear the argument of what each man has to offer and then decide who best fits the bill for the task at hand. Oh, and at the same time, they should direct their fire, for the general electorate at-large to see, at Carol Shea Porter, who provides a target rich environment in her own right…
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