I was just emailed a question, given the rumors swirling around the present NH GOP Chair, Jack Kimball.
"…is JK the right man for the NH GOP?"
The person asking the question also had a quip on this post; that, after the jump
My answer below:
Jack is a personal friend of mine, so filter my answer through that lens. He has all the right principles correct, can articulate them well, and has executive experience (having started and run two companies). He also had high support from TEA Party / 912 types during the primary campaign and garnered over 30K votes in his first ever political race.
The knock on Jack was that he could not raise money – and his campaign reflected and played to his strength as an orator (vs the regular trappings of a race here in NH). Ditto for the Chair race.
The "knock" has come back to haunt him – but I think for different reasons this time. Sununu HATED the fact that his hand picked person lost to a newcomer (and a TEA person to boot – THAT has upset many Establishment GOPers absolutely to no end). My feeling is that the dichotomy between Establishment vs TEA is now showing up again in the typical grass roots vs the Country Clubbers (boots on the ground vs the bankrolls). The CCers were very happy to do the $$ as long as they controlled the boots. Now that the boots have ascendency, it is my belief they are making an example of Jack by withholding that money that would normally flow through the NH GOP. And not having a funding network on his own has left Jack in an ammunition-deficit in this regard.
One scenario that could happen is that the NH GOP will collapse – as the boots on the ground are muttering about this very theory and they will "go Galt" in their own fashion. By that, the pattern of supporting only individual candidates, given Internet tools and social media, will only accelerate as those outlets continue the disintermediation of the Parties – after all, they are but mere Middle Men in political economy; why should they be immune to the same tools that are the disruptive technologies in the business economy? What the Establishment will have to hope for is that $$$$ will make up for the lack of activism and just go around the boots with an increased emphasis on mailings, radio ads, and TV ads (think the last Senate race, on double steroids).
This may well be a bet they are willing to make, and if it comes true, a sense of self-aggrandizement will ensue with a "hey, we don’t need the grass roots – look what we did!". And at that point, they may have both won and lost as well, for the retail politics that NH is famous for will have been deep sixed (if not a heavy blow).
And having watched from afar (and backwards from the future), will future Presidential Primary candidates see that and just run another segment of a national campaign instead of the long standing meet-and-greet that is such a NH mainstay? After all, if the natives aren’t doing it, why should they?
See, you got me going and off target! Certainly, there are other factors to which I am not privy (am not on the EBoard), but I bet this is one of the majors.
Oh, that quip?
Secondly, am happy to start the drive for donations to a hormonal (and spinal) transplant funds.
