The Wheeler – Clegg throwdown, see also “Executive Council District 5 Republican Primary” was heated. No love lost between those camps before or after. And it showed up again yesterday. Wheeler won 62 -37. Clegg was not, to the best of my knowledge, at the unity breakfast.
Related: Poll Question: For the November Election Will You Vote by Mail or In-Person?
Maybe he had to wash his hair? Rearrange the sock drawer?
Embarrassed at the beating? Mayberry got worse, and he was there. Barring a medical or family emergency none of that matters because this: would he have had time for unity if he’d won? I suspect he would.
Blah Blah Blah
I think we can all agree that having a lot more money than your opponent was irrelevant. Clegg has no shortage of resources. He invested some of that in positive mailers and some on negative mailers. Took Wheeler out to the woodshed. But in the end that didn’t do it.
I guess the question is why?
Did the grassroots, the majority of primary voters, feel safer with Wheeler? We didn’t take a stand as a website and I did not choose to endorse anyone in that myself (I have good friends on both sides). But I posted every Op-Ed that came my way. There were two for Bob, many for Dave.
Several Grok authors took a side but only Susan Olsen sided with Clegg in print on our pages. And with few exceptions, those who fancy spending time in grassroots groups favored Dave over Bob. It wasn’t even close.
The election results bore that out, and honestly, I suspect name recognition was also an insurmountable problem for Clegg. A lobbyist-activist might be “In the Concord Trenches” every day, but you can’t mistake that for being a known entity outside that tiny puddle of muck. What voters know is way more important than what you know, and a lobbyist telling them their opponent is some crooked insider didn’t make these candidates even.
So, what is Bob Clegg going to do?
He skipped the unity breakfast and he may have had a very good reason. But he hasn’t conceded the race publicly (that I know of) and we’ve not heard much since Tuesday’s drubbing. Will he help keep Democrat Deb Pignatelli from getting re-elected for New Hampshire or would he be happier if Dave lost?
Is Clegg filing paperwork for the Never-Wheeler PAC or just back to business as usual?
It was noisy for weeks, and now it’s quiet. Is it quiet?
[Update] I was just told that Sen.Clegg was not invited to the Unity Breakfast. I’ll let you discuss what that might mean.
