I, along with a lot of Conservatives (and a whole lot of Republicans – see what I did there?) are sorely surprised and very disappointed at the results – certainly here in NH.
I was reminded of this in reading Landrigan’s piece, and this stuck out:
Democrats swept all 27 seats in Nashua, and Rep. Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, topped the ticket in her town, where the GOP has a decided advantage in voter registration.
Now, to be completely honest, I had little to no idea of how things would turn out in the State, given my preoccupation with Belknap County these last few months. Nashua, as we all know, is a deep Blue city (like most cities around the State), so I was not surprised at that. But knowing that Merrimack is NOT Nashua, I asked Steve:
No idea. The top two vote-getters in Merrimack were Dems. The GOP down ticket voting was mostly to blame. Need to look at the exact numbers – will ask Jeanine for them.
Sununu got 7740 in Merrimack. Wheeler got 6447. Daniels got 6395. The highest House vote getter got 6037 / the highest Dem was 6245 – so if Down-ticket only gets what Daniels got we take all 8 seats. Frustrating.
Indeed – very frustrating.
Partly due to this weird mid-term election that felt like a Presidential. And that different issues TOTALLY animated the two sides. But one thing has stuck out – who got organized and WHERE did they organize TO (I know, grammar, but you get the point)?
At least here in Belknap, for all the money spent by the Democrat Citizens for Belknap PAC ($60K or so), they only “gained” 3 seats now occupied by Democrats (WMUR). They also, however, got rid of several good Conservative Republicans in the Primary and because of other and various reasons (and grudges), turned a number of the remaining Republicans against the Conservatives on the Belknap County Republican Committee (but more on that later). Still, a few Conservatives remained standing:
- Nikki McCarter
- Barbara Comtois
- Paul Terry
- Peter Varney
Of course, it’s clear that Democrats have money advantages almost every time – just look at the campaign filing reports. They also have better group-oriented organizations. In fact, Democrat Brian Beihl, the Citizens for Belknap PAC strategist, according to reports sent to me, was heard to have said “That’s ok – “we know what we did wrong and we’ll fix that for the next election“.
Sidenote: I still find it ludicrous that people spend THOUSANDS, sometimes 10s of thousands for a seat in the NH House that pays only $100/year per diem.
How many Republican groups say that? Fewer still, how many Republican groups say that and then actually start planning and activating NOW for an event two years in the future? This should be common on the right side of the aisle – but isn’t. Sure, they’re finally doing what I’ve said for years – you can’t just campaign for two weeks before the election by putting in an op-ed, throw a few signs into the ground, and a couple of ads in the local paper. Now, they’ve started a few months earlier.
In this time, that’s not helpful.
But planning like this? At the detailed level? I’ve not heard Republicans talk like this EVER! That has to change. Especially with the NH GOP Leadership.
Yes, in going back to my prediction about the election (which I admitted then, I suck at doing but did it anyways):
NH:
- Governor: ho hum – Sununu by 30 points. Big whoop. (ACTUAL: by 16% – still a landslide)
- Executive Council: Republicans hold the majority but Dems gain 1 seat. (ACTUAL: it remained 4-1)
- NH Senate: I dunno. Still guessing that the Republicans hold the majority but instead of 14-10 to 13-11. Bradley becomes the Senate President (ACTUAL: 14-10, no change)
- NH House: Republicans gain another 10 seats (ACTUAL: they lost seats and the majority teeters on a count of 203-197).
Well, I have ideas – and if the NH GOP keeps doing the same-old, same-old, there are better ideas. I’ve already reached out to several people – we’ll see.
I will say that, however, there is going to be a bit of blood-letting that’s going to happen within the Right for a while – and we saw that last night at the BCRC meeting.
Doug Lambert, who seems to be a CfB collaborator in the end goal of destroying the Conservative Republican Party here in Belknap and has now been charged with a criminal misdemeaner of “unwanted touching” that happened during last month’s BCRC meeting, was voted out of the BCRC general membership given the video evidence presented (courtesy of GraniteGrok). The secret ballot vote was 24 for removing his General Membership status was 13 against, and 3 abstentions. More on this, however, will be forthcoming. And yes, the charge is public record – the Gilford Police Log:
Gilford Police Department Page: 1
Dispatch Log From: 11/08/2022 Thru: 11/08/2022 0000 – 2359 Printed: 11/09/2022For Date: 11/08/2022 – Tuesday
Time Call Reason
<snip>
1050 Service of Paperwork
Location/Address: FARMER DR
And yes, this is a Public Record. Along with the text he read himself at the meeting (and weakly tried to make himself the victim and the female accuser the aggressor – nice misogynistic action). And yes, I have more to say about this.
Oh, and just for giggles at last night’s meeting, Gregg Hough (Lambert’s “Bobbsey Twin” from those old enough to catch the reference) angrily announced at the BCRC Executive Committee, that he would be the next BCRC Chair.
I was quite amused at the reaction of the BCRC General Members reaction to that: they giggled in derision.
Who says politics is boring?
(H/T: Union Leader)
