The NHGOP gubernatorial primary looks more like a coronation … of Kelly Ayotte … than a primary. Ayotte regularly rolls out endorsements from establishment-officeholders and focuses on the Democrats, while Chuck Morse runs the traditional NHGOP-establishmentarian lose-gracefully campaign.
The only chance that Morse has of “massing up” Ayotte’s coronation is to talk about the proverbial elephant-in-the-room. The on-appeal education funding decision that as a practical matter, orders the Legislature and Governor to raise state taxes by half a BILLION dollars. More specifically, Morse’s only chance of “massing up” the coronation is to unequivocally state that he will NOT comply if the Supreme Court upholds the trial court.
This is the last thing that Ayotte wants to talk about because at the end of the day her position is not any different than her Democrat rivals. That is, she will comply if the Supreme Court upholds the trial court. The only difference will be what tax or mix of taxes she supports versus what her Democrat rivals would support.
But don’t hold your breath waiting for Morse to call out Ayotte in this manner. It’s not happening … because he is an empty suit. Ask him what he would do if the Supreme Court upheld the trial court, and you’ll get the standard stump pablum about his strong support for education freedom accounts and local control of education.
I’d almost bet that Chuck’s campaign already has his concession speech written.
(I, of course, understand that Governor Ayotte’s response would be, “We need a constitutional amendment, blah, blah, blah.” But without super-GOP-majorities in the House and Senate … which is inconceivable … it will be impossible to pass an amendment that does not include enormous concessions to the Democrats. So, calling for an amendment is essentially a way of saying, “I will comply.”)
