Many non-Dems* are at least somewhat familiar with Americans for Prosperity(AFP), which Ed Mosca refers to in his rightful disparaging of “Koch-bots” within the GOP. I leave it to the readers to bring themselves up to speed on the Koch brothers and point out all their daily anti-Trump mailers sent in January before the Republican* presidential primary that Chris Ager refused to get closed to nonmembers. Regardless of YOUR opinion of Trump, this article is for everyone who wants to defeat Dems.
I will start by giving AFP praise where it’s due. They generously provide resources like candidate training workshops, often catered and always free. They sponsor free parties, such as the annual Pine Tree Riot one in Weare, and host phone banking events. The list goes on, but AFP has done some other things, in addition what I already mentioned, that should give every savvy voter some pause. I’ll mention a few of them because it’s my opinion that they fall under the “take what you like and leave the rest” category.
I will start by pointing out that they endorsed Mr. Stephen for the executive council while there were still several days of filing time remaining, despite his lack of record as an incumbent. Despite being a nonincumbent, he still has a political record, and it’s NOT a flattering one!
Is the endorsement a preemptive strike just to be “anti-Terese?” You decide. While you’re deciding, I’ll share my take on why Mr Stephen is a bad choice, but let’s move on.
My Senator has regularly complained about AFP over the years and usually blames them when I reprimand him for voting the wrong way. I usually tell him that I’m unhappy because he voted the wrong way, not because AFP told me to tell him that. A few examples were Rosenwald’s welfare dental plan in 2022 and later enshrining MassHealth, both of which were the act of a hive-minded senate with no dissenters. While I have no committed opinion on pot bills in general, he does. What’s interesting is that he has an almost identical voting record to the senator once seated next to him, who sadly wasn’t reelected in 2022. And that nearly identical voting record included voting NO on pot. Whether or not you, the reader, care about pot, you should find it interesting that AFP sent out mailers to one district telling people to tell their senator to change his mind and/or vote a certain way, but NOT in the neighboring district. Why is that? All 24 votes are of equal value to each other.
Two other issues in my senator’s rant about AFP were that they aren’t anti-choice enough(for him) and that they support open borders. I don’t care about the former as much as many others do, but I do care about the latter, and my research has come up with mixed information. Readers are encouraged to do their own digging on that one and share what they find.
There are also two primaries that have viable candidates who are not strangers to the political scene. One of them is for governor, which everyone should already be familiar with, and I have since gone on record speaking to, but once again, don’t forget “the Trump factor” tied to both candidates, regardless of YOUR thoughts of Trump. My points are about AFP rather than Trump. The other primary is in Senate District 23, where Sharon Sheeple, incumbent Senator Gannon, is being primaried by freshman Rep Emily Phillips.
Both are current members of the legislature and, therefore, have voting records and don’t need to be given candidate surveys. I would hope that AFP does the right thing and endorses Emily, but keep in mind that Senator Gannon has endorsed Kelly Ayotte and they’re both establishment people.
And then there’s the whole matter of housing and AFP’s stance on it, but let’s stick with candidates for now. And let’s not forget the two primaries for federal office. While I have have not done sufficient research on the other district, one unfortunate prognostication I received is they’re likely to choose Vikram over Lily Tang Williams. I certainly hope that’s not going to happen, but we’ll see.
Aren’t we all by now tired of the establishment prioritizing protecting its power over serving the best interest of the public? Will AFP come about and make sound endorsements for District 23, the Corner Office, and the federal offices? Or are they going to do like they did in executive council District 4 and do the bidding of the establishment elite?
