Rebuilding the GOP

From the Union Leader:

US Senate: 7 candidates

• 3 – Kelly Ayotte: 23
• 2 – Jim Bender: 74
• 4 – Bill Binnie: 10
• 5 – Ken Blevens: 8
• 7 – Chris Booth: 2
• 1 – Ovide Lamontagne: 109
• 6 – Dennis Lamare: 4

US Congress:

CD-1: 7 candidates

• 2 – Rich Ashooh: 34
• 6 – Peter Bearse: 2
• 4 – Bob Bestani: 7
• 1 – Frank Guinta: 44
• 5 – Philip Hodsen: 5
• 3 – Sean Mahoney: 16
• 6 – Richard Parent: 2

CD-2: 7 candidates

• 3 – Charlie Bass: 13
• 2 – Bob Guida: 36
• 1 -Jennifer Horn: 55
• 6 – Andrew Kohlhofer: 1
• 5 – Wesley Sonner: 3
• 5 – Katrina Swett: 3
• 4 – Howard Wilson: 9

NH Governor: 7 candidates

• 4 – John Babiarz: 21
• 7 – Frank Emiro: 1
• 2 – Jack Kimball: 76
• 5 – John Lynch: 9
• 1 – John Stephen: 93
• 6 – Frank Sullivan: 2
• 3 – Karen Testerman: 25

I chuckled when I read one of the observations in the article:

"I think the activists aren’t happy with the two major candidates, the two leading candidates being Ayotte and Binnie," University of New Hampshire pollster Andy Smith said in a phone interview.

Ya think? D’oh.  I’d add the same for Charlie Bass in CD-2.  Sure, these folks are raising or have the most money in their coffers. Will it be sufficient?  Can it be sufficient?

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Everyone, I recently wrote about a "resolution" that will be offered up at the annual GOP state committee meeting—coming up on Saturday, April 17, 2010, to be held at Bow High School—which would condemn traitorous RINO’s ("Republicans In Name Only") who publicly support and work for Democratic candidates against Republicans running in the same race. I have been informed that it’s not a resolution, but rather a proposed change in the state GOP by-laws. It was originally proposed at the state committee meeting in 2006 as a result of a full-page newspaper ad in the Union Leader that ran just before the 2004 election. The ad featured a large number of self-identified "Republicans" (many of whom were actually Democrats, it now comes out) who urged Republicans to vote for John Lynch against Republican Gov. Craig Benson, the last good governor who held office in New Hampshire. A copy of the disgraceful Union Leader ad is attached to this email.

The ad worked, and John Lynch won in a squeaker. Gov. Benson left our state with a large budget surplus. Now, five and a half years later, Gov. Lynch and the Democrats have given us and our children a historic $600 million budget deficit (the Democratic being the responsible party for this disaster). This is the legacy that three-term Gov. Lynch and the RINO’s who appeared in the Union Leader ad have given us.

Time for some house-cleaning: Here’s a copy of the proposed state GOP by-laws change that will be taken up on April 17th:

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Any registered Republican who, at the same time joins or allows his or her name to be used in support of a political committee or a defined group of individuals that in title or effect is intended to be understood by the public to be a committee or group comprised in whole or in part of members of the Republican Party endorsing a candidate for elected office from another political party, when there is a candidate nominated by the Republican Party for that office, shall be disqualified during the then present and the next biennium from holding an office of the State Committee or any County or City Committee, from being a member of the Executive Committee, and from being a member of the State Committee.

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Astoundingly, when the above common-sense by-law change was proposed by Rep. Paul Mirski at the 2006 state committee annual meeting…it was blocked (!). I have no idea what the reasoning was of the GOP leadership at that time for tabling the proposal, but the leadership since then has significantly changed. Accordingly, I urge every member of the GOP state committee to vote in favor of the above by-law amendment at the upcoming annual meeting on April 17th.

I also commend Republican stalwart, former and future Rep. Paul Mirski—a candidate for the state House of Representatives in Grafton House District #10 in the upcoming election—for drafting and bringing the above by-law proposal before the state committee for a vote.

A partial scan of that ad (top of page, cleaned up) can be seen after the jump:

The PDF of the actual page (no touch up, may be a tad difficult to read) can be seen here.

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From an email that I sent out concerning the Nov. election here in NH:

Dear "Barry Goldwater": I now get back in touch with you to continue what we were talking about, and to emphasize the importance of the upcoming election. I’m asking for your help in recruiting candidates from Weare that you know are Good (with a capital G). As you may be aware, the election in 8 months will be the last one under the current districts (which were imposed on us by the state supreme court some years ago; they are an obvious mess, and were designed to favor statist Democrats). Thanks to the state constitutional amendment that was conceived of and drafted by Paul Mirsky, the state supreme court will never again be able to seize power like a black-robed junta and redistrict the state.

In addition, because the Democrats have just about fiscally destroyed New Hampshire over the past six years—bequeathing us a historically unprecedented $600 million state budget deficit—the upcoming elections should result in a very large increase in the number of Republicans in the state house. Now, I know that you and others disdain Republicans just as much as you do Democrats. Because of the destruction of the party brand over the last 8 years by President Bush and others in Washington, DC, that feeling is well-founded. Except for Ron Paul, the ideals of libertarian-conservatism championed by Robert Taft, Barry Goldwater, Ronald Reagan, and others have been pretty much sidelined. But that’s changing in New Hampshire (and other places too, witness Pat Toomey in Pa., Marco Rubio in Fla., Chuck DeVore in Calif., Paul Ryan, Michelle Bachmann, Jim DeMint, and many others). The thing is, if libertarian-conservatives in New Hampshire won’t run for office, then we can expect the GOP to continue to be controlled by unprincipled, DC-oriented party hacks.

Fortunately, that ain’t happening. We currently have…

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We haven’t always been the greatest Judd Gregg fans around here in times past, but have duly noted his recent performance in the US Senate and welcome his finally being the senator we always knew he could be. Whether its leading the charge against Obamacare, trying to have enemy combatants tried as enemy combatants, or verbalizing free market solutions and approaches to our present economic woes, Judd Gregg will be heading out on a high note. And we’re not the only ones that have noticed.

The answer to the question in the headline is that our Senior Senator Gregg is with that group, and others, on the UK Telegraph’s list of 100 of "The most influential US conservatives: 80- 61." According to that paper, this represents the

second list of the 100 most influential conservatives and 100 most influential liberals in America a year after Barack Obama took the oath on the steps of the Capitol to become the 44th President of the United States.

The lists are both divided into five with 20 people in each ‘instalment’ and published over five successive days. The top 20 liberals and conservatives lists will be published on Friday 15 January. The other 80 will be released in lists of 20, to be published every day between now and then.

As noted above, Senator Gregg stands in good company with fellow "conservatives" on the list. Of course, this same list includes Olympia Snowe, so it is somewhat suspect, but hey, it also includes our friend Erik Erickson from Red State as well. Here is what the UK Telegraph says about Gregg:

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