McGuire (Dan), Manuse, Seaworth Are Top Reps In "Super Scoring" System

        As promised a few weeks ago, I have combined various ratings of State Representatives to come up with what, for lack of a better term, let’s call a “Super Score”.  Basically I’m using three scores which would provide a maximum of 300 points.  Originally I had planned to use the Prosperity Index as well, but this rating system used only 11 House votes and thus tends to skew results too dramatically.  For example, too many Republicans score 100 and too many Democrats score a zero.

        Thus, I’ve used the House Republican Alliance which used recorded 115 votes and the Liberty Alliance which used 56 recorded votes to come up with their scores.  Both are broad enough samples to truly mean something.  However, since I’ve always believed attendance is also extremely important, I’ve used that as the third leg of our “Super Score” stool.  There is a slight caveat.  Since the House has not yet released attendance numbers for the year, I’ve used the HRA attendance for the 115 votes.  This should serve as a fairly accurate proxy since the 115 votes were sprinkled throughout days and times the House was in session.

        Since comparisons are no good in a vacuum, I begin the process by picking ten well known Representatives.  I’ve used the Republican majority leader DJ Bettencourt, former Speaker Gene Chandler, Finance Chair Ken Weyler and former Finance Chair Neal Kurk, Deputy Speaker Pam Tucker (remember, the Speaker almost never votes), Republican leader David Hess, Democrat leader Terri Norelli as well as the lowest scoring Democrat and Republican I could find and also James MacKay who is currently a Democrat but used to be a Republican.

        I only ran numbers for the Manchester delegation (for use on my TV show More Politically Alert next week), but you could come up with a similar score for any Representative using data from the HRA and Liberty Alliance web sites.

         In arriving at the top scorers, I used one further screening devise.  Along with composite scores, I decided that some type of cut off point should be used (I arrived at 87 percent) so that someone could make the list by getting a near perfect score in two areas but coming up short in the third area.   This eliminates only a couple of people (Carol McGuire for example does very well with the HRA and attendance but gets only 85 with the HRA).  Using this method, I came up with 16 New Hampshire Representatives, all Republicans, who make the cut.  Interestingly, four of the 16 come from the 9-member Rochester delegation.

Here they are starting at the top.

BASED ON 300 POINT MAXIMUM 

 Top Scoring NH State Representatives

 NAME/Town                              HRA         ATT       LTY          TOTAL   

Dan McGuire, Epsom                 100            98        91              289

Andrew Manuse, Derry              99            100      90              289

Brian Seaworth, Pembroke       96            100      95              289

Jonathan Maltz, Hudson             97            100      91              288

Paul Brown, Raymond                93              99        95              287

Lucien Vita, Middleton                99              98        90              287

Spec Bowers, Georges Mills       98              99        89              286

Cam DeJong, Manchester           96              99        90              285

Vaillancourt, Manchester           90             100      94              284

Richard Okerman, Windham     98               97        89              284

Laura Jones, Rochester            94                99        91              284

Kyle Jones, Rochester               95                95        93              283

Susan DeLemus, Rochester      100              95        88              283

Seth Cohn, Canterbury              91                97        95              283

Cliff Newton, Rochester            99                 97        87              283

Mark Warden, Goffstown          95                90        97              282

Rating Comparison State Representatives

NAME/Party         HRA     ATT         LIBTY     TOTAL 

DJ Bettencourt, R    94      92            69            263

Gene Chandler, R     88      86            68           242

Ken Weyler, R          91      99            76           266

Neak Kurk, R           73      98             65           226

Pam Tucker, R         88      89             74            251

David Hess, R          73      71             57           201

Ken Gould, R             30      100         19           149

Terri Norelli, D          08        91         39           138

James MacKay, D     07         99         20           124

William Hatch, D       03         66         20           89

HRA & ATT Based on 115 Votes; Liberty Based on 56 Votes

Rating Manchester State Representatives

NAME/Party        HRA   ATT     LIBTY     TOTAL 

1 Jeff Goley, D           11      93            24           128

1 Dan Sullivan, D      09         64          18           105

1 Peter Ramsey, D     15      57            40           112 

2 Cam DeJong, R       96      99            90           286

2 Mike Ball, R            99      68            81           248

2 Hutchinson, R         86      100          63           249

3 Mike Brunelle, D    10      95            23           128

3 Pat Long, D             14      94            25           133

3 Jean Jeudy, D         14      86            33           133

4 Nick Levasseur, D   19      70           46           135

4 Leo Pepino, R          82      53            59           194

4 Kathy Souza, R       89      84            69           242

5 John Gimas, D        44      77            54           175

5 Champagne, R        88      63            66           217

5 Ted Rokas, R           7         90            16           113

6 Will Infantine, R     85      79            65           229

6 Larry Gagne, R       95      98            82           275

6 Ben Baroody, D      10      98            23           131

7 Kathy Cail, R          84      100          67           251

7 Ross Terrio, R         80      78            65           223   

7 Pat Garrity, D         07      84            22           113

8 Mark Proulx, R        75      97            70           242

8 Vaillancourt, R        90      100          94           284

8 Katsiantonis, D       19      60            38           117

9 Gail Barry, R           87      100          73           260

9 Barbara Shaw, D    19      94            37           150

9 Maurice Pilotte, D   09      93            15           117

 Tom Beattie, R          100    11            52            163

Jerry Bergevin,R        86     70            65           221

Carlos Gonzalez,R      83     91            76           250

Phil Greazzo, R           95     97            87           279

Irene Messier, R         60    96            57           213

Tam Simmons, R         95    86            90           271         

Connie Soucy, R          95    96            75           271        

Matt Swank, R             95    84            75           254                              

HRA & ATT—Based on 115 Votes; Liberty on 56 Votes

Mea Culpa, Senator Bradley

An apology is due to Senator Jeb Bradley.  After double checking the vote on the REGGI repeal yesterday, I reported on this blog that Senator Bradley had voted with the Governor and against Republicans.

I was wrong and have corrected the reference on the blog, but since (unlike some reporters in the lame stream media) I am a stickler for accuracy, an explanation is in order.

When I checked with a House staffer about the vote, I was so surprised at what they told me about Senator Bradley's vote that before I sent out the blog, I double checked with another staffer.  Unfortunately, both staffers were using the same source, and the moral of our fable, dear children, is that it doesn't do any good to double or triple or even quadruple check if you revert to the same erroneous original source each time.

I should have known better when I was informed that the totally incompetent Union Leader reporter Tom Fahey was the original source.  I've said in the past that we can never trust anything Fahey reports as factual; I failed to follow my own advice about not trusting this most derelict of reporters.  How the Union Leader can justify keeping this guy on the payroll is truly something we should all ponder.

Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea culpa.

Senate President Peter Bragdon did in fact vote with the Governor on the REGGI repeal, but let the record forever indicate that Majority Leader Jeb Bradley did not.

Hoffa, But Not Beckel, Can Be Forgiven

            Jimmy Hoffa Jr., union thug that he is, merits our forgiveness for his graceless and unsavory words about the tea party ("let's take these son of bitches out," he exploded before Barack Obama came on stage at a Labor Day rally).

            No, I did not consdier Hoffa's comments an appeal to violence, equating "take them out" with the way his father was taken out.

            In fact, as Juan Williams pointed out on Fox, Hoffa’s overheated rhetoric is likely to lead to a sympathy backlash for those of us proudly in the tea party movement which is saving this country and laborers everywhere from self-destruction.

            Keep up the good work, Don Hoffa.  Your father couldn’t have done a better job of demonizing an opponent to such a degree that you look bad and the opponent looks good.

            Yes, we forgive the Labor Don, but Bob Beckel, another Fox commentator, is not to be forgiven on two fronts.

            On Fox’s Five show Tuesday, Beckel insisted that calling someone a socialist is worse than calling someone a son of a bitch. 

            Oh really!

            Socialist is a perfectly good political description of someone; in fact, many would consider it a compliment (at least many would have in years when big government control of our lives was more in favor).

            No one would consider being called a son of a bitch a compliment.

            Beckel ranted that Hoffa calling an entire group of people “son of bitches” is not as far off base as is anyone calling Barack Obama a socialist (which he certainly is, to at least some degree, a rather large degree in fact).

            While there are certainly degrees of being a socialist, you’re either a son of a bitch or you’re not, a fact seemingly lost on the bloated Democrat hack whom Fox insists on foisting upon us with his outrages day after day.

            Beckel calls people bastards and sons of bitches on a regular basis—the words roll right off his tongue as surely as vile and hack roll off my tongue.

            However, his vulgarity is the least of Beckel's offenses.

            His tendency to make things up, either out of willful ignorance or downright viciousness, is precisely what fuels the type of comments Jimmy Hoffa goes out an proclaims.  After all, if I believed some of the things Beckel says about tea party members, I might want to call us “son of bitches” as well.

          Feeble-minded (not to mention feeble-tongued) such as Hoffa fall prey to Beckel’s ignorant rants and Beckel’s colleagues at Fox forgive him, usually ending each show by noting what a nice guy he is even when he spouts an hour of crap.

           He is not a nice guy.

Bob Beckel is a vile hack who should not be taken seriously.

          Here’s a case in point.  Tuesday, Beckel actually said members of the Tea Party take Constitution so literally that they would deny women the right to vote, presumably because women were not allowed to vote in 1789 when the Constitution was ratified.  This type of absurd hate speech is what inspires the feeble-minded like Hoffa. 

          There is of course not truth to Beckel’s assertion any more than there would be truth to saying Tea Party members want us to bring back slavery which existed in 1789.

         Amendments once ratified are as much a part of the Constitution as the original words.  Amendments allow women to vote and blacks full equality. Few, if anyone, in the Tea Party movement would take us back to the bad old days (I’ve spent most of my life fighting for equal rights for ALL), but Bob Beckel finds it perfectly acceptable to spread this vile canard.

         Sorry, Bob, what we in the tea party movement mean by adherence to the Constitution is the founding father’s devotion to smaller government, more locally controlled government, all concepts which have never been altered by amendments.

         Certainly Beckel is no fool, so that’s a distinction he ought to be able to make, but his hatred for the Tea Party knows no bounds.  His hatred is based on false assumptions which he and his ilk have convinced themselves and now feel duty bound to spread to the feeble-minded like Hoffa.

          Jimmy Hoffa is to be forgiven whether he wants to be or not; Bob Beckel cannot be forgiven whether he wants to be or not...

           Bob Beckel is much worse than Jimmy Hoffa even on his worst day (and Labor Day was certainly the worst day in a long time for the labor Don).

Ray Buckley's Secret Life As A Republican

            With all the talk about Democratic Party Raymond Charles Buckley’s being fined $5000 by the Attorney General for his illegal phone calls regarding Bill O’Brien attempt to get on both sides of the ballot last fall, here’s what you probably haven’t seen in the lame stream media and probably won’t see.

            In fact, some in the drive by media would have you believe that attempting to get on both sides of the ballot is somehow unseemly.

            Buckley himself is no stranger to the strategy, but when he accomplished the feat in 1994, no Republican came out with a dirty trick against him.

            Here’s how it works.  Often times in races for State Reps, one party or the other fails to fill the slate, leaving a spot vacant.  In the past, only ten write-in votes were required during the other party’s primary, and voila! you’d be listed on both sides.  That number has been increased to 35 write-ins today, but it’s still not that difficult for an industrious candidate to accomplish.  One could, for example, obtain a check list of all those who voted in the other party’s most recent primary and make personal appears, either through the mail or in door-to-door visits.

            In 994, only two Republicans in Manchester’s Ward 8 were running for three State Rep seats.  It turned out to be a highly Republican year.  Steve Merrill received 73 percent of the vote against statewide property tax proponent Wayne King.  He won ward 8 by an even larger margin, 1806-527.  That’s nearly 81 percent of the vote, and the dirty little secret that the Democratic Chair doesn’t want you to know is that he won in 1994 only because he was a Republican that year.

            At the time, he admitted as much, but he went even farther. Buckley contended (and rightly so) that Senator John King would have lost that year as well had the Republicans been able to find an opponent.  King also was on both sides of the ballot in Wards 5, 6, 7, 8, and Auburn.  As always, you don’t have to take my word for it; check out the 1995 “Red Book” No. 54.

            Being on both sides of the ballot is a tried and true strategy.  In fact, remember how I recently noted that Strafford County Democratic Commissioner Bob Watson would most likely have lost to a fellow Democrat last year had he not been written in by Republicans in the primary and been on both sides.  Thus, being on both sides usually works to “screw” (or shall we say to gain an advantage over) one of your fellow party members.

            It virtually guarantees a win in the general election.

            That’s why Buckley tried it and pulled it off in 1994 (he got 41 Republican write-ins).  He knew he would otherwise have lost.

           That’s why Bill O’Brien tried it in 2010; he failed, getting only eight Democratic write-ins.  In fact, between the time for filing had closed and the primary vote, Democrats had found their own write-in candidate (Kay Jencks) and worked to get her 351 votes.  Of course, Bill O’Brien, unlike Buckley, didn’t need to be on both sides of the ticket.

           Ironically, Republicans in 2010 also failed to fill the three State Rep seats in Ward 8, and had one of the Democrats (Mike Farley for example--apparently Raybo wasn't willing to share the strategy with another!) pulled a Buckley and gotten enough write-ins in the Republican primary, he rather than Tom Katsiantonis would have been the third winner in November.  Of course had Republicans been able to fill the slate in both Wards 8 and 6, they would have won 300 rather than 298 seats in 2010.

           Once a few years back, Buckley was so afraid that I     would get enough Democrat write-ins to be on both sides of the ballot, he coerced Maureen Nagle into putting her name on the ballot. She had no intention of either running or serving and twice went to the Secretary of State’s office to get her name removed from the ballot after the primary, but having failed to do that, she was forced to run.  She won and then failed to serve.

          Oh what games party hacks like Buckley play, and it’s only fitting justice that he get slapped with a $5000 fine for an otherwise innocent stuff. 

           This would fall under the category of a hack trying to be too cute by half.

           Put another way, it couldn’t happen to a nicer guy, but you’ll never hear that from Tom Fahey, John DiStaso or other reporters who are in Buckley’s pocket.

           That’s what blogs are for, to uncover truths which would otherwise remain hidden.

NH Senate Kills Photo ID, REGGI Repeal, Overrides Gun Bill Veto

CORRECTION INCLUDED IN BOLD

            The New Hampshire Senate overrode three more vetoes from Governor John Lynch Wednesday, including the so-called castle doctrine bill (SB88), but the photo ID for voting bill (SB129) went down big time (17 of 24 senators including 12 of 19 Republicans sided with the Governor) and repeal of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (SB154) failed by one vote with both Senate President Peter Bragdon and Majority Leader Jeb Bradley siding with the governor.

            Defeat of REGGI repeal must be considered a major blow for Republicans, and the fact that the party was stabbed in the back (whoops!  are such metaphors allowed any more?) by the Senate President should make this especially painful for House Republicans.

            Bragdon was no surprise.  After all, he was an original sponsor of REGGI last year.  I was originally informed by Senate Majority leader Jeb Bradley also voted with the Governor, but apparently someone was passing along incorrect information from the incompetent Union Leader reporter Tom Fahey, so I must apologize for naming Bradley as an opponent of REGGI repeal.  He had in fact promised House leaders that he supported repeal during the budget process in the spring, so it's reassuring to see that he kept his word.

            In fact, you may recall that I held out against voting for HB2, the budget trailer bill, insisting that we include REGGI repeal in that.  The Speaker told Republicans not to worry, that we’d get it outside the budget process.  I did worry, and now it appears that REGGI stays at least for another year.  What did the House get in return?  A ten cent per pack cigarette tax decrease.

            You just can’t make this stuff up.

            Tis a sad day.

            The photo idea bill was no surprise, but the magnitude of Lynch’s victory sure was.  Since passage of this bill, more problems were discovered, and everyone expected Lynch’s veto to be upheld and for the House and Senate to start from scratch this coming year.  The sledding might not be much easier.  The Senate wants cameras installed at polling places for those who come in without IDs.  House Election Law Chair David Bates opposes that and pushes for provisional voting which the Senate, Governor and Secretary of State all oppose.

            Go figure.

            Of the three bills which passed despite the governor’s veto, only the gun bill really matters.  Lynch needed to peel off four Republicans, and he had rallied law enforcement officers from around the state in his efforts.  They all came up short.  Only Senators Bob O’Dell and Nancy Stiles sided with Lynch; the vote was 17-7; and the House will certainly override the governor.

            The Senate overrode a veto on a pension reform bill, but it didn’t really matter; the subject matter was already included in the budget.

            The Senate, by a 17-7 vote, also overrode the so-called pay day loan bill (SB57) which would reinstate high interest rates.  However, that bill only passed by nine votes, 180-171, in the House with much of the opposition from religious Republicans who apparently have a hot line to heaven and God tells them that, libertarian urges be damned, we must not allow high rates of interest, even if people are willing to pay it.

            As I say, you just can’t make this stuff up.

            Overall, except for the gun bill, it wasn’t a bad day for the governor.