Soft Underbelly

NH House Rep Kris E Roberts, in a comment made over on the Marchand Group web site (a democrat campaign and advocacy consulting group) we see evidence of what I’ve suggested all along; that a vote for any democrat is a vote for the leadership’s agenda and little else.  Kris is commenting at the end of  an article regarding the statistical problems for democrats keeping House seats in districts that tend to vote Republican in a year when the left is on the ropes.  The article itself is worth reading but the comment is priceless.

There is more to this than many want to say, the party leadership both at the state level and the House level have created a very negative mood with many current House Members.  Many members feel as if they don’t matter, that leadership has done nothing to help them develop into better Rep.   Leadership rarely asked for their imput (sic), or opinions.  It has been like a high school click, where only the special people matter.

The result; there are many people not running because they have serious problems with the people in leadership positions.
In Keene a rock solid safe D area, it is possible that we will have unfill (sic) slots.

That was brave of him. 

For the record, Kris E. Roberts is a democrat from Keene (Ches. 03) and has been in the House since 2006(*).  The NHHRA rated him at 14% in 2007, 17% in 2008, 41% in 2009 and 32% in 2010.  41% put him at the bottom of the RINO territory and ahead of a few ‘so-called’ republicans.  [(*)see correction in coments below]

So the honeymoon was over after the first term.  He was re-elected then attempted to vote his conscious a few times.  I think we can see how that went over.   His ratings slid back a bit but not to his halcyon days in the mid teens.  He’s clearly not happy with how things get run on the left side of the aisle and he claims he’s not alone.

So let’s do a quick review of Mr. Roberts “issues” with his caucus leadership.

State level and house democrat leadership created a very negative mood 

Many (democrat) members feel as if they don’t matter

Leadership has done nothing to help them into a better rep 

Leadership rarely asks their input

It's like a high school click

Many are not running because they have serious problems with the people in leadership 

In Keene…it is possible that we will have unfilled slots?

So the BORG queen runs a mean ship and the rabble are restless which is more or less how we pictured it.  You are there to vote their agenda, and at least a few of them have had enough of it.

Comments

[Steve Mac Donald]

Got this correction sent to me from a reader.

"Kris Roberts was first elected in 2004 not 2006, he was chair of State-Federal Relations & Veterans Affairs in 2006. Not sure when Garrity replaced him but Roberts did run against Norelli for Speaker after the 2008 election."

[Steve Mac Donald]

Just to follow up, the new information alters the analysis a bit.

If that's all correct it's obvious Mr. Roberts feelings about the direction of the caucus inspired him to challange Norelli. That failure may have been his motivation to change his appraoch to voting. Wheter he's more a 20% or a 40% we can only speculate but there is an obvious rift and Roberts is presenting it as significant enough to affect members willingness to continue serving under the current circumstances.

[Keith]

There are at least 8 people running as Democrats in Keene and there are only 7 positions.

[Steve Mac Donald]

Good for Keene. But the general malaise is evident. As of the Friday deadline they were short close to 100 candidates. They managed to worm their way down to 56 uncontested seats--that's quite a few. I think Kris got it right. People are less inclined to particiapte if they think they will be badgered and badmouted as well as ill treated and ignored. And now the GOP stands to pick up almost 30 without spending a dime.