Roll Call Examines Why The NH-GOP is Such a Mess

Roll Call has an article that will be making the rounds.  According to some people from around the Republican firmamanet…

The Granite State’s political infrastructure is “a mess,” complain out-of-state GOP consultants, and the state has become an increasingly difficult place to run campaigns.

The article goes on to observe some coincidences with problems in the national party, problems with turnover in the party structure itself, and in the control of the legislature.  It then quotes “Tea Party Critic” Fergus Cullen, which I suppose makes sense because he happens to be one of the GOP “experts” at standing idly by while New Hampshire turned Purple, or is it Blue?

Cullen thinks 2010 was an outlier that can’t be duplicated. While Jack Kimball, whom I suppose we could identify as a ‘Fergus Cullen Critic,’ believes those voters could be inspired to turn out for the GOP again.

Meanwhile, top recruits are waiting for a better sense of the national political landscape before jumping into a 2014 race for House or Senate. New Hampshire Republicans struggle as the local party out of power — with fundraising, and most of all, with the chasm between the tea party and the more traditional GOP establishment in the state.

Longtime Granite State Republicans blame the tea party for hurting the GOP’s brand with independents. And the tea party activists blame the party elders for exclusion.

This factionalism led to upheaval at the party’s helm. Party chairmen and executive directors come and go (or are sometimes outright ousted), which means various officials and operatives are pitted against each other about once a year.

The state party, as defined by its platform, is a pro-liberty, Conservative vehicle.   It is the establishment that has chosen to ignore that in pursuit of other things.  And one of those things is the affection of the national party, which has wandered even further off the reservation.  So the conservative and Libertarian arms of the party differ primarily because the establishment Republicans are behaving more like Democrats.

The article then visits the challenge Jennifer Horn faces in sorting this all out, with observations about whether Senator Kelly Ayotte will provide some much needed foundation, then finally arrives at what I happen to think is the biggest issue we face as a party.

The First in the Nation Primary.

Roll Call observes…

Aside from these internal clashes, what hurts the party most is what the state fights so hard to keep: its first-in-the-nation primary placement on the presidential nominating calendar.

In 2016, national Republicans will host their third nomination battle for the White House in as many presidential cycles. As a result, the local GOP’s most talented political staff spends at least two years of every cycle working against one another on presidential campaigns.

I have suggested that the internal clashes are a feature, not a bug of the FITN primary, when it comes to Republicans.

I will tell you that I think the obsession with New Hampshire’s first in the nation primary is a debilitating albatross that keeps the well heeled backroom establishment folks (and their rising camp followers) on the invite lists to all the best parties with all the right people, but does little or nothing to help us raise more money to elect Republicans in New Hampshire–which, if I am not mistaken, is the actual point of the state party in the first place.

Sure, we get to fill hotel rooms with campaign staffers and media hacks for a few months, and the sunlight shines a little brighter on the words of every political pundit or diner occupant with two thoughts to rub together (including myself), but if that doesn’t help us raise more money or elect more Republicans in New Hampshire, we are nothing more than quadrennial reality show rejects chasing photo-ops and hand shakes for our scrap-books and Facebook pages, for no tangible long term advantage.

The FITN is like the Oscars for the consultants and experts who launder money for the National Party and who stand guard at the gated community where all the big check writers reside, except that the after parties come before the awards, and you need to know people to get taken seriously.  None of which consistently adds money to the party coffers or results in more Republicans getting elected down ticket.

So the chasm between real Republicans and the modern establishment or Progressive Republicans is a matter of party before principle.  The party wants to win regardless of principle so it is all about connections, control, influence, and even acting like a Democrat if that is what is required to win elections, even though it doesn’t win elections. 

Platform Republicans, Libertarians, Conservatives, (The so called Tea Party folks), view that as detrimental to the idea of Republicanism, liberty and personal responsibility–Freedom.

You want to bring us together?  Stop acting like you would trade your country (or your state) for a few pieces of silver.

You are reading  "Roll Call Examines Why The NH-GOP is Such a Mess"   by  Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)

Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012

Wayne Mac Donald ..”People who blog are those who are “ruining” the party”

Kathy Benuck was a delegate at the GOP State party Convention Saturday and has a nice write-up here (LondonderryPatch).  She has some great observations and asks some good questions.  But what caught my attention (naturally) is this…

After the meeting had been adjourned, I approached the outgoing party chairman, and I related that I was highly disappointed that the election results were not disclosed. I asked why they had not been. He impatiently told me that for “unity” purposes, there was no need to give the results of the vote. I stated that it sounded more like “secrecy’ to me, and that perhaps such things had something to do with people losing faith in the NH Republican party. He told me that he was not going to waste his time discussing the vote with me. Oh yeah … and he also said that people who blog are those who are “ruining” the party.

emphasis mine

Note to departing Chairman Wayne Mac Donald…assuming Ms. Benuck got the quote right, and I expect she did, if what passes for your idea of a state party is what Bloggers are ruining, then may we accelerate its demise so that it may be reborn Phoenix-like as something for the good of all Republicans, not just the important ones whose turn it is or who happen to know which hands to shake and which cheeks to kiss.

I congratulate her on her victory but I do not envy Ms. Horn her task if the rest of the old guard is of a similar mind.  Wayne MacDonald just shot Unity.  It is now in critical condition, its chances of survival…unknown.

NHJournal – Maybe I jumped the Gun On the Importance of Spelling…(Part II of II)

I may have been a bit premature when I titled my first Blog “NHJournal – Where Spelling Is More Important Than Integrity.”

Just for a refresher, Shawn Millerick thought it would be funny to point out how I left a letter out of his first name and misspelled Pat Hynes last name (My spell checker keeps trying to change it to Haynes by the way).  Typos! -Going for the jugular.  And I pointed out that I could fix the typos but that his lying to his readers, for what I can only assume was as a favor to the NH-GOP political establishment power-brokers, might not be so easy to fix.  (And if he just did it for kicks and not the GOP would that be better or worse?)

While integrity is still an issue (now and forever) it turns out he has some other problems as well, and they are pretty damn funny considering.  Pull quotes from Mr. Millerick’s piece please…

On Tuesday, the New Hampshire chapter of Americans for Prosperity bestowed upon GraniteGrok’s Steve MacDonald the lofty title of ‘Blogger of the Month.’

Actually, the news release is dated the 17th, which was Monday, not Tuesday.  Calendars were invented before 1925, right?  It’s also a national award from AFPhq, reported through the New Hampshire chapter if you must know.

And I did mention spelling…

That said, it also seems like we should note who Steve Macdonald keeps company with. It’s really just best to let their words for speak for themselves.

You spelled it MacDonald earlier (a few times) and you spell it Macdonald here.  Which is it?  I don’t care but if you are going to throw stones…and in the very article in which you throw them?  Sad.

More? OK!

Referring to professional women as ‘skirts’ has become something of a trend among MacDonand and his fellow ‘Grokers.

Nitpicking…it’s Groksters not Grokers (unless you are being clever in which case Bravo!).  And in this sentence you spell my last name MacDonand. (The “l” is up and to the right of the ‘n,’ but then a wordsmith like yourself would already know that.)

One more point.  Thanks for inviting me back to your sandbox.  So far it’s been great fun.

(And yeah.  I saved a copy of the web page for posterity.)

Update:  Will Millerick correct these embarrassing errors more quickly than he wrote a retraction for his fabricated story about a meeting with Jack Kimball, Skip Murphy, Joe Barton, Diane Bitter,… and maybe Santa Clause and Bigfoot, I can’t recall exactly?  Wait.  Did he write a retraction yet?

You are reading  "NHJournal – Maybe I jumped the Gun On the Importance of Spelling…"   by  Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)

Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012

NHJournal – Where Spelling Is More Important Than Integrity (Part I of II)

I have to admit that Shawn Millerick got me good when he said I couldn’t spell.  Actually the problem is that I am not terribly adept at typing and I try to squeeze out posts before work and after the kids go to bed.  I’m not always thorough.  But on a positive note, I don’t make up meetings out of thin air to smear my political opponents.

Millerick would also like you to believe that I am insulting a female candidate (Jennifer Horn) when I use the word pimping.   I apologize if I was unclear.  I’m actually insulting him, NHJournal, and whoever it is in the GOP establishment that is yanking his pull string.

They are the ones who cleared the deck in the Chairman’s race and then had Millerick take a cheap shot at the Tea Party side of the GOP with the faux-Kimball-meeting post.  Horn is just the newest chess piece in a game we played with the same so-called Republicans just two short years ago.

By the way, I’d like to commend Millerick on his choice of attack material.  The only other person in my memory to make similar accusations was Harrell Kirstein, in a press release for the New Hampshire Democrat Party.   I threw him under the bus and he left me alone after that.

Shawn!  Just to be clear I didn’t actually throw Harrell under an actual bus.

I do not expect to be as fortunate here but whatever happens let us not skirt the real issue.  I can go back and fix my spelling errors (which I did–my grammar is hopeless so forget that). And AFP can do whatever they want because I don’t work for them and I’ll keep blogging about what interests me whether I am Blogger of the month or not.  But can Millerick and NHJournal go back and undo the fact that they lied to their readers for what appears to be a political favor to GOP power brokers?  And how can anyone ever trust anything they put in print again given this compete lack of integrity?

Wait! Don’t pay any attention to that. I misspelled Shawn and Hynes and used the word pimp.  Now that’s important stuff.

You are reading  "NHJournal – Where Spelling Is More Important Than Integrity"   by  Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)

 

Steve has been recognized as the Americans For Prosperity Blogger of the month for December 2012

NH TEA Party Republicans Better At Revenue & Spending Estimates Than Democrats…Again!

I know… New Hampshire Democrats were losing sleep in hopes of some politically-beneficial revenue numbers, and guess what?  They were politically beneficial….To TEA Party Republicans.

The Union Leader is reporting that New Hampshire state revenues were slightly above estimates in July, with solid performances that suggest we are budgeting wisely so that the working families and small business owners in New Hampshire can continuing to drag us out of the economic quick sand in which Democrat tax and spend polices have had us trapped.

So How well did the TEA Party Republicans manage your money for July 2012?

A few highlights from the Article by Gary Rano…  

• • Business taxes returned $17.9 million, $2.7 million than budget writers anticipated and $2.8 million more than a year ago.
  • The rooms and meals tax produced $23.3 million in July, $2.4 million ahead of plan and $2.2 million more than a year ago.
  • The Department of Revenue Administration attributed the good results to an improved economy and good weather in June.
  • The tobacco tax was slightly ahead of target, producing $19.2 million in July, while liquor revenue also was about what was anticipated, returning $12.1 million. Also, the communications tax was on target returning $7.2 million for the month.
  • The real estate transfer tax is beginning to rebound after years of dismal returns. In July, the tax produced $8.5 million, 13.3 percent ahead of estimates and about $1 million more than a year ago.
  • Below estimates for the month were the securities, utility consumption, beer and gaming taxes. The only levy to produce less than it did a year ago was the beer tax, down $100,000 on returns of $1.3 million.

Numbers coming in slightly above plan.  The tax base building slowly without new taxes and fees.  None of that constant left-wing fiscal crisis.  (No 800 million dollar deficits.) Just another great reason to make sure Republicans continue as the responsible stewards of your tax dollars.  Yeah, Democrats will hate this so it must be a good thing.

Image Credit- Squawkfox.com

You are reading "NH TEA Party Republicans...Better at Spending & Revenue Estimates...Again!"  by Steve Mac Donald originally posted at GraniteGrok.com (Home)