NH Governor Chris Sununu is back on the campaign trail. How do we know? The braggadocio machine is turned on, and cranked up to high volume.
In a newly published interview with CNBC we see a familiar theme:
“We’re booming,” New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu told CNBC.
New Hampshire’s real estate is selling quickly, Sununu said, adding that he’s getting frequent calls from companies looking to relocate to the “Live Free or Die” state.
Where have we heard this before?
NHPR April 2017:
Governor Chris Sununu says he’s more than made good on a key campaign promise: That he’d personally meet with 100 out-of-state businesses in 100 days.
Sununu says his outreach is symbolic of his administration’s commitment to economic development, but the Governor couldn’t say any companies would relocate here, and wouldn’t share the names of any companies he met with.
NHPR 2018 in an interview asked about businesses moving to NH:
"Yeah, we've seen businesses come in. I sat with a woman from a small company in Arizona. I sat with a gentleman with a small company just outside of Montreal. He's in Berlin now, she's over in Portsmouth. We have had large companies come in. We talked to businesses in Massachusetts all the time that are trying to, again, create more opportunity and flexibility for themselves and their workers. They're coming up here. We have had businesses that were thinking one time of leaving, expanding elsewhere, like Hitchiner or BAE. They're now here and they're investing millions of dollars right here in New Hampshire. Lonza is a great example of an international company that decided, with the Trump tax cuts, they were going to make a very large investment in one of their facilities around the world. They chose Portsmouth."
A closer look at that heaping helping of word salad reveals that he can name ONE company that moved to NH, and vaguely allude to two others.
NHPR 2019
Gov. Chris Sununu paid a whirlwind visit to New York City this week.
There were interviews on CNBC’s Squawk Box, a sit-down on David Webb's SIRUS XM show, and multiple Fox News appearances.
Sununu's remarks were a blend of braggadocio ("I could fix Connecticut in about 20 minutes") and policy talk ("I don't have a sales tax, I don't have an income tax"), laced with a steady supply of #603pride.
"The businesses coming out of New York and Connecticut and up to New Hampshire, it’s phenomenal," he said on Squawk Box. “So, yeah, I come and poach businesses all the time.”
Confirming those boasts, however, is difficult.
Citing confidentiality, Sununu's office declined to identify a single business he had "poached" from New York or Connecticut, or any other state."
Confidentiality is code for "it's never happened."
Getting back to CNBC
"The Republican governor said New York, Massachusetts and other high-tax states are “pickpocketing” New Hampshire residents by taxing out-of-state employees who are no longer commuting into their states to work."
If NH is "booming" and all these companies are moving to the state, why are so many NH residents commuting to other states to work? Why don't reporters ever ask him that question?
1 comment:
I get that a governor has to sell the state, but we all know this is way beyond such a duty. It's aggrandisement meant to puff him up and sell his facade to the electorate.
Wish I had confidence that voters look for something more substantive than 'he's friendly'. Those of us who have been around things where he pretends to value them and what they contribute know better.
He'd do well in a PR position. As governor, not so much.
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