Colorado Corky - NH's Latest Carpetbagger

Carpetbaggers are a familiar phenomenon in NH. This year's GOP model is Bryant "Corky" Messner. 

Corky lived/lives in Colorado, but decided his summer place in Wolfeboro was home last year when he decided (or was recruited) to run against NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen. 

Corky is a businessman and a veteran. He founded a big law firm in Denver, where his firm defended Chipotle in some sexual harassment and discrimination cases. More on that in Salon
He's also in some legal hot water over a foundation he started that doesn't seem to be doing exactly what it's supposed to do. Washington Post

Corky has been endorsed by Trump, and by former speaker of the NH House, Bill O'Brien. 

It's hard to say how Corky will fare in the primary, but I'm not optimistic about his chances. Also, I can't help but wonder why a man his age uses his kindergarten nickname. 

Edited to add that Corky was accused of domestic violence in 2006, by his now ex-wife. Patch

Step into the wayback machine to remember a few other carpetbaggers: 

Walt Havenstein was imported to run for governor in 2014. He was living in Maryland, even got a homesteader tax break, because it was his principle residence. He had a vacation home in Alton, which he suddenly decided was where he really lived when he chose to run for governor. Valley News

Maryland decided to come after him for tax evasion. WMUR

Two years later, Havenstein announced he wasn't going to run for governor again, and that he was selling his house and planned to "relocate." WMUR

Scott Brown moved from Massachusetts to NH in 2013, to run for the US Senate in 2014. In one of my favorite stories from that campaign, a UK reporter tried to ask him a question in a restaurant in N. Conway. Brown refused to answer, and hid in the bathroom until reporter Paul Lewis of The Guardian left the building. No amount of duct tape applied to the bumper of his pickup  could erase the stain of his cowardice.

The NH GOP clown car is always full, even if they have to import the passengers. 

#Free Pindell

During a media shitstorm a few years ago, when Jack Kimball, Kevin Smith, and other Republicans were loudly calling for my head - James Pindell was the only reporter in the state who actually called me to get my comments. Every other reporter just wrote up the wingnut version of the story. 

WMUR ranked third in the US for running US Senate related ads this year. Over 10,000 of them. It's no wonder there are marble floors in the WMUR lobby. They have a very lucrative monopoly which serves to benefit 2 entities: WMUR and the GOP. I've spent the last two years at the State House watching Josh McElveen pander shamelessly to the GOP - running straight to JR Hoell of all people, nearly every time he entered the House chamber. He never speaks to a Democrat unless he absolutely has to. He doesn't even bother with a pretense of fairness. 

Reporters all over the country are being silenced by Big Money. Dave McKinney recently resigned from the Chicago Sun Times because management caved to the Rauner campaign and made it impossible for McKinney to do his job. Rauner is now mayor of Chicago, and there will be fewer reporters covering him. That's how it's going everywhere. The Telegraph ditched State House Reporter Kevin Landrigan. There are 3 AP stringers in NH - down from 12. This biennium there will be only 2 seasoned reporters at the NH State House - Garry Rayno and Josh Rogers. 

I don't think that James should be fired for making Scott Brown uncomfortable. I don't think James should be fired because of the influence of Big Money. 

Furthermore, WMUR is broadcasting over our public airwaves. They should be held accountable. 

It's Almost Over

It’s almost over. A few more political ads ought to help us choose what candidates to vote for. Is there really anyone left who is undecided? Nationwide, over $4 billion is being spent on the midterm elections. Good thing we don’t have anything important we could be spending $4 billion on. The corporate taps are open wide and the dark money is flowing.

Thanks to all that money, we know that Scott Brown knows only one number. 99. We know that he’s attempting to whip white NH into a frenzy about immigration and Ebola. The fear is supposed to divert you from paying attention to why he’s here. He’s here because he lost his Senate seat in Massachusetts, and he’d like to use NH as a springboard to higher office. I’ve been to debates and forums where Brown spoke, and his ground support is thin. What can anyone say about him? He’s never done anything in NH except vacation and run for office. Brown grew up in Massachusetts, went to school there, was married and had a family there, had a career there, got into politics there. If Elizabeth Warren hadn’t beaten him, he’d still be there. The first time Scott Brown casts a vote here it will be for himself.

This is a man who has repeatedly refused to speak with members of the press, going so far as to hide in a bathroom to avoid a reporter. As you ponder his name on your ballot ask yourself this: Should New Hampshire’s US Senate seat be a consolation prize for a guy whose ambition is the only reason he’s here?

Thanks to all the money, we know that Frank Guinta blames Carol Shea-Porter for everything except his toilet training. At the WMUR debate, he was unable to answer even what was presented as a yes or no question without trying to complain about our Congresswoman. He nattered on endlessly about all of the job fairs he had during his single term. I went to 2 of them. The Conway fair was held 2 weeks after a real job fair. The one staged by Guinta was a photo op, and sadly for him, not a single photographer showed up. No one found a job that day, or at any of the other job fairs. If anyone had, they’d be trotted out for display at every opportunity. Frank’s forgotten bank account (the one with the half million he donated to his campaign in 2010) is still being investigated by the FEC. When he ran in 2010, Guinta wailed ceaselessly about CSP’s alleged abuses of the Congressional franking system. He went on to become the number one franking abuser of the 2011-12 Congress.

Guinta learned nothing from being defeated. He still hates gummint, but thinks you should send him back to be part of it. He’s tried to present himself as an independent, bipartisan thinking kind of guy, but that’s not borne out by his voting record, which showed him marching along in party lockstep 96% of the time. Guinta wants to turn the Social Security trust fund over to Wall St. He wants to repeal Obamacare, returning us to those halcyon days of the pre-existing condition, and high cost/high deductable plans that don’t cover much of anything. He is all wound up about Ebola, but doesn’t seem to grasp that public health is a security issue. We should be working to rebuild our once robust public health system.

After listening to a lot of Guinta, it’s clear that he doesn’t have any ideas or plans to move us forward. Frank has only one setting on his gearshift, and that’s reverse.

I was sorry to miss the recent local candidate’s forum, but the write-up in the paper provided such perfect illustration that I could almost hear Frank McCarthy bellowing out his misinformation. Frank is full of “facts,” like the nonsense he spewed about marijuana.  The marijuana law in Colorado does not give free pot to welfare recipients and tens of thousands of potheads are not moving to Colorado. This bellicose purveyor of foolishness should not be given a return ticket to Concord. 

NH is the seventh wealthiest state in the nation, yet we have the 11^th worst infrastructure. Vermont has just about finished wiring their whole state for high-speed internet access. NH has a commission that is still gathering information before acting. Our infrastructure problems, combined with our unwillingness to fund education are the root causes of our economic stagnation. Yet still we hear the same slogans that got us into the mess we’re in taken as some sort of gospel: “NH doesn’t have a revenue problem, NH has a spending problem.” That’s true in the sense that NH is unwilling to raise sufficient revenue to fund our state properly. That’s why we have hundreds of bridges on a red list for structural impairment. Representative Chandler seemed quite comfortable with the fact that we raise insufficient revenue to do the work that desperately needs to be done. Carl Thibodeau is spouting the same old drivel about how to turn the economy around. Union busting won’t magically give NH a 21^st century infrastructure.  Also, guy who dons a Santa suit and stands outside the polls insulting voters might be seen as lacking sufficient gravitas for serving in even our volunteer legislature.

Judging from the reporting on this forum, guns and MOAR GUNZ are the most important issue facing NH. The same people who are desperate to make voting as difficult as possible are living in desperate, scrotum-shriveling fear that gun buyers should have to go through background checks. Mark Hounsell doesn’t seem to think domestic abusers should lose their gun rights. Domestic violence is a leading cause of death in NH. Over 50% of the murders committed in NH between 2001-2010 were related to domestic violence, and over 90 percent of the murder-suicides. Instead of worrying about beheadings in Conway village, Mark would do well to contact Starting Point to learn about domestic violence in NH.

It’s almost over. The calls, the mailers, the surveys will stop for a few months. For now there are still a few days left to research candidates so that we all make informed decisions on Tuesday when we cast our ballots.

In Addition:

This was sent to me by Mark Hounsell:

"If a person is found to be a felon for action as a domestic abuser, based on a conviction in a court of law, that person should loose they right to carry a firearm." - You are free to quote me on this."

This was published as an op-ed in the October 31 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

©sbruce 2014

 

Does Connection to Place Matter?

Scott Brown was born at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine. His father worked at Pease AFB in Portsmouth. The first couple of years of his life he lived in NH. He grew up in Massachusetts. He went to school there, got married there, started his family there, was part of his community there – in Massachusetts.  His political career began in Massachusettts. He was elected to the US Senate there, and he lost reelection there, too.

He moved to NH this year to run for the US Senate. Beyond having a vacation home, he has no ties to our state. He’s not part of a community. He hasn’t served on local boards or committees. He hasn’t welcomed the new babies, or comforted grieving neighbors over the loss of a family member. Brown has no base of support, which is visible at every debate. Sure there are people standing around with signs – but that has nothing to do with him, and everything to do with his political party. He has never worked in NH. I’m not sure he’s ever been to town meeting. He’s never voted in a statewide election.

That’s why his support is so thin. Temple Adath Yeshurun in Manchester had a breakfast forum on Sunday morning for CD 1 candidates Carol Shea-Porter and Frank Guinta, gubernatorial candidates Maggie Hassan and Walter Havenstein, and US Senate candidates Jeanne Shaheen and Scott Brown. Shaheen’s campaign is a machine. Volunteers kept arriving, and a van held enough signs to hand out to every person in Manchester. In contrast, there were some people holding Brown totems. The Shaheen volunteers started a chant. The Brown supporters had no chant. How could they? He’s never done anything here.

Jeanne Shaheen grew up in Missouri. She moved to NH 40 years ago. She worked as a teacher in Dover. She raised a family here. She’s been a part of her community. She served 2 terms in the NH state senate, then served 3 terms as governor. In 2002 Shaheen lost her first bid for the US Senate, in part because of GOP phone jamming on elecion day. John Sununu, Jr. served one term before being ousted by Shaheen in 2008.

So, does place matter?

This is a small state. Does it matter that she may be “from away,” but she’s been part of her community and her state for 40 years? As governor, when the paper mills started to die in Berlin, she fought to keep the mills open and the workers on the job. It was a big deal,  because most NH politicians don’t pay much attention to anything that happens in the vast frozen tundra north of Concord. She is still beloved in the north country. Jeanne Shaheen is on intimate terms with NH. She knows the challenges that face NH as we kick and scream our way into the 20^th century. She knows the problems our state faces.

She’s been a public servant. NH isn’t a springboard for Shaheen’s ambition. This is where her family and friends are. This is where her life is.

Scott Brown may have lovely memories of vacations in NH. He has not been a public servant here. He hasn’t done anything for us. He doesn’t know what NH needs to move into the future. Quoting glib GOP slogans isn’t going to move our state forward – but it’s all he’s got.  NH is just a handy way station on his road to higher office. NH is not where his family and friends are. His life isn’t here – only his ambitions.

The Beauty Contest

From the moment girls are born, we are wrapped in little pink blankies and put into little pink outfits. We are encouraged to love Disney princesses, dress up our Barbie dolls, love sparkle and glitter, behave like little ladies, and above all, be pretty, pretty girlies!

The beauty contest begins the moment we appear. For the rest of our lives, we are judged on our appearance, and unless we are considered beautiful by societal standards, we are usually found wanting. The judges in the pageant that is our lives are not at all hesitant to let us know where we fall short of the male ideal of beauty. We are judged too tall, too short, too fat, too thin, too shrill, too feminine, too masculine, too much, or not enough.

From the time we start developing breasts, they become the focus of the male gaze. They are stared at, hooted at, and sometimes grabbed by complete strangers. Rather than look us in the eye, strangers speak to those breasts, as if they are unaware that they are attached to actual sentient beings. The older we get, the more intense the beauty contest becomes. The beauty contest includes our voices (don’t be shrill or strident!) our behavior (be ladylike – don’t make waves) and our brains (boys won’t like you if you’re too smart.)

What we look like is everything. That is reinforced daily through advertising and through the comments of men – men we may or may not know. If we are not cheerful chipmunks in every public moment, some guy will come along to tell us “you’d be so much prettier if you smiled.” In fact, throughout our lives, all kinds of people endlessly provide advice on ways to be “so much prettier.” The fun never stops.

If we choose to go into politics, the beauty contest is exacerbated. Men have a distinct advantage, beyond the whole patriarchy/money/power thing. They wear a uniform. Photographers never close in to catch a look at their ankles or their shoes. There are no write-ups on what a male candidate is wearing at an event. Seldom is the appearance of a man ever even remarked upon. There are some exceptions. Chris Christie is remarked upon for being portly, but it is often done in a joking way. Paul Ryan was photographed lifting weights. We were all supposed to be dazzled by his manly muscles. Wes Clark had the sweaters and the Speedo. Then, of course, there is Obama, who has been roundly mocked for wearing “dad” jeans, though how many of us would want our dads wearing anything else? Then there was the big kerfuffle about the tan suit. Because no president has ever worn a tan suit ….er…. except for Harry Truman, Ike, LBJ, and even Saint Ronnie Reagan. Of course it doesn’t matter what Obama wears, it’s always going to be wrong.

It’s a different ballgame for women. We had to hear about Hillary Clinton’s appearance endlessly. Her hair, her clothes, and as she aged, even her ankles. On a Twitter account, there’s a space for a short bio. Hillary’s mentions that she’s a “hair icon” and “pantsuit aficionado.” Sarah Palin was on the other end of the beauty obsession. From the beginning she was advertised to us as the hot GOP chick from Alaska, but the relentless focus on her hair, glasses, shoes, and wardrobe was tiresome. No one took photos of John McCain’s comb over, or his shapely legs. Michelle Obama has been criticized for wearing too many sleeveless dresses, for having muscular arms, for spending too much money on clothes, and for not spending enough; just whom does she think she’s fooling by shopping at Old Navy?

It never ends. For men, though, it never really begins. Scott Brown is the rare candidate whose looks are commented upon. I’ve never read a critique of Walt Havenstein’s suits or hairstyle. No newspaper ever remarks on the fact that Frank Guinta seems to wear a lot of red ties. All of the criticism and commentary is saved for women.

In 2011, an interviewer asked Elizabeth Warren a question about Scott Brown posing nude in Cosmo. She answered, “I kept my clothes on.” Brown heard about this and said, “Thank God.” His contempt for women was on display again over the weekend when he attended a tailgate party at UNH. While drunken fratboys shouted out rapey slurs about our US Senator, Scott Brown said nothing. If he’d turned to them and told them to stop, that’s no way to talk about our US Senator, or ANY woman, I’d be writing a very different piece, one that included the use of the term “respect.” Try as I might, I can’t remember a gang of women bellowing similar comments about any male candidate, anywhere, ever.

The beauty contest came home to NH in another form this weekend. State Representative Steve Vallaincourt of Manchester felt compelled to pen a blog post giving his opinion of Congresswoman Ann Kuster’s appearance. It was puerile and mean spirited, but that doesn’t surprise anyone who knows Steve Vallaincourt. The story hit the international fan hard, which meant the NH media couldn’t ignore it. Now he’s whining about being misunderstood. Some of his staunch male GOP defenders (brothers in misogyny) are blubbering about his First Amendment rights. What these guys never seem to get is that, yes, the First Amendment gives you the right to free speech. It does not give you immunity. If you say stupid stuff, you get to deal with it. I believe they call that taking personal responsibility. Why the women of the GOP continue to tacitly condone this kind of behavior remains a mystery.

That we’re still dealing with this kind of double standard in 2014 is depressing. That we haven’t evolved sufficiently to evaluate our female candidates (and all women) on the basis of their talents, experience, and qualifications is maddening. In 2013 a study done by the group Name It. Change It. found that when a female candidate’s appearance becomes the focus (positive or negative) they lose elections. One could begin to think it’s done intentionally.

“They always say the Miss America Pageant isn’t a beauty contest, it’s really a scholarship program. If that’s the case, why don’t we just put all the contestants on "Jeopardy” and pick Miss America that way?“ Jay Leno

Out of State Special Interests

We’ve survived the recent round of primary elections. The outcomes provided little in the way of surprise to most anyone save for Lawrence Lessig of the MayDay PAC. Lessig is a professor at Harvard who has worked to reduce legal restrictions on copyrights and trademarks. More recently he’s been active in promoting a Constitutional Convention. This year he initiated the NH Rebellion, a group that took some long walks to bring attention to the need for campaign finance reform. In May he launched the MayDay PAC, which was to be used to help elect candidates to Congress that would pass campaign finance reform.

MayDay PAC picked Senate candidate Jim Rubens to support in the recent primary. Like all single-issue organizations, this was all about campaign finance reform. I understood the initial strategy: vote for Rubens to oust Brown from the primary. I didn’t think it was apt to be successful, but I understood it. That Rubens had repellent views on women and wants to finish building a wall at the southern border didn’t matter to MayDay. It didn’t seem to occur to them that those OTHER views could be problematic.

Then Lessig made the fatal mistake of giving over $100,000 to the Stark 360 PAC. Stark 360 is a PAC created by rabid Republitarian Aaron Day of the Free State Project. On a state level, they’ve lobbied against campaign finance reform. Stark 360 ran some cheesy anti-Scott Brown ads, and had people at the polls with handouts telling folks not to vote for Brown. They were paid to be there, and under questioning, proved completely unable to explain why one should vote for Rubens. Stark 360 also seems to have diverted some of that MayDay cash into ads for Andrew Hemingway and Marilinda Garcia. Stark 360 didn’t have any money till Lessig came along to share his largesse. Many of the folks who donated to Lessig were furious. Giving money to folks who fight against your cause in the naïve hope that they’ll promote your candidate (Stark 360’s website never mentioned Rubens) is not a winning strategy. Rubens lost big. The only reason the liberty crowd supported Rubens was because of guns. They think Scott Brown is wussy on guns – and they oppose campaign finance reform. Lessig has been very cranky about all the criticism he’s recieved, and still doesn’t seem to grasp where and how he went wrong.

Every candidate gets a ton of questionnaires from special interest groups. The rule of thumb has always been, if you want to be on the record with this group fill out the questionnaire. If not – don’t. When I ran for the NH House in 2002, I only filled out a few. Over a decade later there are many, many more questionnaires. Ron Paul’s “Campaign for Liberty” group has a questionnaire. Their website is full of the usual florid libertarian rhetoric about our glorious tradition of freedom and resistance to oppression. They point out that their Constitution is NOT a living document, and it seems likely they’d just as soon eliminate a number of those pesky amendments, notably the 19^th. Their questionnaire is comprised of seven questions. Ron and the Liberty boys oppose any gun regulations, Obamacare, Common Core, and any tax and fee increases. The questionnaire is online, along with the results. It amused me that only two Carroll County candidates (both Democrats!) have answered the survey. Ron Paul supporter Ed Comeau is conspicuously absent, along with the rest of the local liberty crowd.

Another so-called liberty group, liberty.com also has a candidate questionnaire. They’re an offshoot band of Paullowers, and their questionnaire is considerably longer and requires more than yes or no answers. “How should we fight a war on terror?” “Should the US maintain its standing army?” You get the idea. These are issues that will not be decided by the NH state legislature. Free State Project participants (and NH House candidates) Max Abramson of Seabrook and Shem Kellogg of Plaistow have both filled these out. Abramson would like for the US to pull out of all overseas bases and put those troops on the Mexican border. Freedom and liberty only extends so far, it seems. The liberty crowd is quite concerned about immigrants from south of the border. The liberty crowd is comprised, almost entirely, of pale people.

Max Abramson also proudly announces that he’s signed “every taxpayer pledge known to man.” As I’ve said before, signing pledges means never having to think for one’s self. Shem Kellogg’s answer to “What corrective actions could we take right now to improve the economy?” is “you and I could opt out of the state’s system whenever possible.” Ponder that for a few minutes. Then run through the list all of the countries that have successful libertarian economic systems.

It’s never a good idea to elect people who hate government to be the government.

NH badly needs some folks with vision to serve in our state government, not regressives desperate to return to a fictionalized version of the past. We have some very real problems looming, and we’ve done nothing to plan for them. Electing folks whose real concern is getting the US out of the UN and MOAR GUNZ isn’t helpful.

NH is not a big government state. It never has been. The Free Staters come with the intent of taking over and dismantling our state. They are woefully and deliberately ignorant of our state history and traditions. No different, really, than any other out of state special interest group that comes in thinking they know what is best for us.  

© 2014 sbruce 

Published as an op-ed in the September 19 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper

Murray Energy Corp. Employees Forced to Donate to NH Candidates

From a story in The Charleston Gazette, we learn that a former foreman is suing Murray Energy:

A former Murray Energy preparation plant foreman is suing the company, alleging she was fired because she did not make campaign contributions to Murray CEO Bob Murray’s preferred political candidates, according to a legal complaint filed in Monongalia County Circuit Court.

Jean F. Cochenour also alleges that her firing from Murray Energy discriminated against her because of her gender. She was the company’s only female preparation plant foreman, the legal complaint states.

Murray Energy Corporation owns coal mines. They're the 12th largest coal company. Back in 2007, there was a cave in at one of the Murray mines that resulted in 6 miners being trapped underground. Ten days later, three rescue workers were killed in a second collapse. The bodies of the 6 miners were never found. The mine had been repeatedly cited for violations. 

Company CEO Robert Murray is a long time donor to the Republican party. In 2012, Alec MacGillis in the New Republic wrote a piece about Murray employees that turned out to see Mitt Romney. 

This year, Murray is one of the most important GOP players in one of the most important battleground states in the country. In May, he hosted a $1.7 million fund-raiser for Romney. Employees have given the nominee more than $120,000. In August, Romney used Murray’s Century Mine in the town of Beallsville for a speech attacking Barack Obama as anti-coal. This fall, scenes from that event—several dozen coal-smudged Murray miners standing behind the candidate in a tableau framed by a giant American flag and a COAL COUNTRY STANDS WITH MITT placard—have shown up in a Romney ad.

The ads aired even after Ohio papers reported what I was told by several miners at the event, a bit of news that an internal memo confirms: The crowd was not there of its own accord. Murray had suspended Century’s operations and made clear to workers that they were expected to attend, without pay.

Employees are also expected to donate:

The pressure to give begins as soon as employees enter the company, the Murray sources say. At the time of hiring, supervisors tell employees that they are expected to contribute to the company PAC by automatic payroll deduction—typically 1 percent of their salary, a level confirmed by a 2008 letter to employees from the PAC’s treasurer

And they're expected to donate to specific candidates. Many candidates have gone to Murray Energy with their begging bowls, including NH's very own former Senator John E. Sununu:

Later, the sources say, Murray sends letters to employees’ homes asking them to give to specific candidates. The letters feature suggested amounts depending on their salary level—one middle manager was encouraged to give $200 to then–Oregon Senator Gordon Smith—and include forms to fill out and return, with checks, to Murray headquarters. The letters come with great frequency. Before the 2008 election, there were nine fund-raisers in less than three months. Guests included then–New Hampshire Senator John E. Sununu, then–Alaska Senator Ted Stevens, and Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe.

Given all of this expectation and arm twisting, it's no surprise that Murray would fire an employee for refusing to play along. 

Once again, there is a NH connection:

In that May 29, 2014, letter, Bob Murray wrote, “The coal industry and our jobs are being destroyed by President Barack Obama, his appointed bureaucrats, and his political supporters in the U.S. House and Senate. Our only hope to stop them is by electing friends of coal and our families and by wresting control of the U.S. Senate from these enemies of coal, maintaining our current U.S. House majority, and electing strong, effective state-level leadership.”

The letter asked for $200 contributions each for four Republican U.S. Senate candidates, Scott Brown in New Hampshire, Edward Gillespie in Virginia, Terri Land in Michigan, and Mike McFadden in Minnesota. The letter noted that a “huge fundraising event” was being planned in June in Harrisburg, Illinois, and asked that contributions be submitted to Murray in time for that event.

There really is no such thing as clean coal. 


ht/to PS

Scott Brown Solicits Free State Project Votes

WMUR posted a video segment from last night's GOP candidate's for US Senate. Story and video at this link.

At the end of the video we see former Senator Scott Brown, formerly of Massachusetts urging folks to come out and vote for him - including the Free Staters.

Anyone who doubts that the FSP isn't just another wing of the GOP might want to rethink their position.  

Know Your Candidates

The midterm primary elections are coming up on September 9. In a state where most of the media skews to the right, getting an accurate picture of candidates can be challenging. One must go beyond the conventional (newspaper and TV) sources and dig a little deeper. Candidate research is crucial in order to avoid electing people who will be a huge embarrassment right out of the gate. With a 400 member House, there will be others who will require more time to maximize their embarrassment potential.

The highest profile primary contest is for the GOP nominee for US Senate. The winner will go on to face popular Senator Jeanne Shaheen in November. The three top candidates are Scott Brown, Jim Rubens, and Bob Smith. Brown and Smith are both former US Senators, Smith from NH and Brown from MA. Brown’s campaign has been strange. In Colebrook he knocked on the doors of supporters and called that “campaigning.” In N. Conway he ran away from a reporter and hid in the bathroom. Days ago on the radio in Massachusetts, he urged folks to come to NH and use our same day registration policy to vote for him. He has a lot of money, the party establishment has lined up behind him, and he looks pretty. Will that carry the day?

Rubens is a Dartmouth grad who has made a boatload of money. He once had a public blog called oversuccess.com. When some of the content from that blog went public, the blog went private. No longer can we peons read about the perils of being wealthy: “I have bathed in camera light during press conferences, political opponents skulking in the rear of ballrooms, forced to tolerate my applause lines, sycophants and well-wishers beaming and waiting in line to shake my hand or offer their help.” Rubens also ran afoul on that same blog by suggesting that the increasing number of women in the workplace has resulted in mass shootings. The implication being, of course, that those women are taking men’s jobs away from them. Rubens signed on to the campaign finance reform bandwagon and won the support of Lawrence Lessig and his MayDay PAC. He’s also jumped on the libertea bandwagon, and has attempted to be photographed in every gun store in NH.

Former Senator Bob Smith lost his bad toupee in Florida. He may have updated his hair, but not his ideology. Smith is working overtime to appeal to the farthest right fringe, but they seem more interested in Rubens. He’s unlikely to do well in the primary.

In the GOP primary for governor, the contest comes down to Walt Havenstein and Andrew Hemingway. Havenstein was the CEO at BAE Systems. BAE is a defense contractor. Walt boasts about the jobs he created there. He may have hired people, but those jobs were actually created by US taxpayers. The obscene US military spending is made possible by folks like you and me. Without the public teat to suckle from, Walt wouldn’t have been hiring.

Havenstein also entered the race with some confusion about his residency. He claimed that he’s always lived in NH, but he signed a homestead deduction in Maryland that stipulated he lived there in order to save a few thousand a year. The NH ballot commission ruled that he is a NH resident, and Maryland sent him a bill for the tax money he defrauded them for. He’s “considering” whether or not to pay it, a luxury not available to the rest of us.

Andrew Hemingway is the darling of the libertea crowd. A look at his website reveals he’s promoting the same old “solutions” that have been failing NH for decades. Neither Havenstein nor Hemingway mentions the word “infrastructure” on their campaign websites.

In Congressional District 1, the race comes down to former Congressman Frank Guinta and former Dean of the former Whittemore School of Business at UNH, now renamed the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics.

Frank Guinta slid into Congress during the red tide of 2010. He stayed for one term. Guinta “found” a bank account that provided his campaign with a $350,000 infusion of cash in 2010. That “find” didn’t match up with his income. The FEC investigation appears to be moving at the speed of the tectonic plates. Frank also distinguished himself by campaigning loudly about Congresswoman Carol Shea Porter’s alleged abuses of the Congressional franking system. In 2011, he spent more on franked mail than any other Congressperson. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) rated him one of the most corrupt legislators.

Dan Innis became the Dean of the business school at UNH in 2007. In 2008, the business school received a big wad of cash ($25 million) from alumnus Peter T. Paul. The school built what his now known as the Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Peter T. Paul amassed a fortune selling subprime mortgages, and later devising ways to package and sell mortgage debt to investors – a practice that has been cited as a key factor in the economic meltdown of 2008. In 2013, Innis stepped down from his position as Dean to explore a run for Congress. In 2014, Peter T. Paul created a Super Pac to help his friend Dan Innis beat Guinta in the primary. If Innis gets to Washington what kind of regulatory oversight will he be providing? Will he protect voters or his benefactor?

This is why it’s important to know the candidates. Do they already have a record of corruption? Where do their loyalties lie? Are they bought and paid for?

On the local level, we’ll also be electing House and Senate candidates, and various county positions. Last biennium, the House and Senate were both filled with rabid ideologues and obstructionists who did their best to subvert the process. Anyone who tells you that cutting taxes and eliminating regulations is the key to job growth in NH is lying. NH has failed for decades to invest in our state and the results of that failure are now hobbling our economy. The GOP inability to be honest about that is a shameful and deliberate failure.

In order for the NH legislature to accomplish anything, there has to be some bipartisan cooperation and compromise. Electing people who claim government is bad and broken leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy. It’s up to voters to decide whether they want to elect serious people who are interested in working to fix some of NH’s very real problems, or if they want bellicose obstructionists trumpeting the usual slogans.

                          *                                *                                       *

This was written as my regular column in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper, in NH's First Congressional District, which is why I didn't include the CD 2 race. 

I've been encouraged to add in information about the GOP primary in CD 2, to determine who will run against Congresswoman Ann Kuster. 

There are 3 Republicans in the race. 

Marilinda Garcia is a former state representative. She was one of former Speaker Bill O'Brien's acolytes. She's also distinguished herself by being heavily funded by the Koch brothers. A young attractive woman with a Latino surname who espouses the beliefs of the far right libertea fringe doesn't come along every day for the GOP. She wants to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the same GOP plan that has failed us all for decades - the marketplace! She mentions Bowles Simpson which is a coy way of saying she wants to privatize Social Security. She wants to cut gummint spending.

Garcia's inexperience showed at the debate last week when she refused to shake opponent Gary Lambert's hand, because he "lied about her positions." Time to toughen up Buttercup. This isn't the 400 member NH House, this is hardball. 

She's also made the classic rookie mistake of airing all this on her campaign blog. Repeating what he's said in his ads is giving him double the advertisement space. Former Rep. Garcia is not ready for prime time. 

Gary Lambert wants to force women to serve as involuntary incubators, secure our borders, repeal Obama care, and give us MOAR GUNZ! He has a Wake Up Washington Pledge on his campaign website, full of promises of term limits and not taking a pension or a pay raise! Funny how these guys who claim to hate career politicians are desperate to become career politicians. 

Jim Lawrence promises to Win Back NH for NH. He's going to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the same old market "solutions." He's going to secure our border! He's going to fix the IRS! He's going to give us a strong foreign policy! He's going to prevent NH from having wind turbines! He's going to eliminate regulations and give everyone MOAR GUNZ! 

Three far right fringe candidates with no new ideas. Welcome to today's GOP. 

© sbruce 2014

published as an op-ed in the Conway Daily Sun newspaper, Sept. 5, 2014

Scott Brown Hides in the Bathroom

Poor Scott Brown. He doesn't really seem to be enjoying life in his new state. Last week he was mocked (by me anyhow) for a UL story (that seems to have disappeared) on how much he likes retail campaigning. The story is gone, but some of it remains on Brown's blog:

When Republican U.S. Senate candidate Scott Brown campaigned in the state’s North Country last week, he stopped and knocked on the doors of every Pittsburg house that he saw showing one of his lawn signs.

“They said ‘What are you doing here?’?” Brown recalled in an interview with the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News, noting how much he enjoys the state’s famed retail politics, although he admits he was skeptical until he began this campaign.

I hope someone lets him know that knocking on the doors of supporters is NOT retail politics. It's knocking on the doors of supporters. 

At the end of last week, our new resident was campaigning in Carroll County. A reporter from the UK had some interesting moments with the Brown campaign. 

Paul Lewis in The Guardian: 

I found Brown at a table at a restaurant called Priscilla's, introduced myself as a Guardian reporter and enquired if I could ask him some questions. Brown smiled nervously and replied: "What do you want to ask me about?"

"Hobby Lobby? That would be a start," I said.

“I’m all set," he replied. "We’re enjoying ourselves right now.”

“But you’re standing for Senate. It is routine for journalists to ask you questions and usually the candidates answer.”

“Not without notifying my office."

Brown stood up, walked to the back of the diner, and took shelter in the bathroom. A campaign aide, Jeremy, looked bewildered. He lingered beside me for a few moments, before politely excusing himself – “Nice to meet you” – and joining his boss in the bathroom.

I decided to wait in the parking lot for Team Brown to emerge into the sunlight. Four minutes later, a white SUV swung round and parked next to the steps of the diner. Brown came out with a phone pressed to his ear. "Get in! Get in!" said a campaign worker holding open the car door. Another man asked me to leave. “You’re getting in the face of people that don’t care to talk to you,” he said.

There's more. At a stop in West Ossipee the Brown campaign called the cops. All because Scott Brown didn't want to answer a reporter's questions. 

He's so cowardly that he hid in the bathroom to avoid answering questions, but he thinks he should be our next US Senator?

Tell this wuss to pack his carpetbag and return from whence he came. 







h/t to Peter Sullivan for the Brave Sir Robin reference.

Scott Brown, Nuclear Weenie

It started here:

Scott Brown's "energy plan for NH" called for more "safe, clean nuclear energy." 

As we all know, nuclear power is none of those things - and in fact, one reason NH has such high electric rates is because of Seabrook Station. The financial mismanagement, the bankruptcy, the junk bond bailout - surely I'm not the only one who remembers. NH isn't likely to support the building of another nuke plant. 

Note the date and time. 

I checked into my twitter account and found this:

Naturally I felt compelled to respond - but much to my surprise:

So Scott Brown's peeps followed me long enough to leave me a direct message, then unfollowed me? 

How Now Brown Cash Cow

The 2014 legislative session is coming to an end. The House passed a lot of bills that met obstruction in the Senate. A number of NH Senators have announced that they won’t be running for reelection. With luck, a few more will reach that same decision.

Last week’s Senate vote on the creation of and increase to the state minimum wage is an example of why the Senate needs the application of a big broom. During the O’Brien years, the state minimum wage was struck down, leaving NH to march in lockstep with the federal minimum wage. Even the ability to set our own minimum was too frighteningly permissive for the O’Brien crowd. (Ironic when one considers that the gummint haters turned over the NH option to the federal gummint.) The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. If a minimum wage worker worked 40 hours a week, they’d earn $290 before taxes. The cheapest apartment advertised in the local classifieds was $600 a month, without utilities. Even if they could pay the rent, they’d be unable to afford utilities, food, transportation, clothing, and health care.

Most employers that pay minimum wage don’t offer full time jobs, because then they’d have to offer benefits. These same companies (big box stores in particular) also provide fluctuating hours, so a worker never has a regular schedule they can count on. That makes juggling other jobs difficult at best. When companies don’t pay workers enough to live on, the rest of us help subsidize their company profits, by picking up the tab for public assistance programs.

Legislators and business owners love to pretend that the minimum wage is a sort of training wage for teenagers entering the job market. In NH, 72% of minimum wage workers are over the age of 20. They’re breadwinners. In our brave new economy, where we manufacture nothing, the bulk of the jobs being created are low wage service jobs. Adults with families to support are competing with teens for low wage jobs.

The NH Senate voted to kill the establishment of a state minimum wage, and a two-step increase that would result in a state min. wage of $9 an hour by 2016. Senator John Reagan was quoted in the Laconia Citizen as saying he “thinks it’s silly to say someone couldn’t be supported on minimum wage, as they can take on multiple jobs.” Our local Senator, multimillionaire Jeb Bradley said that raising the minimum wage would harm teenagers and entry-level workers. It sure would suck for entry level workers to be able to afford food and shelter. Senator Andy Sanborn, who owns a bar/restaurant, drove up in his Mercedes to claim that an increase in minimum wage would hurt restaurants. Sanborn should have declared conflict of interest and abstained from voting. He pays some of his employees minimum wage. Former Senate President Peter Bragdon (who just signed a contract for a job paying $185,000 a year) called the bill “feel good” legislation. He’s right. It would feel good for workers to be slightly more able to feed their children and put a roof over their heads.

A couple of Senators took the minimum wage challenge, where they lived for a week on the minimum wage. Senator David Watters said that it quickly became clear that on that wage he wouldn’t be able to continue to live in Dover without food and housing assistance. Senator David Pierce said that the challenge produced such anxiety for him that he was shaken by the experience.

The cost of higher education has skyrocketed. The kinds of jobs being created offer low wages and no possibility of advancement. The creation and perpetuation of a permanent, poor underclass in our country will have dire consequences.

In other news, Scott Brown was in North Conway last week. Many of our local politicians were on hand to meet, greet, endorse, and toady up to the recent émigré who wants to be NH’s next US Senator. From Lloyd Jones’ excellent news story, we learned that even though Scott Brown moved to NH in February some of our local state representatives and wannabes think Scott’s the guy who represents NH values.

Let us be clear about what kind of value our GOP friends see in Scott Brown. It’s green and has a funny pyramid on it. This senate election is reportedly going to be one of the most expensive in our nation’s history. Thanks to the Citizens United and McCutcheon decisions by the Supreme Court, the amount of money shoveled into our state will be breathtaking. Our local solons understand that of all the candidates running against Senator Shaheen, the one who is going to have the big bucks behind him is Brown. Politicians are pragmatic folk, and they’re going to get behind the money candidate, and wait for the trickle down effect. The state GOP is desperate for cash. Mr. Brown is the cow they’re pinning their hopes on.

The Supreme Court has ruled yet again that money is speech. No longer do we have “free” speech, thanks to SCOTUS the kind of speech we have is very expensive. Those who give the most get the loudest speech. With no limits and no accountability. It’s called dark money, because there is no transparency. We the voters won’t know where all this money to manipulate us comes from. The only one who will know is the candidate. Big money comes with marching orders. We are about to be bombarded with negative ads, the likes of which we’ve never seen before.

Negative ads work in two ways and both are intentional. They discourage people from voting and they plant lies that become truths. When Scott Brown was here last week, he repeated one of them. The Koch funded group Americans for Prosperity NH has been pushing a particular message for months: “Jeanne Shaheen Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” Scott Brown repeated that, and embellished it, by saying he was there and he saw her do it.

In Louisiana, Americans for Prosperity’s ads inform voters “Mary Landrieu Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” In Florida, Bill Nelson cast that vote. In Arkansas it was Mark Pryor. In Ohio, “Sherrod Brown Cast the Deciding Vote for Obamacare.” In Minnesota it was Al Franken. And in Virginia, Mark Warner “Cast the Tie-Breaking Vote for Obamacare.”

So, when Scott Brown says he was there and he saw her do it, he’s counting on the fact that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. It’s both craven and cynical - and that’s what life is going to look like in NH from now till November.

© sbruce 2014 

Published in the May 16, 2014 edition of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper. 

Scott Brown Puts a Ring on It

Some of the signs that welcomed former  Senator Scott Brown as he (finally) announced his candidacy for the US Senate in Portsmouth. 

Or, one might say former Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown announced his intent to run for the US Senate from his new home in NH. Elizabeth Dinan did a writeup on the protesters at the announcement, for seacoastonline. com. The highlight of her story:

Tristan Debree called Brown a carpetbagger and held a sign saying, “Scott Brown wants to confiscate your firearms.” He said conservatives, like him, want to “get rid of” Brown, “get a Republican who supports the Second Amendment,” and “then we can go after Shaheen.”

Constitutionalist group the Oath Keepers had representatives from New Hampshire and Connecticut. They held a Gadsen flag with the “Don't tread on me message” and described themselves as “liberty minded.”

The NH Oath Keepers brought Connecticut Oath Keepers in to call Scott Brown a carpetbagger. 

Irony sticks her head in the oven again. 

h/t Elizabeth Dinan/seacoastonline.com

Scottachusetts

For months now, former Senator Scott Brown, formerly of Massachusetts, has been flirting with New Hampshire. He talked about running for US Senate against NH Senator Jeanne Shaheen. Then he moved to NH in December. Then he talked some more. Some of the Republicans were thrilled by the idea, figuring that Senator Big Name would bring in all kinds of money. They need the money. So far greed trumps the anger emanating from the liberty crowd.

Brown has moved from flirting to heavy petting. No commitment, yet, but the windows are certainly steaming up. Last week he announced he was setting up an exploratory committee, and heading out on a listening tour of the state. This was a good thing - if he’s going to run for office, he needs to learn his way around the state.  He packed up his carpetbag, and leaped into his shiny, waxed pickup, and headed off into the frost heaves.

Sen. Brown’s Twitter team (more on them later) tweeted out pictures every few hours. Scott Brown in Rochester at a diner. Scott Brown at Linos in Wakefield, having a chat with a group of men, including newly minted Executive Councilor Joe Kenney. There was a photo of Gene Chandler trying to sell Brown a time-share in N. Conway village. Next he went up to Berlin, where Mayor Paul Grenier commented that tourists were always welcome to visit and spend money.

The tour worked its way over much the first Congressional district. Senator Brown still doesn’t know where Peterborough and Keene are, but he’s got plenty of time to learn his way around his new state. Give the guy a break; he’s only been here for about 3 months.  One picture, taken by James Pindell of WMUR, and sent out on Twitter showed some mud on his truck bumper along with some strategically placed duct tape. Yessir Mabel, he’s just like us.  

The big question about all of this is pretty simple: who is Scott Brown going to be in NH? In Massachusetts he ran as a moderate Republican. In NH we don’t have moderate Republicans any more. Will Brown reinvent himself to fit in to his new state? Is he that big an opportunist? And why is his Twitter team preemptively blocking folks? They’ve blocked at least one state rep, my blogger friend Tuck at Miscellany Blue, and even blocked Dante Scala, who teaches poli-sci at UNH. A brief twitter campaign of #freedante turned that around, but, preemptive blocking on the part of someone who just moved to NH half an hour ago is odd.

There are things in his voting record that will please the tea partiers. He voted against a federal school breakfast supplement. He’s supported the use of torture. Brown is also a supporter of Big Oil, and Big Banking, and has voted to continue subsidizing them, while threatening cuts to Social Security and Medicare. (He may learn the hard way about the demographics of his NEW state full of OLD people.)

There are going to be some things that are tough for Senator Brown to explain. He voted for Romneycare, and may have a hard time convincing folks that Romney care is different from the ACA. It’s going to be tough to explain why he thought everyone in his OLD state deserved access to health insurance, but he doesn’t think everyone in his NEW state merits that same access.  He supports the roving wiretaps of the Patriot Act, which will be hard to explain to the liberty crowd. Brown will learn the hard way that privacy is a big deal to NH voters. We can’t expect him to know everything – he’s only been here for 3 months.

In 2012 he said, “I’m a moderate, pro-choice Republican, and I always will be.” That probably isn’t going to go over well with today’s NH Republicans, who are desperate to eliminate regulations on everything BUT the uteri of half the population.

By far and away the biggest problem Senator Brown has when it comes to reinventing himself is GUNS. Ever since Obama took office the prevailing philosophy of the libertea fringe is MOAR GUNZ. Scott Brown, former moderate Republican, formerly of Massachusetts has not shown an adherence to the MOAR GUNZ philosophy. He’s been in favor of licenses and background checks. In 2012 he opposed right-to-carry reciprocity. In 2012 he was in favor of extending the state’s assault weapons ban, but not the federal. Then, in 2013, after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting that left 20 children and six adults dead, Scott Brown said okay to a federal ban on assault weapons.

How will Senator Brown bounce back from that? NH State Rep. JR Hoell has called Brown a “traitor to his oath to protect the US Constitution” because he was in favor of “gun control.” That was AFTER Hoell threatened armed insurrection if Brown were the GOP nominee. Will Brown have to wear Kevlar under his folksy barn jacket?  How will he reinvent himself to be THE candidate running against Jeanne Shaheen? Poor Jack Kimball must be howling with rage inside his command center, as he scans the horizon for UN invaders.

The NH Republican Party is desperate for the dollars that Brown will bring to the state. Poor old former Senator Bob Smith isn’t going to get the dark money juices flowing, and neither is Jim “sycophants waiting to shake my hand” Rubens. The GOP doesn’t seem to have much of a bench.  Young researchers are undoubtedly poring over deeds in vacation areas to find other well known, wealthy Republicans who might want to move quickly to NH and run for office. The NH GOP is open for business and Scottachusetts is obviously for sale.

© sbruce 2014

published as an op/ed in the March 21, 2014 issue of the Conway Daily Sun newspaper