Charlie Bass' best opportunity for a run was for US Senate. There he could have pitched his brand name and experience against Kelly Ayotte, and a Bass-Hodes matchup would have given the press something exciting to chew on. With a statewide pool of Republicans, I believe he was poised to beat the former AG for the nomination.
Charlie Bass' second best opportunity would have been to run for governor. There would have been something grand and interesting about a Bass running for the same seat his father won exactly a century ago. The fact that he isn't Jack Kimball, additionally, would have given Republicans someone to vote for in a field where Lynch is dominant on both sides of the aisle.
But instead he was too timid to go against Judd Gregg's carefully orchestrated plan, and too selfish to be a sacrificial lamb in the gubernatorial race.
Instead, he'll have to compete for the Republican nomination in a district which has undergone a substantive transformation in voter demographics to the left, and whose GOP base has become smaller and more radical. Instead, it is altogether possible that Jennifer Horn will beat him in the primary, unless his crew manages to bully her out of running.
Instead, he'll pick up where he dropped off three years ago:
(0:30)"Ah, yes, it's gonna be nice not to have Hugo Chavez across the Connecticut river representing Vermont-at-large. Bernie Sanders and his Sandernistas. Go back to taxi-driving in the Bronx of New York City, where they came from to begin with."
You know, I never got an answer back in 2006 as to who the "they" are that need to go back to the Bronx.
