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UL endorses Ovide: could lightning strike twice?

by: Ed Tracey

Sun Aug 29, 2010 at 15:07:29 PM EDT
( - promoted by Dean Barker)

The Union Leader has endorsed Ovide Lamontagne for the US Senate today, in advance of the GOP primary in a few weeks.

As Joe Piscopo used to say, The Big Question: is this simply shades of the Sam Yorty endorsement - or a chance to re-run the 1996 election?
Ed Tracey :: UL endorses Ovide: could lightning strike twice?
It's no secret that newspapers in general - and the Union Leader in particular - no longer carry the sway which they once did; at age 53 I know that I'm somewhat of a dinosaur in wanting a print copy of a Sunday newspaper. That alone makes newspaper endorsements ring less. In addition, the venerable journalist Jack Germond (who is, I didn't know, a Boston native) pointed out even before the advent of the intertubez that Channel 9 was supplanting the UL as the major source for many New Hampshirites.

Still, in a New Hampshire GOP primary: an endorsement of Ovide does count for something. Especially at the same time that Bill Binnie got some bad press, as Dean has noted (it was also reprinted in today's "Valley News" - albeit not online).

Interestingly, the endorsement said little about his actual stands, nor did it have any criticism of the other candidates (though they have certainly gotten on Binnie's case and - for all I know - others).

More important - does this endorsement represent a Sam Yorty/John Ashbrook style of St. Jude "Lost Cause" endorsement that no-one remembers?

Or could this help Ovide regain the driver's seat he had back in 1996, when he upset Bill Zeliff in the GOP gubernatorial primary (to replace Steve Merill)? Though Jeanne Shaheen would have given him a run, I would have placed her as a less than 50-50 choice against Zeliff in a general election.

I still recall watching Ovide pull out that race; knowing that his opposition to Goals 2000 might play well in a GOP primary. In a general election? Well, not so much.

Hey, he's even got Laura Ingraham in his corner. But will it be enough for Ovide to get the GOP nod? And if so, to hope that lightning strikes twice for us, thanks to Ovide?

 
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UL endorses Ovide: could lightning strike twice? | 5 comments
WMUR replaced UL by 1991 (4.00 / 2)
NHDP conducted a poll in the Spring of 1991 that showed for the first time more NH residents relied on WMUR for their daily news source. It wasn't until the late 1980s that WMUR was available statewide. Either local cable didn't provide it or local cable didn't exist and WMUR was not received via antennae. That along with the invasion of Massachusetts Republicans into the triangle of which most either subscribed to the Lawrence Eagle Tribune or Boston Herald.

The UL endorsement only has influence in the Republican state primaries. Notice Johnny Stephen's ad uses UL quotes of imaginary accomplishments...but that didn't help Johnny in the 2008 congressional primary.

Have you written a letter to the editor today? Have you donated today? Have you put up signs? Have you made calls? Have you talked to your neighbors?

I dunno, I think it might be worth a good deal (4.00 / 1)
As Binnie and Ayotte continue to whale on each other, the possibility of a close three-way race on election day increases. I suspect that GOP primary already know and dig Ovide and the could - could - run up the middle...er, the far right and come out ahead. I'd love to see some internal GOP polling, but Kelly attacking Binnie gives me some idea what her pollster is telling her...
[ Parent ]
I tend to think this, (4.00 / 3)
along with the Horn endorsement in NH-02, is just the UL showing off their right-wing bona fides.

We'll see if they really mean it come general election and Bass is the R nominee, a man they once told not to run again for office.

birch, finch, beech

Hrm.. (4.00 / 1)
I'd like nothing more than to see Ovide as the nominee. Of Binnie, Ayotte, or Lamontagne, Hodes would have by far the easiest time with Ovide...
Is it possible (4.00 / 1)
that this cuts directly against Ayotte & Binnie's relative strength among older, less ideological/politically engaged voters? In other words, mightn't the folks most likely to receive the paper UL and be swayed by its endorsement be people who will vote (oldsters) but would ordinarily not have a strong preference, and thus probably vote in the most "mainstream" manner?

(I don't have any expertise here, just a possibility.)

UL endorses Ovide: could lightning strike twice? | 5 comments

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