Prog Blogs, Orgs & Alumni
Bank Slate
Betsy Devine
birch paper
Democracy for NH
Granite State Progress
Mike Caulfield
Miscellany Blue
Pickup Patriots
Re-BlueNH
Still No Going Back
Susan the Bruce
New Hampshire Labor News
Chaz Proulx: Right Wing Watch
Politicos & Punditry
The Burt Cohen Show
John Gregg
Landrigan
Pindell
Primary Monitor
Scala
Schoenberg
Spiliotes
Campaigns, Et Alia.
NH-Gov
- Maggie Hassan
NH-01
- Andrew Hosmer
- Carol Shea-Porter
- Joanne Dowdell
NH-02
- Ann McLane Kuster
ActBlue Hampshire
NHDP
DCCC
DSCC
DNC
National
Balloon Juice
billmon
Congress Matters
DailyKos
Digby
Hold Fast
Eschaton
FiveThirtyEight
MyDD
Open Left
Senate Guru
Swing State Project
Talking Points Memo
50 State Blog Network
Alabama
Arizona
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Missouri
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Rhode Island
Tennessee
Texas
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
(Bumped, because it's too important an issue, and almost never gets discussed. - promoted by Dean Barker)
The Executive Council is a strange creature. There are only five districts in the state and the boundaries of those districts don't follow other divisions neatly. Counties and state Senate districts are split into different EC districts and vice versa.
Winning an EC seat doesn't seem to be a steppingstone to higher office (indeed, as Dartmouth's Dick Winters says, New Hampshire has few elected steppingstones at all). It may be a secure seat: Ray Burton has won re-election every two years for over a quarter century. The EC just doesn't get much attention.
But the Executive Council acts as a check on the Governor, and can veto both government contracts and executive appointments. The Democratic governors of the past half-century - Gallen, Shaheen, and now Lynch - have always been checked by a Republican majority EC until 2006.
The result has been that the day-to-day reins of state power have stayed in the hands of Republican appointees. Only in this term has Governor Lynch been able to bring fresh blood into the Department of Safety and the Department of Health and Human Services. And although Republicans have complained when some longtime fixtures or recent GOP appointees were replaced, Lynch's nominees have been qualified technocrats, not party hacks.
That will stop if Democrats lose control of the EC in November. Any Republican bureaucrats who stay in good standing with the state GOP will be safe: a Republican EC will not confirm a replacement. In particular, Benson appointee Kelly Ayotte will continue to use the Attorney General's office to burnish her right-wing Republican resume.
The primary results last week show the danger for Democrats. There is a natural tendency to "vote for the person, not the party." But that tendency is acted on mostly by Democrats: Republicans seem to pay it lip service then never vote for a Democrat. In the EC primary races, there were 431 Democratic ballots with write-ins for the winning Republican candidate - and only 64 Republicans crossing over.
The EC races probably won't get much attention. But they will determine whether Governor Lynch is hogtied for his third term. Your candidates need your help!
EC Races:
District 1: Cauble (D) v. Burton (R, i)
District 2: Shea (D, i) v. St. Hilaire (R)
District 3: Hollingworth (D, i) v. Prescott (R)
District 4: Bruce (D) v. Wieczorek (R, i)
District 5: Pignatelli (D, i) v. Stepanek (R)