There IS A NH Democratic Gubernatorial Primary Race!by: Rep. Jim SplaineFri Sep 10, 2010 at 08:47:42 AM EDT |
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There IS a New Hampshire Democratic Gubernatorial Primary race! The Concord Monitor has a story about it in today's (Friday's) edition. Try this link, and if it doesn't work go to the newspaper's home page and you'll find it: http://www.concordmonitor.com/...
I helped Paul McEachern in his 2004 challenge to John Lynch. I had known Lynch since the mid-1970s, but had known McEachern since the mid-1960s. I had previously supported Chris Spirou over McEachern before backing McEachern in other races. In other words, they were all good people, and any would have been great governors. |
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In 2004, Lynch was an up-and-coming candidate who had two resources: a quality business background mixed with political experience but no elected office involvement, AND money -- he could self-fund. Paul McEachern had been twice the Democratic Gubernatorial Nominee, losing rather close races to John Sununu and Judd Gregg. Before, and since then, Paul has been a NH State Representative and last year cosponsored House Bill 436, gay marriage, with me. His support was vital.
Paul McEachern's challenge in the 2004 primary made John Lynch a better candidate, and I think helped provide his eventual margin of victory over Craig What's-His-Name in November. I wish the Lynch Team had taken the challenge this year a little more seriously. Yes, John Lynch will be nominated on Tuesday with a large percentage. I'm voting for him. He's done good things, and he did the right thing in agreeing to sign both Civil Unions in 2007, and HB 436 in 2009, after giving us a chance to make our case. He did what a good Governor should do -- he got into the discussion, and he listened to varied points of view. But this year his campaign didn't want to engage at all in the discussion of why two NH State Reps wanted to challenge him. Primaries serve the purpose of letting party faithful have a dialogue, to vent, and then to bind together and move forward. Tim Robertson and Frank Sullivan have viewpoints that many Democrats share. Not to engage, but instead to ignore, is risky. We can say Robertson and Sulivan weren't serious candidates, that they didn't raise money or send out enough news releases or didn't travel the state enough. But there was an opportunity to involve them -- yet some choose instead to just beat them. November will be tough for John Lynch and Democrats, and John Stephen will not be someone who can be ignored. A primary discussion within the Democratic Party might have helped make a margin of victory that would help all of our ticket. |