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As of the time of this post, there are still a handful of small towns that haven't reported, so it's not an exact science. That said, I think I'm ready to call this race.
In the contest between which self-funder got the most bang for his buck, the winner is clear: Jim Bender.
So far, Bender earned 12,431 votes, while spending $1,549,050 of his fortune purchasing candidate viability. That means it cost Bender roughly $125 per vote.
Bill Binnie, on the other hand, wasted a whopping $5,337,594 of his own treasure. However, he got a meaningfully higher - if not electorally important - vote count of 19,151. That puts his one vote purchase price at about $279.
For less than half the price-per-vote ratio of Binnie, Bender kept within 5 percentage points of him. Well done!
On economic issues, all of the candidates agreed they would repeal any remaining money from the federal stimulus package.
OK then:
President Obama's much-maligned economic stimulus package added as many as 3.3 million jobs to the economy during the second quarter of this year, and may have prevented the nation from lapsing back into recession, according to a report released Tuesday by the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office.
In its latest quarterly assessment of the act, the CBO said the stimulus lowered the unemployment rate by between 0.7 and 1.8 percentage points during the quarter ending in June and increased the number of people employed by between 1.4 million and 3.3 million. The higher figure would come close to making good on Obama's pledge that the act would save or create as many as 3.5 million jobs by the end of this year.
Adding: I have a dream that someday I will be able to have a genuine policy disagreement with the opposing party's ideology that is grounded in reality.
They're too chicken to go after Boomers and seniors - they know it'll cost them votes. Instead, New Hampshire Republican candidates for federal office are gunning to loot Gen X-ers and Millenials and the disabled, who they think are paying less attention.
Frank Guinta:
When it comes to reforming Social Security and other programs, he would consider creating personal accounts and increasing the retirement age.
"Everything has to be on the table," said Guinta.
Sean Mahoney:
"But the younger generations, they need to understand there should be other options. Your retirement age may be later in life than your parents' were."He also said younger people should "be able to have a private option, take some ownership over your own retirement."
I'm sure the Ayotte folks will love spreading around this story of the dreadful horrors of gated community dictators, but what I'm not sure they'll get is that that's how a lot of people view all major Republican office-seekers.
Put any of the others names in place of Binnie in there; I don't really see a difference.
Binnie hasn't been shy about bashing party Republicans as he runs on a fiscally conservative but socially moderate platform.
"It seems like his natural base might be moderate Republicans, those who want social issues to play a back seat. Perhaps pro-choice Republicans," Scala said. "The dilemma is, that's not enough voters to win a Republican primary on this state."
Sometimes I feel like there are two New Hampshires. In my hunting grounds, away from the more populous southern tier, and the modern era Massachusetts Republicans who move there, Binnie is a natural fit for what remains of the old Yankee Republicans who have not moved over to the D column.
(It's funny he's on the other side of Judd Gregg, the progenitor of the Kelly Ayotte movement, since the two are not unlike.)
Ayotte went much further right than I expected her to. But if turnout is higher than expected and more undeclareds pull R ballots, will it have been a colossal error?
(Oops - meant to promote this yesterday. - promoted by Dean Barker)
What IS it with election time that brings out the worst in politicians? What is it that we want to sound either so fluffy and puffy that we don't say anything that we believe, or we want to appeal to the lowest common denominator so we take "positions" and use "buzz words" that our pollsters say we should emphasize in order to get votes?
Bill Binnie, who if you don't have a television or a Republican mailbox you might not know is running for United States Senate, is saying don't believe the facts about his business career which indicate that he has found a step-by-step way to become wealthy in the global market: 1, move your businesses over the border, 2, pay less for less, 3, and since you don't have to deal with big bad unions or pay those horrible American wages, you can increase your profit margin on what you sell and make more money. Then you can pay for full page ads calling The Union Leader unfactual in reporting the facts. Follow all that? It's Binnie Business 101, and he's trying to get permission to offer a startup class beginning in January.
Then there's this former Manchester mayor guy, who explains that he just forgot his $250,000 bank account. Yep, I understand. But for me, if I misplace a $20 bill I fret about it all day. Was it in that pocket, or this one, or did I leave it in that draw, or in my glove compartment? I guess though if you've got a lot of money and don't live paycheck to paycheck like regular folk, you can misplace and forget about a quarter of a mill. I'm still looking for that $20. If I see the mayor dude I'll ask where his favorite hiding spots are, and that might give me a clue where to look.
On the campaign trail, U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie talks about how he built Carlisle Plastics into an industry-leading company employing thousands of workers around the globe.
Last Sunday, a John DiStaso piece in the Union Leader identified a long list of labor, safety and environmental protection violations allegedly committed by Carlisle Plastics under Binnie's management. Chief among them was the claim that Binnie closed a California factory in 1989 and moved it to Mexico after workers tried to unionize, costing 450 American jobs.
The Seacoast Republican Women hosted a candidate forum last night in Portsmouth. The doubleheader began with the six GOP candidates for the 1st Congressional District seat, followed by 90 minutes with the six GOP U.S. Senatorial candidates. My observations and impressions follow.
General
Atmosphere: Large, enthusiastic audience. The moderator stressed the event was "educational and informational" in nature and discouraged confrontation. The candidates followed her orders. No fireworks.
Format: The questions were provided to candidates prior to the event, eliminating rude surprises. No questions from the audience. Included a "lightning round" featuring litmus test questions, limited to almost unanimous simple yes/no answers.
The candidates: The lesser known candidates (Congressional candidates Peter Bearse and Rick Parent; Senate candidates Dennis Lamare and Gerard Beloin) were more spontaneous, more thoughtful, less guarded, and less scripted. They, of course, have no chance to win.
Drew Cline reports GOP U.S. Senate candidates Kelly Ayotte, Jim Bender, and Bill Binnie have signed a pledge vowing to repeal all federal estate and gift taxes. The facts:
Less than half a percent of estates pay any estate tax.
The average small business or family farm pays about 12 percent.
37 percent of the value of estates worth more than $1 million and 56 percent of estates worth more than $10 million have never been subject to taxation as income.
Repeal would cost at least $500 billion over 10 years.
Repeal costs about 15 times more than extending unemployment benefits did, and we heard that the benefits were too expensive to finance with deficits.
During the last year we have run a positive campaign only on the issues. Every commercial we've done, every speech I've given through August 16th has been positive to the issues or properly comparative on issues: jobs, spending, the economy - great challenges that need to be fixed.
In return, five of the last six state chairmen have written viciously negative attacks on me that were untrue. An outside group was brought in by my opponents to engage in negative advertising, which were found by the nationally-recognized and respected organization Factcheck.org to be distortions and lies.
The state party itself even reprinted and sent out the negative press release from the attack group that came into our state to hurt us.
To ask for candidates to be positive and not to recognize that some campaigns have been viciously negative for weeks is to blatantly close one's eyes to reality.
Doesn't Binnie know that the only one allowed to stage a coup on Sununu was Judd Gregg, when he cleverly installed Ayotte as the official unofficial nominee?
(First Mahoney, then Ayotte, now Binnie. Apparently language is the new tool with which to whip up xenophobia for election season. Makes me really sad. - promoted by Dean Barker)
I just saw one of Bill Binnie's latest ads on TV.
"English is the language of America"
The money quote:
"Americans should have allegiance to one flag and have one official language."
And he's filed an FEC complaint concerning the ad to boot. Drew Cline has the scoop, and in it is Binnie's letter to Ayotte campaign manager Brooks Kochvar, in part:
As you know, Kevin Smith and Kelly Ayotte were previously colleagues in New Hampshire state government. As you also know, Mr. Smith is the Executive Director of Cornerstone Action and presumably directs and controls the organization's activities, including the content of the organization's advertising. That Mr. Smith is controlling and directing an advertising effort benefitting the Ayotte Campaign is very troubling given the long and established working relationship between Mr. Smith and Kelly Ayotte.
The Binnie Campaign further has reason to believe that a former Ayotte Campaign employee, Harold Parker, filmed some of the footage that appears in Cornerstone Action's advertisement that is benefitting the Ayotte Campaign. If anyone associated with the Ayotte Campaign supplied Cornerstone Action with any footage that is included in the advertisement - or was materially involved in the development, production, or placement of the advertisement in any way - that is yet another ground for concluding that unlawful coordination took place under FEC regulations. Moreover, the Binnie Campaign believes it is highly likely that Ayotte Campaign contributors have donated to Cornerstone Action and have helped finance the advertisement at issue.
It makes perfect sense to me that Team Ayotte and Cornerstone would be in cahoots. It's really too late at this point for Ovide to matter, so the only thing standing in the way of an anti-marriage, anti-choice Ayotte nomination is Bill Binnie.
The right-wing and their media enablers still doing their darndest to derail the Republican candidate with the best general election chances against Paul Hodes.
Maybe if they close their eyes and ears and shout LALALA long enough, they can pretend the electorate in the Granite State is as far right-wing as they are?
I'll keep this simple since the two top (self-funder) contenders, at least in my area of New Hampshire, are light years ahead of all others in both parties.
Who's winning the Pointless Signs on Nobody's Property demographic? We all know how the scruffy weeds vote can tip an election in a swing state like ours.
As much as I disliked going through Landrigan's increasingly Republican Status-esque column, this made me laugh out loud.
Through his several business incarnations, Binnie ran millions of investments through Deutsche, and got a favorable response when he first suggested it.
Two days before the (fundraiser) was to come off, though, a bank executive informed Binnie it had to be called off.
According to the bank official, senior Sen. Judd Gregg, a ranking Republican in the brewing debate over financial reform, had weighed in to register a protest.
...Ultimately, you'll never guess for whom Deutsche and Citibank have hosted fundraisers for in this race.
Oh, you got it: Ayotte.
TARPmeister Judd Gregg sure has the banksters wrapped around his finger, doens't he?
How nice for Ms. Ayotte, and for us, if she ends up representing us them in January.
Why do people continue to treat mendacious quitter Kelly Ayotte as the front-runner in the Republican primary? There's been only one poll in that race since April, and that was a single Magellan(R) poll that showed her lead going from +24 to +9 between April and May. She's certainly still the Republican establishment pick, but Republican establishment picks haven't fared too well in the face of challenges from crazed Tea Party candidates this year.
I'll discount Sue Lowden's loss in Nevada to crazed Tea Party candidate Sharron Angle; Sue Lowden was herself exposed as sufficiently incompetent to lose the race entirely on her own merits. Chickens for Checkups isn't too far off from Tea Party ideas anyhow. That still leaves a number of high-profile knockouts for the Tea Party.
Over the past six months, my opponents have constantly reminded me of how crucial this race is. Whether it's a woman's right to choose or a family's right to affordable health care - they've shown us time and time again what we all stand to lose if Kelly Ayotte, Bill Binnie, or Ovide Lamontagne wins.
(Thanks for stopping by Congressman. Only 160 days until we get to vote for you to be the next Senator from the great state of New Hampshire. - promoted by Mike Hoefer)
For 43 days, thousands of barrels of oil have been spilling into the Gulf Coast. 43 days of environmental disaster because big oil companies were given a blank check on offshore drilling with little regulation and poor oversight.
Now, with the recent failure of the "top kill" strategy, there is no end in sight to the amount of oil that is spilling into the Gulf. This spill is poisoning our waters, suffocating our plants and wildlife, and jeopardizing the health of our citizens - threatening jobs, businesses and communities along the Gulf Coast.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people and communities down on the Gulf, who are dealing day and night with the devastating aftermath of the spill.
This disaster was a warning sign. When government puts the profits of Big Oil first, when politicians listen to special interests instead of the people they are supposed to represent - then we put the safety of our workers, communities and economy at risk.
Who on earth among far-right GOP activists has the time and web know-how not only for fake twitter-FB accounts but also entirely astroturf websites?
It's all so mysterious!
Adding: To be serious for a minute. Is there anyone adult in charge over on the red team who cares enough to put the kibosh on the New Media abuse problem they have? I'm surprised this kind of scorched earth pattern is allowed to go on, given how close-knit the relationships are in the political circles of a small state. Stuff like this makes for uncomfortable moments when the cycle changes and the deck chairs get re-arranged.
