This was brought up before, but now that the election is over, it's worth revisiting. Here are the NRCC and DCCC spending totals for NH-01:
NRCC: $1,025,398
DCCC: $9,116
Every penny of that NRCC money, btw, was spent in oppposing Carol rather than promoting Congressman-Elect Frank Guinta.
Some pundits are wondering why the Shea-Porter campaign spent so much time on Guinta's hair-on-fire scandal rather than staying positive. The reason is clear. Aside from NHDP, and some scattered grassroots assistance, there was no one else to do it. And evidence showed clearly that once voters knew about it and understood it, they were totally turned off from Guinta. In the meantime she was relentlessly pounded by NRCC and various outside groups like Revere America.
Carol Shea-Porter's opponent had (and has!) a significant and bi-partisan campaign finance scandal plaguing him. The most powerful right-wing institution in New Hampshire, the Union Leader, refused to endorse him. The former Republican officeholder in the district said he should drop out.
On the flip side, Carol, unlike so many of the Blue Dogs the DCCC spent money on, stuck her neck out for the President's agenda time and time again in the service of bettering the lives of Americans. In a tough district, but in one that decisively voted for the President in 2008.
This race was the DCCC's bread and butter. This is why they exist. And they made a decision to be MIA.
And now New Hampshire will be stuck with the spectacle at some point in the future of an embattled Congressman embroiled in an ethics and very possibly criminal situation. You mistake who I am if you think I will be happy about that.
Fire Chris van Hollen from DCCC and whatever circle around him made the decision to abandon one of Congress' finest public servants.
Until that happens, I see no reason why anyone from New Hampshire's first district should give a penny to DCCC ever again.
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