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Are there enough donuts in Massachusetts to make up for this sweep? (No, of course the UL doesn't count.)
UPDATE: And here comes the Laconia Citizen!
Lynch has succeeded in steering this state through treacherous waters these past two years. He has managed to accomplish this without resorting to a sales or income tax. Moreover, he has not yielded to the enticements of those who push for expanded gambling.
Meeting this challenge has not been easy and, yes, there have been missteps. But Lynch has remained focused and sensible. He has been even-handed and serious. And, most importantly, he is someone who is widely respected, both in government and in the private sector.
Followers of Stephen have exploited [SB 500] irresponsibly, including one mail piece that depicts photos of Lynch and several sex offenders and calling the group "Team Lynch."
We've seen negative campaigning aplenty, but this attack by Cornerstone Action was particularly troubling and shameful.
...But of all of Stephen's claims, his allegation that Lynch is not a leader rings the most hollow. Lynch is a populist. It's hard to imagine a hand in this state he hasn't shaken in his nearly six years of leading New Hampshire.
There were many reasons for the Telegraph to endorse Lynch. But in my fantasy version, it was Cornerstone's disgusting act which was the deciding factor.
Will any paper outside of the Union Leader go for the donut guy?
Even through difficult economic times, New Hampshire has fared well under Democratic Gov. John Lynch. He has earned re-election to a fourth two-year term.
Under Lynch, job growth has occurred at the second fastest rate in the nation, second only to Kentucky. Unemployment has been moderate, with the seasonally adjusted rate for September at just 5.5 percent, well below the national average of 9.6 percent for the same month.
Lynch has tackled the recession head-on with an innovative programs to limit job losses and get people back to work.
Adding: We're all a little busy right now with the election right on us, but after Lynch wins a historic fourth term, I think I am going to spend a fair amount of time on Cornerstone for their Karl Rove/Lee Atwater mailer. It is easily the sleaziest, most shameful ad I've ever seen in New Hampshire politics. And considering some of the slime that has passed through the pipes from the GOP or pro-GOP groups in recent years, that is really saying something. John Stephen deserves to lose solely on the basis of not publicly rebuking that ad. Here's hoping WMUR's Josh, who has really been a great debate panelist these past two nights, brings it up tomorrow.
In 1998, Karl Rove’s mentor, Lee Atwater, masterminded an infamous political ad that played on racial fears and portrayed Gov. Michael Dukakis as soft on crime. The Willie Horton ad featured the menacing mug shot of Horton, an African-American convicted of assault, armed robbery, and rape while out on a prison furlough. The ad was roundly condemned as racist and Atwater eventually issued a deathbed apology to Dukakis.
Histoy repeats itself in a direct mail piece attacking Gov. John Lynch. The mailer from Cornerstone Action attacks Lynch for his support of SB 500, the prison parole reform bill Cornerstone describes as "John Lynch's sex offender release bill." The mailer features Lynch in a line-up with four sex offenders, including two African-Americans and a Latino.
Why hasn't John Stephen denounced this mailer? Where's the outrage?
(How ironic that a group with alleged Christian values is basically, and falsely, equating John Lynch to a sex offender. John Lynch, who has been more successful than any other governor in keeping poverty at bay for his citizens. Disgusting. NB: both links are in .pdf format. - promoted by Dean Barker)
ACTION ALERT: MAKE SURE YOUR NEIGHBORS KNOW THE TRUTH!
A vile, outrageous and false attack from the National Organization of Marriage/Cornerstone Action arrived in many of mailboxes across New Hampshire this week. We need your help to make sure your neighbors know the truth!
The mail piece, which you can see here, continues John Stephen and company's false attacks on Gov. Lynch's strong record of public safety.
Here's how you can help. Print out this flyer and distribute it your neighbors so that they know the truth: John Stephen's attacks are what the Portsmouth Herald has called "a cheap political trick."
John Stephen can't wait to get back into power so he can be like Kelly and start frivolous lawsuits, the goal of which is to keep you uninsured:
Stephen said one of the first things he would do if elected on Nov. 2 would be do "make sure... New Hampshire is the 23rd state to join the lawsuit" alleging the health care bill is unconstitutional, which received hearty approval from many in the church.
(The "many" there refers to the 912 Glenn Beck crowd.)
After all that bluff and bluster, after all those misleading ads from hate groups, and even with a typically pro-GOP UNH sample, Johnny Stephen is still turning out to be (.pdf) 2010's version of... what was that fellow's name again?
John Lynch: 51%
John Stephen 37%
Undecided: 9%
Other: 3%
709 respondents, 10/7-10/12, MoE +/-3.7
Is it mixing metaphors to stick a fork in a donut?
Oh, and: thanks to the careful stewardship of John Lynch and the Democratic majorities in House and Senate during this Great Recession, New Hampshire saw its unemployment drop yet again last month to 5.5%, among the lowest rates in the nation (release below the fold).
A: This is easy to see, thanks to the Union Leader devoting it's front page real estate to a big font notice of the latest Rasmussen poll (I saw it at the check-out counter at the grocery store).
Rasmussen, which is to polls what FAUX News is to actual journalism.
Meanwhile, the most recent poll in the Land of Reality shows John Lynch with a commanding lead.
Fiscal conservative John Stephen knows how to run a frugal campaign!
WHEN A QUESTION comes up about Republican John Stephen's campaign for governor, it usually goes to Greg Moore for an answer.
But Moore's name does not appear on Stephen's campaign finance reports as having received a paycheck -- yet.
..."I have not received any compensation from John Stephen or from anybody else for the purposes of work I have done for the campaign. None. Not one dollar," he said.
Frugal, I tell you!:
Some of [then HHS Commissioner] Stephen's other moves struck State House observers as galling. For instance, he added a former campaign aide, Greg Moore, to the health department's payroll as his public affairs director. Moore described his mission at the time as "to communicate all the good things we do." But the hiring seemed little more than political patronage to some.
"That was a standing joke in the State House," former Republican state representative Elizabeth Hager said of Moore's position.
Moore is now a spokesman for Stephen's gubernatorial campaign.
Whether it's using the state money to create a position for former campaign help, or secretive $300,000 payoffs to clean up after the mess made from a partisan resume building exercise, New Hampshire Republican candidates for higher office are frugal!
"The John Stephen campaign has accepted $33,058 in contributions - including $23,000 from the Dunkin' Donuts franchises in Massachusetts and Connecticut - that appear to be exceed those allowed under state finance law and previous interpretation of that law," said Pamela Walsh, campaign manager for NH for John Lynch.
"We are asking the Attorney General to quickly clarify whether these contributions are acceptable under New Hampshire law, or whether they exceed legal contribution limits and should be returned," Walsh said.
And then there's this, which is appalling:
About 13 percent of John Stephen's campaign funds - $124,000 - come from a series of businesses that share two addresses in Connecticut and Massachusetts. The Lynch campaign has called on Stephen to come clean about the donors, including their interests in New Hampshire, and about whether there are any New Hampshire businesses or citizens who are invested in these companies.
Vote for John Stephen, and he'll save the state of New Hampshire billions and trillions of dollars nothing:
Stephen says the state can save hundreds of millions of dollars by converting its Medicaid program into a "managed care" system, one that emphasizes preventive care for its recipients. Stephen refers to a report prepared by the insurance company Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield in making his claim.
"They say, as a conservative estimate, the state would save $300 million with managed care," Stephen told a group of Monitor editors and reporters last week.
A conservative estimate!
And, if the experience of other states is any guide, any savings in New Hampshire are likely to be much more modest than those outlined by Stephen, according to the very report Stephen quotes on the campaign trail.
But grab a donut (preferably not from CT or MA), and read the whole thing.
Looks like Guinta isn't the only Republican candidate with some financial irregularities that need explaining. This looks quite a lot like John Stephen's struggling gubernatorial primary campaign has questions to answer. Funny how a pair of struggling but establishment-backed Republican front-runners in their respective races have suddenly developed mysterious windfalls, now that they've started losing support.
If seventeen LLCs donate to a campaign and all seventeen are owned and controlled by one person, how in the world is that not a form of laundering donations? If this is legal, then New Hampshire has no functional campaign finance restrictions; unlimited donations would be implicitly allowed by creating out-of-state LLCs and sending five thousand bucks a pop from them.
The collection of clowns the Republicans have put up to challenge John Lynch and Carol Shea-Porter makes it exceedingly clear how bare their bench is these days - and how incompetent New Hampshire's Republicans are at campaigning in a state that doesn't reflexively fill in the 'R' dot on the ballot like it used to.
Remember when the NRCC in 2008 tried to help Jeb Bradley win by splashing the phrase "sex offender" next to the name of the person he failed to unseat? It was least honorable political ad of 2008 in NH, imo, and that's saying something considering the gallery of stoopid that normally descends on the TeeVee just prior to voting time.
Same sleaze, different year. Now John Stephen, who is not polling much better than supposedly non-credible Republican gubernatorial candidates, is trying it against Lynch this cycle.
In other news, New Hampshire is rated the healthiest place in the United States of America to raise children.
New Hampshire again ranks No. 1 nationally in an annual survey on children's well-being.
...In composite rankings for all indicators, New Hampshire ranked highest, as it has in eight of the last nine years. This year, it was followed by Minnesota and Vermont. Mississippi ranked last.
"That's an incredible record, and it says a lot about how well kids fare in this state," said Ellen Fineberg, president of the Children's Alliance of New Hampshire, a nonprofit group that does research on children in the state.
Whatever your policy or political disagreements are with Governor Lynch (I sure have some), there is no question he has been a far superior steward of this state than the days of Craig Benson.
Vitale called the party an annual business event and defended the scrapped contest, saying it would have been "as classy as the 89-year-old Mrs. America Pageant."
His flier advertised it differently.
"It's July, it's HOT and we are having our HOTTEST party ever!!" it reads.
This was by far the best email (release) of the day for me:
Surrounded by lawmakers, educators and students, Gov. John Lynch today signed a law that strengthens and updates New Hampshire's existing anti-bullying statute.
The new law, House Bill 1523, will strengthen the state's existing anti-bullying statute by ensuring every school has a clear anti-bullying policy and the new law for the first time addresses the act of cyber-bullying.
"As Governor, I have made the safety of our children a priority, and today, we are continuing our efforts to protect our most important resource - our children," Gov. Lynch said. "Together - as elected officials, parents, teachers, school administrators and law enforcement - we need to send a clear message of zero tolerance for bullying and we will not allow it in our schools."
Bullying is something I take very seriously in my day job; I am thrilled that protections against it were strengthened today.
This is the work of a Democratically controlled house and senate, and a governor who stands for tolerance.
You may have your disagreements with John Lynch on issues big and small - I know I do.
But when it comes to the basic concept of tolerance in society, we have the example above. And we have the example below waiting for us if we don't GOTV:
"If elected, (John) Stephen said he would sign a bill that repealed the state law that allows gay and lesbian couples to marry."
and
"In his prepared remarks yesterday, Stephen focused exclusively on economic matters, a topic that will certainly form the centerpiece of his campaign. But when asked about New Hampshire's law permitting same-sex marriage, Stephen said he supported repealing it."
