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(Remember when Frank went begging for the stimulus and Kelly called him a "grandstander"? - promoted by Dean Barker)
The picture painted in the UL of Manchester if the Republicans win NH's federal races is bleak.
FALLING OFF A CLIFF. That's how the mayor, aldermen and school committee members have referred to the budget outlook without federal stimulus funding. Politicians have fought over the effectiveness and worthiness of the $787 billion package throughout this election cycle, but the reality on the ground is that school officials will have $4.8 million less to work with when they sit down to craft their budgets.
This was published as an op-ed in the October 15, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun.
All of the miners trapped for 70 days in the collapsed San Jose copper mine in Chile have been rescued. It's a remarkable story. After the collapse of the mine in early August, they were assumed to be dead, since rescuers could not reach them at all. For two weeks, rescuers tried to get in there to get the bodies out. After drilling in some deep bore holes, the rescuers learned that the miners were still alive. After many logistical problems were overcome, by people working together, the 33 miners were all rescued. This wasn't a scripted reality show, designed to tug at our heartstrings. This was the real deal - ordinary working stiffs who were part of an extraordinary series of events. We saw humans at their best, which made for quite a contrast to the current acrimonious election season in NH.
(Imagine the positive impact of having both Paul Hodes and Jeanne Shaheen in the Senate... now go make some phone calls or knock on some doors. - promoted by Mike Hoefer)
Yesterday, I stood with environmental leaders in New Hampshire to talk about my dedication to a national renewable energy standard. I challenged my global-warming denying opponent, Kelly Ayotte, to take a position on the issue. She responded that she would look at the proposal.
It's puzzling. Why would someone who doesn't think global warming exists think that we need to enact a proposal aimed at reducing carbon emissions? Why would someone who supports things like drilling off the coast of New Hampshire all of a sudden try to convince us she'd be supportive of renewable energy efforts in the US Senate?
In her competitive primary, we watched Ms. Ayotte move to the far-right wing of her party. Now, with the general election less than a month away, she's trying to have it both ways. She's hoping New Hampshire won't notice that big oil and coal companies continue to fill her campaign coffers as she talks about drilling off the coast of New Hampshire.
The bottom line is that Kelly Ayotte has as many doubts about global warming as I have about her ability to stand up to her special interest donors in the oil and coal industry.
Kelly Ayotte (R- K. Street), 12 year Congressmen Charlie Bass, and $250k Frank have all vowed to work to repeal or "repeal and replace" the historic health care reform passed early this year.
I'm not sure how popular that is going to be with stories like this coming out...
O'Brien, 52, and her husband, Matt, 55, had been uninsured for years.
"The first thing that was on my mind wasn't, 'Oh my God, I have cancer,' " Gail O'Brien said in an interview Monday. "My first thought was, 'Oh my God, how am I going to pay for it?' "
The Keene couple's jobs - she's a preschool teacher and he works part time for the city - didn't offer insurance.
It was only after O'Brien found out that the new health care reform law includes a provision allowing her to buy into a high-risk insurance pool that she knew her illness wouldn't bankrupt her family.
Please don't run on repealing "Obamacare" Kelly, Charlie, and Frank. Really whatever you do, I mean it please, don't.*
* See Brer Rabbit and the Tar Baby if the snark is a bit too thick.
This is an op-ed, published in the Sept. 17, 2010 edition of the Conway Daily Sun.
The votes have been counted, the winners declared, and the primary officially over. Now we move into the concentrated madness of election season; the season we love to hate. Robo-calls, lawn sign wars, letters to the editor, ugly accusations, and underhanded deeds will be part of our lives for the next month and a half. It's better than any reality show.
It's a relief to learn that Katrina Swett has reversed her position on requiring parental notification for teens seeking abortion. While Ann McLane Kuster clearly has a stronger record on protecting women's health and reproductive rights, it's important to acknowledge that many NH voters who consider themselves pro-choice feel conflicted about upholding the legal right of minors to receive confidential medical treatment.
As usual, hard-core social conservatives and anti-choice politicians have blown the issue of parental notification wildly out of proportion to what happens in the real world.
(Key takeaways: 1) Credible polling puts Hodes within a small MoE of Ayotte. 2) As we have pointed out time and again, Palin is a drag on the NH ticket. 3) As I suspected, Bill Binnie is the stronger general election Republican candidate. Finally: you guys deserve serious props for freeping that PPP survey to get their attention that we desperately needed real polling for this race. Now go out and spread the news on this poll before the UL and WMUR predictably blanket the state media spin with UNH's higher MoEs. - promoted by Dean Barker)
It looks like Republican activists, pundits and Democratic naysayers were hanging up the banners at the Republican victory party a little too early.
The Public Policy Poll has Paul; Hodes within three points of Kelly Ayotte, five points of Bill Binnie, one point ahead of Bender and five points ahead of Ovide.
http://nhpoliticalreport.com/
This poll is stunningly different from Rasmussen, yet still may be tilted toward Republican voters, According to the cross tabs, 45% of those responding said they voted for McCain, while 48% said they voted for Barack Obama. In the actual 2008 election, 54% of NH voters voted for Barack Obama.
http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/20...
The Boston Globe reports that Governor Lynch--a Democrat--is pressuring Democratic US Senate candidate Paul Hodes to cut out criticizing Republican senate candidate Kelly Ayotte for her possible role in the FRM Ponzi scheme that hurt so many citizens.
Say what?
It is reported that Lynch at first tried very hard to squelch any discussion of the matter, then got AG Delaney to try to deflect any responsibility on the part of his predecessor AG Ayotte to instead blame the securities division at the secretary of state's office, which of course didn't stick.
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.
Kathy Sullivan had a great post on this earlier today, but I wanted to take a second and talk about Kelly Ayotte's statement this morning that taking drilling in New England "off the table" would be a "huge mistake."
It was unbelievable, especially as millions of gallons of oil continue to pollute Gulf waters and coastlines
(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.
Scala sees parallels between this GOP Senate primary and the one in 2002.
The Sununu vs. Smith race is especially instructive. Sununu, the challenger to the incumbent, did not run as a moderate insurgent. If anything, the contrast was one of tone and personality, between the coolly cerebral Sununu and the flamboyant, Buchananesque Smith (who quit the Republican Party and ran for president before returning to the GOP).
Ayotte and Lamontagne are both running to the right to win the primary. Then what?
Now to the general. Ambinder implies that only a Susan Collins Republican can now win a general election in New Hampshire. But in the last two election cycles, moderate Republicans (Congressmen Charlie Bass and Jeb Bradley) and conservative Republicans (Sununu) alike lost here. Arguably, no one with an (R) next to his name could win a statewide election in New Hampshire the last two cycles. It doesn't necessarily follow that a conservative Republican cannot win a general election in New Hampshire in the new Obama era, when economic and fiscal issues appear to be dominant once again.
I guess Scala is holding to the meme that Democrats won the last two cycles because of the war and Bush fatigue. I'm not so sure. Also, I don't think Bass and Bradley, who voted with W. Bush most, if not all the time, can be considered moderate.
Also, I hope the parallels end at the primary election. We don't need any more illegal actions, such as phone jamming, leading to lawsuits, jail time and whatnot.
Tonight I headed out to join other health care advocates in "welcoming" curiously tanned U.S. House Minority Leader John Boehner to a NH GOP fundraiser in downtown Concord.
Papa Sununu, in hopes of picking up seats that New Hampshire voters have firmly signaled should NOT be under Republican control, thought bringing in one of the henchmen trying to kill real health care reform would somehow be a shot in the arm for his party.
It won't work, of course. The party elite might like the message he's peddling, but conservatives are ultimately going to lose the battle over health care reform for one simple reason: they just don't get it.
Of course, we still have our work to do. But what I'm saying is - they sure are making it easier these days. Republican leaders are projecting absolute cluelessness about why people want health care reform, and need it now, a point made excellently in this op-ed.
Case in point: take this line from tonight by former Ron Paul staffer and Free Stater Andy Demers, who was bothered by the large pro-health care crowds rallying outside as he entered the fundraiser - "Ah, come on. On a Friday night, really?!"
Well, yes, Andy - really.
Because when you don't have health care coverage or your family budget is drained by high health care costs - those are things that continue to worry you over the weekend. Even on a Friday night.
So, yes - we came out to remind people like Boehner that when he's busy applying fake tanning lotion (or whatever it is), other people are fighting for their lives. It's not fun, and it's not what we want to be doing on a Friday night, but it's the fight we will continue until the Republican Party finally understands that families want and need health care reform, now.
"KellyCare" Will Empower Insurance Giants and Leave 53 Million Uninsured Americans in the Dust
CONCORD - Tonight, House Republican Leader John Boehner, one of Kelly Ayotte's DC establishment friends, will be attending an NHGOP fundraiser in Concord. Both Ayotte and Boehner support a risky healthcare plan that would eliminate protections for New Hampshire families and empower big insurance companies.
"KellyCare" - Ayotte's plan to take control over healthcare away from Granite Staters and put it squarely in the hands of insurance giants - was manufactured by Boehner and the Republican establishment in Washington. By eliminating essential state-level protections that require insurance companies to remain accountable to the consumers they serve, "KellyCare" lets insurance bureaucracies decide what they will or will not cover. Without these crucial safeguards, insurance companies are free to cover only the most profitable services for themselves, leaving women, children and those with pre-existing medical conditions particularly at risk.
"Kelly is calling in her establishment friends to do the dirty work she keeps avoiding - defending and discussing her disastrous plan," said Emily Browne, Press Secretary for the New Hampshire Democratic Party. "New Hampshire has created rock-solid consumer protections to ensure that no insurance bureaucracy can choose not to cover something just to protect its own profit. To do away with these would not only threaten the ability of Granite Staters to keep their families healthy, but would allow insurance bureaucrats to deny New Hampshire its right to decide how to care for its residents. 'KellyCare' lets insurance companies call the shots - and leaves New Hampshire families in the dust."
Earlier this month, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that "KellyCare" would leave 53 million Americans without healthcare. When pushed about this massive shortfall, Boehner said: "What we do is try to make the current system work better...We do not attempt to cover 46 million more Americans" [Roll Call, 11/2/09, CNN, 11/1/09; CBO Analysis, 11/4/09].
The New York Times said that the Ayotte-Boehner plan would "do almost nothing to reduce the scandalously high number of Americans who have no insurance...and isn't health care reform." (New York Times 11/6/09)
Today's available Sunday columns are Tom Fahey's, from the Union Leader and Kevin Landrigan's from The Nashua Telegraph.
Fahey opens with a report on unemployment benefits. The amount the state pays out will be higher, due to higher unemployment. Employers will also have to pay more into the system in 2010, while laid off employees will have to wait a week to collect.
Landrigan was following the money this morning. The link between Kelly Ayotte and the epic-failure- as-Governor Craig Benson was brought into focus. Well, he did give her her start as AG, which is her platform for her Senate run.
Reporting that most of Ayotte's money was raised from out of state political PACS, many donors have already maxed out, and much of her money can only be used in the general (optimistic!), Landrigan writes:
There was barely a member of the extended Benson-allied family (read campaign $$$) whom Ayotte missed in her maiden fundraising voyage.
(It was great seeing you again, Aldon. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Today, we drove up to New Hampshire for a pig-roast with Representative Paul Hodes, who is running for U.S. Senate. It was a special pig roast and jamfest, or perhaps a Hodes-down for bloggers. We live in Connecticut where we have our own hotly contested U.S. Senate race going on, but I've got lots of good friends who are bloggers up in New Hampshire and I always enjoy heading up to talk democracy in the Granite State.
Today, Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte formally declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Prior to being elected to Congress, Rep. Hodes served as Assistant Attorney General under then Attorney General David Souter. The two of them are currently the likely candidates to go head to head seeking retiring Senator Judd Gregg's seat.
It may seem strange to drive four hours each way, to an event for a Senate candidate two states away, but it reflects a view towards democracy that I love about New Hampshire. Back in the beginning of 2008, we traveled up to New Hampshire to help campaign for John Edwards. Fiona, who was six at the time, got up on the stage and led a large crowd of supporters in a chant for Sen. Edwards, and later hopped into his arms after his speech. When Sen. Edwards dropped out of the race, we asked her what she thought about supporting Sen. Obama. She paused for a moment, and said, "I don't know. I haven't met him yet."
When I tell that story to people in Connecticut, or many other states, they are taken aback. Why would a six year old expect to meet a Presidential candidate before deciding whether or not to support them? Yet when I tell that story to people in New Hampshire, they nod their heads and say, "Yup, makes sense to me." Democracy needs to be participatory, and at least for us, that means more than just watching news bites on television. It means having a good face to face discussion with the candidates.
