NEWS FROM THE NHGOP -- MAY 8, 2008

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: 

Wouldn’t the Lynch budget deficit and the Lynch tax increase proposals make good topics for a letter to the editor?  How about writing one?  It’s easy to submit one online

 

HELP US DO OUR JOBS: 

Here at the NH GOP, we’re busy working on candidate recruitment, candidate training, updating the voter file, and trying to add staff to help our candidates win elections this year.  None of this happens for free.  Support our efforts to win elections by contributing to the NH Republican party today 

 

SECOND POTENTIAL GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE STEPPING UP: 

State Senator Joe Kenney continues taking steps toward a candidacy for governor unveiling his new website this week, and today the Union Leader reports that political newcomer Jim Adams of Pittsfield is looking at the race:  “Adams, the recently retired former New Hampshire/Vermont district manager for the U.S. Postal Service, said yesterday he is seriously thinking of running because he's upset by what he views as excessive spending in Concord…While Adams would be making his first run for elective office, he's not a political novice, said state GOP Chair Fergus Cullen. ‘Jim's initial strengths are management experience with a large organization with large budgets and a less tangible set of political skills that comes from rising to the top in a large political, bureaucratic organization and staying there,’ he said.  Adams, a New Hampshire native, spent 36 years at the postal service, the first 10 as a letter carrier. In 1988, he went to Washington as senior advisor to the assistant postmaster general and then as chief of staff to postmasters Anthony Frank and Marvin Runyon. Read more about Jim

JEANNE SHAHEEN, FLIP-FLOP QUEEN (this week’s example): 

The ease with which Jeanne Shaheen adopts a position and then abandons it is amazing.  How can we be sure her position today will be her position tomorrow?  Today Shaheen says abandon Iraq.  But back in 2002, candidate Shaheen said:  “Look, if we're going to go into Iraq -- and again, I think we've got to keep all the options on the table -- we need to know what we're getting into and we need to be prepared to stay there for as long as it takes to make sure that the successor to Saddam Hussein, whatever that regime turns out to be, is going to be one that can build democratic institutions and provide stability in the country.” “Well, I think if we go into Iraq, that it will require sacrifice from people in this country. I think it does mean that we need to consider a long-term commitment there . It will require the dedication of resources. And that would mean that people in this country would have to support the effort and be willing to help sacrifice to make that happen. So I think that is something. That's why we need to have the support of the American people in doing that.” (Transcript from CNN’s Novak, Hunt, and Shields, aired September 21, 2002, emphasis added)

A NEW PLEDGE? 

The good fiscal conservatives at the New Hampshire Advantage Coalition are working on two promising initiatives.  The first is helping put tax caps on the ballot in a number of communities around the state (including Rochester, Somersworth, Manchester, Merrimack, Londonderry, Conway, Keene, Concord, Lebanon and Bedford).  The second is working on a new “fiscal responsibility” pledge going beyond the pledge against sales and income taxes.  To learn more or to help, check out their website.

GOOD NEWS: 

Dem state senator Peter Burling, the single most partisan member of the state senate in either party, announced his retirement this week.

FROM COLUMNIST GEORGE WILL: 

“Hillary Clinton, 60, Illinois native and Arkansas lawyer, became, retroactively, a life-long Yankee fan at age 52 when, shopping for a U.S. Senate seat, she adopted New York state as home sweet home. She may think, or at least would argue, that when she was 12 her Yankees really won the 1960 World Series, by standards of "fairness," because they trounced the Pirates in runs scored, 55-27, over seven games, so there.  Unfortunately, baseball's rules -- pesky nuisances, rules -- say it matters how runs are distributed during a World Series.  The Pirates won four games, which is the point of the exercise, by a total margin of seven runs, while the Yankees were winning three by a total of 35 runs. You can look it up.”

EVENT HONORING SENATOR WARREN RUDMAN: 

On May 13, Americans for Campaign Reform is holding a fundraising dinner honoring former U.S. Senator Warren Rudman.  Keynote speakers are former Senators Howard Baker and Nancy Kassebaum Baker.  The event is at 6:00 p.m. at CR Sparks in Bedford.  Tickets are $50 each.  For more info, call 227-0626.

CAMPAIGN SCHOOL: 

he National Federation of Republican Women is holding an all-day campaign school on May 17 in Nashua.  The school is open to men as well as women!  For more info, contact NH NFRW Chairwoman Christine Peters at 673-0959

HUMOR (Send your family-appropriate political jokes to Fergus): 

Almost seven years ago I sat, as did millions of other Americans, and watched as our government underwent a peaceful transition of power.  At first, I felt a swell of pride and patriotism as I watched George W. Bush take his oath of office. However, all that pride quickly vanished as I later watched the Clintons board Air Force One for the last time. I saw 21 Marines, in full dress uniform with rifles, fire a 21-gun salute to the outgoing President and first lady. It was then that I realized how far America's military had deteriorated under the Clinton administration. Every last one of them missed.

Fergus Cullen
Chairman, New Hampshire Republican Party
10 Water Street
Concord, NH  03301

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