Updated NH Primary Source: Ayotte, Hassan camp trade tweaks, criticisms with cardboard cutout, 'state of race' memo
Also: NRA endorses Guinta in 1st Congressional District race
Also: NRA endorses Guinta in 1st Congressional District race
New Hampshire Primary Source covers breaking and behind-the-scenes news and analysis on all things political in the Granite State. John DiStaso is the most experienced political writer in New Hampshire and has been writing a weekly column since 1982. The column posts at 5 a.m. Thursdays, with updates throughout the week.
(Monday afternoon, Aug. 1, update)
LESS THAN 100 DAYS OUT, HASSAN MEMO HITS AYOTTE. After Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s campaign tweaked Gov. Maggie Hassan with a “Take Your Governor to Work” cardboard cutout (see item below), Hassan’s campaign hits the Republican incumbent in a “State of the Race” memo with less than 100 days to go before the general election.
The campaign memo -- provided first to WMUR.com -- says that although PACs and super PACs supportive of Ayotte have spent $15 million praising Ayotte and attacking Hassan, the race is a dead heat, with Hassan holding a slight lead, according to the latest WMUR Granite State poll released last week.
The Hassan campaign said Democrats are organized, with 10 regional coordinated campaign office having opened, and, it noted, Hassan outraised Ayotte in the second quarter, $3.2 million to $2.5 million, and has reduced by nearly half Ayotte’s cash-on-hand advantage.
The Hassan memo says that while Ayotte is a member of a GOP-led Senate “on track to work the fewest days in 60 years,” Hassan “has worked across the aisle to get results" – citing the bipartisan State House agreement on Medicaid expansion, her approval of a 10-year highway plan and her signing into law several measures to address the heroin and opioid epidemic.
The memo notes that the state’s unemployment rate is among the lowest in the nation, and CNBC recently ranked the state as the best in the nation for “business friendliness.”
The memo also continues a drumbeat of Hassan camp criticism of Ayotte for her alleged connections to a for-profit university that has been under investigation for its marketing and advertising practices in connection to veterans and others.
The memo continues the narrative that Ayotte, by supporting Donald Trump (but not endorsing him) for president, is “putting her political party before country” and is creating “serious questions about her judgment.”
View the full memo here.
Ayotte's campaign has been asked to respond and this item will be updated.
(Monday afternoon, Aug. 1, update)
"TAKE YOUR GOVERNOR TO WORK." A Kelly Ayotte supporter calls it “a light-hearted way to make a point about a real issue.” Others might just call it a gimmick.
The issue, according to the Ayotte campaign, is that Gov. Maggie Hassan has spent what the campaign says is an inordinate amount of time out of state on political travel. Since February, Hassan, the Democratic challenger to Ayotte’s re-election, has been out of state for all or parts of 54 days.
To tweak Hassan, the Ayotte campaign has created a cardboard cutout of her, which it’s calling “MIA Maggie.” The Ayotte campaign plans to move it around the state this week “to call attention to Hassan’s failure to do her job and focus on the issues facing the state.”
The first stop for the cardboard Hassan was a mock town hall on Monday.
The Ayotte campaign noted that Hassan has never held one, while Ayotte has held nearly 50. The Ayotte campaign says that throughout the week, the cardboard image will be brought to different locations “to show voters what the governor should be doing to address the issues they care about.”
Hassan campaign spokesman Aaron Jacobs didn't find it light-hearted or funny. He responded: "These are the same tired and misleading attacks from Sen. Ayotte's campaign, which is desperate to distract from her growing Bridgepoint Education scandal and her continued support for Donald Trump.
"Kelly Ayotte has consistently put her political party and special interest backers first, voting with the Koch Brothers nearly 90 percent of the time in her first four years in Washington. And Ayotte has missed nearly half of her Homeland Security Committee meetings and is obstructing the Supreme Court confirmation process -- all at a time when the Senate is scheduled to work the fewest days in 60 years.
"While Maggie Hassan continues to get results for the people of New Hampshire, it's clear that Senator Ayotte will always put her special interest backers and political party first," Jacobs said.
(Monday morning, Aug. 1, update)
NRA BACKS GUINTA. For the fourth time in as many elections, U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund.
It’s the second endorsement of the current election for Guinta by a pro-Second Amendment group. Last week, the New Hampshire Firearms Associaton backed Guinta after giving him an A grade.
The NRA endorsement comes as Guinta also received an A grade from the nation's largest pro-Second Amendment organization.
"You have been a champion for New Hampshire gun owners by consistently opposing attempts to ban lawfully-owned firearms, ammunition and magazines. And you have stood against President Obama’s, Hillary Clinton’s and former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s gun control agenda,” NRA-PVF Chairman Chris W. Cox wrote in an open letter.
Cox said Guinta has voted to promote hunting and fishing, reciprocity among states with concealed-carry laws, and the freedom of financial institutions to provide credit to firearms dealers.
Guinta said that 96 percent of all New Hampshire businesses are small businesses.
"Many of those are firearms dealers in New Hampshire, where the industry is integral to our state economy, as are the tourism and recreation industries, especially in the Lakes Region.”
“I’m humbled to receive this honor from the largest Second Amendment group in the United States, because of my work not only protecting the Second Amendment, but also good jobs and wages for Granite Staters,” Guinta said.
Guinta’s campaign said Guina introduced legislation to lift restrictions on interstate firearms sales, “a change that would encourage more commerce, because of its zero-percent sales tax, in New Hampshire.”
Guinta worked closely with the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition to develop the legislation, the campaign said.
“The administration is targeting law-abiding Americans -- men and women, small business owners, many simply concerned about self-defense --- as a distraction from its failures to stop terrorist attacks,” Guinta said.
Guinta is in a GOP primary with several candidates, including Rich Ashooh of Bedford. The winner will take on Democratic former U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in the general election.
(The original July 28 New Hampshire Primary Source follows.)
HITTING AYOTTE ON BRIDGEPOINT -- AGAIN. Gov. Maggie Hassan’s U.S. Senate campaign continues to hammer at what it calls Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s close relationship with a for-profit university that is under investigation for – among other things – allegedly misleading veterans out of large portions of their personal savings.
Bridgepoint Education Inc. is being probed by attorneys general in several states, as well as by the federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and the Securities and Exchange Commission in connection with the firm’s marketing and advertising practices.
Veterans are among the groups that Bridgepoint-owned Ashford University and other for-profit institutions have been targeting because of the federal funds available to the vets under the GI Bill.
As WMUR has reported here and here, Ayotte’s campaign returned $8,000 in contributions it received from Bridgepoint’s political action committee, Bridge PAC, from February 2015 to February 2016. The campaign said she returned the money after it came to her attention that the company was under investigation.
Hassan’s campaign has charged that Ayotte’s acceptance of the contributions showed that she was putting her “connections to this ‘Trump-Style University’ before hard-working people and families, including veterans.” Hassan’s campaign also questioned whether Ayotte had actually been aware of the firm’s troubles earlier than she owned up to.
Ayotte’s campaign has called the Hassan charge an effort to distract from Hassan’s frequent out-of-state political travel.
In the latest twist, the Hassan camp points out that in May, before returning the contributions, Ayotte, in a closed Senate Armed Services Committee meeting, opposed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Bill that would have “urged” military base commanders to allow service members to attend seminars where they would have learned to be wary of predatory practices, including those of for-profit schools.
The motion to allow service members to attend the “Accessing Higher Education Track” was described in the record as “a consumer protection measure to prevent recruitment by predatory for-profit schools.”
While on its face the amendment seemed straightforward, it failed on a 15-10-1 committee roll call vote. In opposition, Ayotte joined fellow Republicans John McCain, Lindsey Graham, Ted Cruz and others, as well as Democrat Joe Manchin. Among those voting in favor of the motion was Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.
Speaking for Hassan’s campaign, retired Marine and Vietnam War veteran George Flemington of Barrington said, “It is troubling and inexplicable that Sen. Ayotte would vote against a commonsense consumer protection measure that would help make sure veterans know the risks of predatory for-profit schools like Bridgepoint Education, the shady company that contributed thousands of dollars to her campaign.
“Sen. Ayotte's vote put her special interest backers before the well-being of veterans, and she owes Granite Staters an explanation of why she has supported policies that help predatory companies at the expense of veterans and students," Flemington said.
Ayotte’s campaign said she opposed the amendment because it was overly-broad and could have restricted education choices for veterans, service members and their families.
“As the wife of a combat veteran, Kelly understands that our service members are often stationed in remote areas with limited resources and confront multiple deployments, which is why she supports increasing education choices for our military,” Ayotte campaign spokeswoman Liz Johnson said.
“She strongly believes that bad actors who engage in criminal activity and prey upon our service members or their families should be fully investigated and prosecuted.”
Update: In a statement, Bridgepoint Education responded to this report by saying: “It is wholly improper and unethical to baselessly smear Bridgepoint Education, and by extension the many educators we employ and students we serve, in a transparent attempt to score cheap political points in an election year."
The statement continued: "We treat every legal inquiry with the utmost seriousness and are fully committed to making sure the truth prevails. But to summarily ignore all due process and accuse us of serious wrongdoing via a glib political talking point is beneath anyone who would seek elected office. And it treats as collateral damage the students, thousands of whom are veterans of the Armed Forces, who have entrusted us with their education."
Bridgepoint continued: "The statements recently made about Bridgepoint are not only improper, they are patently false. Our institutions of higher education are fully vetted by independent educational accrediting bodies -- the same bodies that accredit traditional, not-for-profit colleges and universities -- and are subject to federal and state certifications of our programs’ educational integrity."
"Our students have access to the same grants and funding as students at any other properly accredited institution of higher education in the country. And we are subject to the same oversight. To compare our institutions to unaccredited and unregulated businesses is simply inaccurate."
"Bridgepoint will continue to stand up for the integrity of both its educational and its business mission. We owe that much to our students, educators, alumni, and partners across the country.”
The Hassan campaign also hit Ayotte for a 2015 vote that weakened the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau by moving the agency’s funding away from the Federal Reserve and putting it under direct control of Congress. Democrats and the Huffington Post contended it was a way to slash the bureau’s funding and pressure it not to crack down on lenders. The Hassan campaign also noted that Ayotte voted against the confirmation of the Obama-nominated bureau director, Richard Cordray.
“Gov. Hassan’s attack is false and completely ignores the concerns voiced by New Hampshire's community bankers that CFPB's broad and unchecked regulatory authority makes it harder for them to do business,” Johnson responded.
“Kelly supports robust congressional oversight of the bureau to ensure greater accountability to taxpayers, including bringing funding for the bureau under the congressional appropriations process, like other large regulatory agencies, and replacing the single director with a bipartisan board to oversee the bureau.”
“She opposed the confirmation of Mr. Cordray because the Obama administration refused to pursue reforms that she and other senators raised about the bureau’s lack of oversight,” Johnson said. Cordray was eventually confirmed by a 66-34 vote of the Senate.
TYING MAGGIE TO HILLARY. The Ayotte campaign, meanwhile, is hitting Hassan with a new web ad charging that the governor, like Hillary Clinton, “wants to play by a different set of rules.”
The video recalls that in 2014, Hassan’s campaign returned $33,000 in contributions to her gubernatorial campaign from organized labor political action committees because the contributions were received a day after she had filed for re-election. At that point, lower state campaign contribution limits were in effect.
Of that amount, $24,000 was ordered returned by Attorney General Joseph Foster, while the other $9,000 was returned voluntarily by Hassan’s campaign.
“Maggie Hassan was forced to give back tens of thousands of dollars she took illegally,” the ad says.
It also says she “avoids giving straight answers or answering tough questions.”
And, referring to her out-of-state political travel for all or parts of 52 days since February, the ad says, “Now Maggie Hassan is skipping out on the job we elected her to do so she can rub elbows and raise money out of state.”
Showing Hassan and Clinton in side-by-side photos, the ad narrator says, “Just like Hillary Clinton, Maggie Hassan wants to play by a different set of rules than the rest of us.”
View the ad here and below.
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Update: Hassan campaign spokesman Aaron Jacobs responded to the attack by saying, “Kelly Ayotte is trying to get re-elected on a record of missing nearly half her Homeland Security Committee hearings, joining a partisan blockade of the Supreme Court confirmation process, and misleading New Hampshire about her ties to a predatory Trump-style university that rips off veterans. So, of course, Ayotte is throwing a kitchen sink of false and deceptive attacks at Maggie Hassan.”
“It's desperate and it's sad, but with her troubling record and growing pile of baggage, what else is Kelly Ayotte expected to do?” Jacobs said.
Democrats also pointed out that according to a November USA Today report, Ayotte returned $43,100 in contributions after USA Today identified “dozens of large campaign donations attributed to people with modest incomes,” all with apparent ties to a Turkish religious movement.
KEY ENDORSEMENT FOR GATSAS. Republican candidate for governor Ted Gatsas on Thursday will pick up a key endorsement.
New Hampshire Primary Source has learned Chris Williams, a businessman, former president of the Greater Nashua Chamber of Commerce and former candidate for Nashua mayor, will be a statewide Gatsas campaign finance co-chairman and Nashua campaign co-chair.
Williams calls Gatsas “a self-made businessman who has the experience and plan we need to get our state’s economy moving again.” Williams also cites Gatsas’ experience as Manchester’s mayor.
Williams says that as chamber president, “I’ve worked to support hundreds of small businesses, their leaders and the families they support. I know they will appreciate Ted’s bold leadership, his understanding of how business works, his corner-office experience and his detailed plans to make our state’s future stronger and brighter.”
Gatsas calls Williams “a respected business leader” and “one of our state’s rising political stars.”
A BIT OF IRONY. One couldn’t help but notice a touch of irony in the press conference call conducted Wednesday morning by the New Hampshire Republican Party, featuring former Gov. John H. Sununu, a former state party chair, and current chair Jennifer Horn.
They predictably bashed Clinton and the entire Democratic National Convention taking place in Philadelphia. But their message was, in Horn’s words, that the Democratic convention “is a celebration of the establishment.”
She noted featured speakers have included former Secretary of State Madeline Albright, former President Bill Clinton, Vice President Joe Biden and President Obama – not to mention that vice presidential nominee Tim Kaine is rooted in the party establishment and is a former Democratic National Committee chair.
Sununu and Horn are not only Republican establishment through and through, but they are also former harsh critics of Donald Trump. Now, they’re on the Trump Train.
Sununu said that while the Democratic convention is in disarray, with Bernie Sanders supporters walking out and protest occurring outside of the Wells Fargo Arena, Republicans are moving toward unity behind Trump.
He acknowledged that he had strong concerns about the GOP nominee, “but I have quickly moved over to confirm that I will vote for Mr. Trump and will do all I can to help the Republican ticket from top to bottom.”
We asked Sununu why he moved from being a high-profile critic of Trump and supporter of the “Never Trump” movement, to now being a Trump supporter. Was his catharsis simply a product of contempt for Clinton, or was it something – or series of things – that Trump did to win him over?
“I think that the biggest thing that impacted (his change of heart) was the selection of Mike Pence as the vice presidential nominee,” Sununu said. “I know Mike Pence. My comfort level went up by a factor of 100 when he was selected, and as long as (Trump) continues on that line, I’m feeling more comfortable and stronger and stronger in that direction.”
Sununu also noted that on Monday night, none of the 61 speakers mentioned ISIS. He noted that Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a close Clinton confidante, predicted that she will flip her position and support the Trans Pacific Partnership if she is elected president – comments McAuliffe later walked back.
Essentially, Sununu said, McAuliffe was saying that “when she says she is against TPP, she is lying and will flip-flop.”
Horn predicted that with Obama speaking on Wednesday night, “he will talk about the accomplishments of the last eight years.” But, citing statistics from the U.S. commerce, agriculture and labor departments, and the census bureau, Horn said, “Our economy is, at best, stagnant,” with eight-tenths of a percent economic growth in 2015, 4,000 Granite Staters having “fallen into poverty” during his terms in office, while the number of people on food stamps has grown by 36 percent and the state has lost 9,500 manufacturing jobs.
“This election is going to be about what happened in this country after eight disastrous years,” Sununu said. “Obama will basically say that a third term is needed to continue his leadership. That in itself will be the biggest condemnation of the Democratic ticket.”
BUCKLEY IN THE RUNNING? This didn’t take long. A report surfaced on Wednesday that New Hampshire Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley is among the many contenders being mentioned to succeed Debbie Wasserman Schultz as Democratic National Committee chair.
According to Politico, Buckley receives “frequent mention after helping Gov. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen survive their re-election bids in the heavily Republican 2014 cycle.”
The story also notes that Buckley is now in his fourth term as president of the Association of State Democratic Chairs, a group affiliated with the DNC that includes the party chairs and vice chairs of all 50 states, as well as American Samoa, the District of Columbia, Democrats Abroad, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Northern Mariana Islands and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Its mission is to “help build strong state parties.”
Buckley is being credited with working to keep state party conventions around the country peaceful in the wake of a contentious Nevada party convention in May.
As we’ve reported, he offered specific guidelines to his fellow ASDC members, including calling for the Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders campaigns to have senior staff members on the sites of subsequent state conventions and cost-sharing for extra security. He sought commitments from the Clinton and Sanders campaigns that convention speakers will not be interrupted or distracted.
Buckley has little to say about the report that he is in the running for national party chair. Is he interested?
"While I appreciate the outpouring of encouragement, there are a lot of great friends being mentioned who would also be excellent,” he told us. “Ultimately, it will be up to President Hillary Clinton."
In other words: Heck yeah, he’s interested.
If Clinton were to be elected president, she would make the de facto appointment. Officially, though, an election will be held by the members of the DNC. That could come shortly after the general election in November, but it is more likely the choice will be made at scheduled DNC elections in January.
WATCHING HILLARY. Clinton’s New Hampshire campaign is hosting no fewer than 16 watch parties throughout the state on Thursday night as she accepts the Democratic presidential nomination.
The parties will begin at 9 p.m. at the Manchester Field Office, 379 Elm St., and in private homes in Londonderry, Concord, Laconia, Portsmouth, Rochester, Dover, Hampton Falls, Hanover, Berlin, Intervale, Keene, Jaffrey, Nashua, Merrimack and Salem.
The state Republican Party, meanwhile, will have a “I’m NOT With Her” Happy Hour Fundraiser at 6:30 p.m. at the Riverside Room at Waumbec Mill in Manchester. The subject line of NHGOP chair Horn’s email announcing the event is “Crooked, Rigged and Fun.”
FIREARMS COALITION GRADES. U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta has earned an A grade from the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition, while fellow Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte has been given a D-, and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ann Kuster, a failing grade.
Among the Guinta initiatives cited by NHFC are his support for making New Hampshire pistol/revolver licenses valid in all states, his sponsorship of legislation to allow the sale of any firearms across state lines and his sponsorship of a bill to end the ban on concealed carry in U.S. military installations.
On the other hand, group president Scott Krauss says Ayotte has “consistently refused to support filibusters to stop new federal gun control; voted to confirm anti-gun Loretta Lynch as U.S. Attorney General” and “recently joined with Sen. (Susan) Collins of Maine to restrict your right to bear arms.”
“Finally, Sen. Ayotte also meets the definition of a ‘promise breaker’ because she broke all of the promises that she made in 2010 when she first ran for the U.S. Senate,” Krauss says.
Kuster? Well, NHFC says she failed “because of the numerous letters that she has sent to NHFC members boldly declaring her support for more and more restrictive federal gun control. We do not expect the tiger to change her stripes.”
The group has not yet graded other candidates.
HAMMOND JOINS HERALD GROUP. Moultonborough native and veteran political strategist R.C. Hammond has joined The Herald Group, a Washington-based public affairs and issues management firm, as a vice president. Hammond is a former communications director for former Sen. John E. Sununu and in 2012 was the national press secretary for former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s presidential campaign.
CLOSE-UP. This week on “CloseUP,” WMUR political director Josh McElveen’s guests will include U.S. Sen. Corey Booker, D-N.J. The program airs on Sunday at 10 a.m.
NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY SOURCE. To view recent New Hampshire Primary Source columns, click here.
(John DiStaso can be reached at jdistaso@hearst.com or distasoj@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter: @jdistaso and on Facebook: Facebook.com/JohnDiStasoWMUR.)