Van Ostern Pulls In Over 1000 Individual Donations

John DiStaso reports that with six months to go before the election, Democrat Colin Van Ostern has already received more than 1000 individual donations — the state’s first Executive Council candidate to ever reach that milestone.

Van Ostern says his campaign has raised over $100,000 with an average contribution of roughly $100 and more than three-quarters of the funds coming from New Hampshire voters. No donor to his campaign has yet given the maximum contribution, he says. 

“This overwhelming grassroots support is a clear signal that New Hampshire voters in every corner of the state are rallying behind our call for more focus on jobs and the economy, and less government interference in our personal lives,” Van Ostern says in a statement. “Other campaigns may have bigger bank accounts in this election, but I am proud of the widespread, grassroots support that is reflected in the historic number of voters investing in our campaign.”

New Congressional Redistricting Plan on the Way?

3/29/12 UPDATE: This plan was approved by the state Senate in a voice vote and now goes to the House.

John DiStaso reports that Reps. Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta have ended their behind-the-scenes tug-of-war and agreed on a Congressional redistricting plan.

The proposal would move Sanborton (R+1), Tilton (EVEN) and Campton (D+5) from Bass’ 2nd District to Guinta’s 1st District. Deerfield (R+6), Northwood (R+1) and Center Harbor (R+2) would be transferred from the 1st District to the 2nd District.

Bass would be giving up three towns that Obama carried in 2008 by 581 votes, a 55%-44% margin. McCain won the three towns Bass would receive in exchange by 73 votes, a 50%-49% margin. 

Based on the 2008 presidential vote, Bass would net about 500 additional Republican votes in his Democratic-leaning district. Bass won his seat in 2010 beating Democrat Ann Kuster by just 3550 votes.

The plan, writes DiStaso, will be introduced on the Senate floor later today.

Kimball Defies Congressional Delegation Call to Resign

Yesterday, Kevin Landrigan reported the state’s entire GOP congressional delegation — Congressmen Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass and Sen. Kelly Ayotte — along with state House Speaker Bill O’Brien and state Senate President Peter Bragdon, held a conference call Friday to discuss the future of party chair Jack Kimball.

Today, John DiStaso reports the results of that call.

Sources said all five were unanimous that Kimball should go.

O’Brien on Friday afternoon relayed that message to Kimball at a meeting at Kimball’s office in Portsmouth.

Sources said that Kimball told O’Brien he would take the weekend to think about it, and then, after hearing from other party leaders and the grassroots, decided not to step down.

The 36-person GOP Executive Committee meets on September 1 to decide Kimball’s fate. A simple majority vote is required to remove Kimball as party chair.

GOP Candidates Pledge to Destroy Government

John DiStaso reports anti-tax zealot Grover Norquist will be in Manchester tomorrow when GOP presidential candidate Rick Santorum signs Norquist’s “Taxpayer Protection Pledge.”

Norquist told the Granite Status today that Santorum will be third presidential candidate to sign the pledge so far in the current campaign. He said businessman Herman Cain and former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson have also signed.

Norquist said all other GOP presidential candidates have indicated to him that they intend to sign the pledge as well.

Norquist says this means opposing any deficit reduction plan that increases taxes or allows current “temporary” taxes to expire. But keep them all in place and the 2015 deficit explodes to $1.1 trillion. So how do they get there from here?

Michael Linden points out the current GOP budget proposal cuts 6% from discretionary spending and would result in “hundreds of thousands of job losses, slower economic growth over the long term, massively rolling back services for children, undermining the safety and health of all Americans and seriously fraying the social safety net.”

Getting the deficit below $500 billion under the rules of Norquist’s pledge would require increasing that to a 15% across the board spending cut. Honor Paul Ryan’s pledge not to cut entitlements for those 55 and over, and you would have to cut everything else by 30%. Exempt the Pentagon, and the required cuts grow to 50%.

So there you have it. Deficit reduction brought to you by Grover Norquist: cut every basic service of the federal government — highway funding, border patrol, school lunches, Coast Guard, disease control, product safety, drug inspections, national parks, museums, and libraries, education funding, scientific research, embassies and consulates, veterans’ medical care, the FBI — fully in half.

The GOP has made a lot of promises recently: to Norquist that they won’t raise taxes, to seniors that they won’t cut their benefits, to the American people that they will reduce the deficit. The only way to keep them all is to cut nearly everything the government does by 50 percent.

Or break some promises.

Rand Paul Learns a Truth About American Politics

Americans are ideological conservatives and operational liberals. For the last 50 years, majorities have expressed agreement with general conservative principles and support for activist government to address social problems. In an interview with John DiStaso, Sen. Rand Paul acknowledges learning this lesson.

“Forty-seven Republican senators signed on to support the balanced budget amendment,” [Rand] said. “But then when I ask the to cut $100 billion or $200 billion, nobody signs onto it. In the abstract, we’re for a balanced budget and a conservative constitutional government, but when it comes to actually buckling down and asking whether we can get rid of the Department of Education, nobody is out there with me on that one. Or very few.”

Mahoney Up 7 Points in Americans for Prosperity Poll

John DiStaso reports a poll commissioned by Americans for Prosperity gives Sean Mahoney a 33% to 26% lead over Frank Guinta in the GOP primary for the 1st Congressional District. The survey has Rich Ashooh trailing with 10% and Bob Bestani with 5%. 27% were undecided.

Americans for Prosperity is the right-wing political advocacy group funded by infamous oil billionaire David Koch of Koch Industries. Mahoney hosted an AFP anti-healthcare reform rally at his Portsmouth residence in March before he entered the race. AFP has not endorsed a candidate in the primary.

The survey of 369 likely voters was performed by Cross Target. Based on results from two previous surveys, Cross Target is rated as slightly below average in effectiveness in Nate Silver’s pollster ratings.

Binnie Plant Closing Cost U.S. Jobs

On the campaign trail, U.S. Senate candidate Bill Binnie talks about how he built Carlisle Plastics into an industry-leading company employing thousands of workers around the globe.

Last Sunday, a John DiStaso piece in the Union Leader identified a long list of labor, safety and environmental protection violations allegedly committed by Carlisle Plastics under Binnie’s management. Chief among them was the claim that Binnie closed a California factory in 1989 and moved it to Mexico after workers tried to unionize, costing 450 American jobs.

Binnie fired back with a full-page ad in the Union Leader.

YOUR PAPER ALLEGES THAT WE CLOSED a plant in the Los Angeles area and moved it to Mexico—wrong. We closed a small plant in the L.A. area after we acquired it and built a new much larger plant just SEVEN miles away, in the same L.A. area.

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Union Leader Outs Swett as “Capitol Hill Lobbyist”

2nd District U.S. House candidate Katrina Swett has repeatedly attacked her opponent, Ann McLean Kuster, for her work as a “lobbyist.” Today Swett is responding to a story in the Union Leader identifying her role as a Capitol Hill lobbyist in the late 1990s.

Swett’s name is listed on a 1997 federal Lobbying Registration form for Dick Swett Associates, Inc., in a section requiring the “name and title of each employee of the registrant who has acted or is expected to act as a lobbyist for the client.”

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John Lynch and the Myth of the 50% Incumbent Rule

The latest John DiStaso Granite Status column screams:

LYNCH STRUGGLES CONTINUE. A fourth consecutive poll of the New Hampshire governor’s race shows Democratic incumbent John Lynch falling short of the 50 percent mark in a head-to-head match-up Republican candidate John Stephen.

Why does he focus on Lynch falling short of the 50% mark, rather than the head-to-head numbers? Well, as every “political insider” knows, incumbents polling under 50% are vulnerable this early in the election because the undecided vote always breaks against the incumbent. Except, the conventional wisdom is wrong! And Nate Silver proves it.

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