Kelly Ayotte Veepstakes Recommendation: SELL

When I last checked in on New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, national commentators were endorsing her as a serious candidate for vice president and her stock was on the rise. Then she flubbed her big audition on Meet the Press and the press moved on.

As evidence of the cooling ardor, today she received a down arrow from the National Journal and fell from #6 to #10 on the Hotline Veepstakes Power Rankings.

Perhaps Romney’s best option if he wants to bring gender balance to the ticket, Ayotte got buzz when she appeared alongside Romney during his first trip to New Hampshire as the presumptive nominee. But few insiders believe she’ll make the short list.

Gamblers are cutting their loses. Today, Ayotte’s stock is trading on Intrade at $0.25/share, down from a high of $0.50/share last month, with bettors giving her just a 2.5% chance of being Mitt Romney’s vice presidential pick.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte Flubs Her Veepstakes Audition

On Meet the Press Sunday, New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte auditioned to become Mitt Romney’s running mate. She probably shouldn’t wait around for a callback. Reviewers panned Ayotte’s performance for both substance and style.

The Washington Post Fact Checker awarded Ayotte Two Pinocchios (significant omissions and/or exaggerations) for the examples she cited of burdensome regulations supposedly imposed by the Obama administration.

Ayotte was technically wrong about the Labor Department proposals. She said the rules would mean that “teenagers can’t work on their family farms.”

No child of any age is barred from doing any type of work — no matter how hazardous — on farms fully owned or operated by family, nor are they prohibited outright from doing agricultural work for farms owned or operated only partially by family. The senator’s comment about the proposals was misleading, if not factually incorrect.

As for the Boeing case, the National Labor Relations Board dropped its complaint after the airplane maker struck a deal to extend its contract with union workers, and perhaps because the complaint drew so much criticism.

In both examples of supposed regulatory overreach, the issues went away, in part because the Obama administration bowed to pressure.

The Washington Post’s Nia-Malika Henderson mocked Ayotte, saying she violated the first rule of being considered for vice president by aggressively campaigning for it.

You know, I think at some point she actually left her resume there and was passing it around. … I think in some ways she was breaking the first rule of being in the veepstakes, which is that you don’t seem to want the job. You don’t campaign so openly for the job. … Very surprising that she had done that. … But boy, she certainly seems to want the job.

ICYMI: Most Read Posts for April, 2012

Miscellany Blue had more traffic in April than any month since I began publishing it almost two years ago. Hugs and kisses to everyone who stopped by for a visit. In case you missed them the first time around, here are the posts that drew the most interest from readers last month.

N.H. Senate Kills Reproductive Health Bills
Senate Vote: “A Turning Tide in War on N.H. Women”

The top two most read posts involved the state Senate’s rejection of four bills passed by the House that would have defunded Planned Parenthood and restricted access to contraception and abortion services.

Odds Improving for Kelly Ayotte V.P. Selection?

There was much interest — mostly from out of state — in speculation that New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte might be named Mitt Romney’s vice presidential running mate.

GOP House Rep: Defective & Retarded “Just Words”

Readers were outraged when GOP state House Rep. Jason Antosz defended use of the word “defective” to describe mentally disabled rape victims.

Veepstakes Watch: More Kelly Ayotte Buzz

The name of Sen. Kelly Ayotte continues to be bandied about by national political observers as a potential running mate for Mitt Romney.

The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza ranks her as the seventh most likely vice presidential pick, making her the highest ranked woman on his list.

The New Hampshire Senator is still barely being buzzed about when it comes to the Veepstakes but we’ve got a hunch that she may wind up being a more serious player by the end of this process. Why? Ayotte is a woman (duh) from a swing state who is well liked by both the tea party and establishment wings of the party. She also has a law and order background — she was the state Attorney General before being elected to the Senate in 2010 — and a very natural manner on the campaign trail. If you are looking for a darkhorse, Ayotte could well be it.

Paul Bedard, Washington Examiner, claims congressional insiders are promoting her selection.

Push New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte higher on the list of names Mitt Romney is considering for his vice presidential pick. Top congressional officials, especially those associated with the Tea Party, are talking her up as a perfect pick if the presumptive nominee wants a woman veep.

Her allies are making the case that she isn’t an untested politician, like former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, and that she came to the Senate with more government experience than Barack Obama, having been a state attorney general before joining the Senate.

The most thoughtful analysis comes from The Hill’s Christian Heinze, who says winning votes from “soccer moms” — married women with children — will be crucial for Romney if he is to win the presidency. Selecting a female running mate, he writes, could help.

At first, second, and third glances, the Catholic Ayotte could help Romney significantly with soccer moms. She’s from a Northeastern state, has a degree from Villanova Law, argued a case before the Supreme Court, and eventually became the state’s Attorney General before running for Senate and winning in 2010. That’s a stellar pedigree.

Further, she’s conservative but not caustic; she’s pro-gun without the gloating, glorying and machismo of Palin, and she wrote a child predator act that made it into law. Make no mistake Ayotte is a deep conservative, but soccer moms are no more liberal than they are conservative and shouldn’t be confused for much more liberal single women. After all, Obama scored much better with the nation at-large, than he did with soccer moms.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte: Number Seven, With a Bullet

Christian Heinze, who blogs for The Hill, rates the strength of Mitt Romney’s potential vice presidential picks and the likelihood that they’ll receive the nod. New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte weighs in at number seven on the Veep Power Ranking, making her the list’s highest rated female candidate.

When you watch Ayotte for the first time, you think she’s nervous. There’s a crack to her voice that’s not a response to duress but sounds like it is, and that small radio interference makes her seem appealing and down-to-earth, but also kind of out-of-her league.

Other women who were in the presidential realm like Ferraro, Palin, and Hillary all had more gravitas. But Ayotte seems more like the female version of Tim Pawlenty, and T-Paw didn’t make it out of August 2011 in the 2012 election….

Having said that, Ayotte has more warmth than Ferraro, Palin, and Hillary. She’s got a charm that few can concoct, and simply put, dear friends, I could see America falling in love with Kelly Ayotte. That’s a huge plus in her favor.

“There are better picks,” concludes Heinze, “but if Romney feels the need to eat a little into the gender gap, she’s probably the strongest female pick.”

Odds Improving for Kelly Ayotte V.P. Selection?

This morning, Ayotte received another vice-president mention in the national press, this time from the NBC News political unit’s blog, First Read:

Yesterday, learned that the former Massachusetts governor tapped his longtime aide and ’08 campaign manager, Beth Myers, to lead his VP search. … Having Myers lead this search will only reinforce the C.W. that Romney is going to zero in on folks like Portman, Ryan or even a Kelly Ayotte and not be looking for, shall we say, a game-changer.

Gamblers have been responding to the positive press. The odds on Kelly Ayotte becoming Mitt Romney’s vice president pick is trending up on Intrade. Today, Ayotte closed at $.30/share as bettors give her a 3% chance of becoming the nominee. That’s up from $.05/share two weeks ago and an all-time high for her. Marco Rubio continues to be favorite, with gamblers giving him a 23% chance of receiving the nod from Romney.

Sen. Kelly Ayotte: GOP Flavor of the Month

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte continues to garner attention among the right-wing intelligentsia as she travels around the country as a surrogate for Mitt Romney.

Writing in National Journal, Josh Kraushaar labels her “Romney’s VP sleeper,” saying she would be a compelling choice for the vice presidential pick if Romney wants to make inroads with the female vote.

[Ayotte has] quickly made a name for herself, fluent in policy and also comfortable on the cable news circuit. She may not be the favorite to become Romney’s running mate, but she’s a sleeper worth paying close attention to in the months to come.

The Wall Street Journal is even more obsequious, calling her the “Granite State’s new rock star.”

This too shall pass.

In Which Kelly Ayotte Gets Owned by Mika Brzezinski

This morning, Sen. Kelly Ayotte was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe to answer the question, “Does Mitt Romney have a woman problem?” She said he doesn’t and that women voters will support Romney because of, among other things, high gas prices.

Newsweek/Daily Beast editor-in-chief Tina Brown and co-host Mika Brzezinski pushed her to acknowledge reality, but Ayotte kept coming back to high gas prices — so Brzezinski asked about the oil subsidies that Congress refuses to eliminate despite record profits by Big Oil. Hilarity ensues.

Ayotte: I personally would like to see us eliminate all subsidies on those issues. Let’s make it an even playing field.

Brzezinski: So how did you vote on that?

Ayotte: I voted against it…

Brzezinski: Republicans say it’s such a bad time to get rid of the subsidies for big oil who have made, I don’t know, $80 billion in profits and are making even more profits this year and the next quarter. Most of those Republicans who voted that down received a lot of their campaign help from the oil companies. I’m sure you have. Am I wrong?

Ayotte: [Blah, blah, blah]

Brzezinski: I asked a question…

Ayotte: [Blah, blah, blah]

Brzezinski: So you’re not going to answer my question?

Ayote never did answer the question. The Center for Responsive Politics reports Ayotte has raised over $142,000 in campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. You can watch the full video here.

Laying Odds on Sen. Kelly Ayotte

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte today opened at 25:1 odds to be the Republican vice presidential nominee on betting markets operated by Paddy Power, Ireland’s largest bookmaker.

But if you think Ayotte is going to be the V.P. pick, you should head over to Intrade for better odds. The bettors there are less upbeat about Ayotte’s chances, giving her just a 0.5% chance of being the GOP vice presidential nominee. Ayotte shares are trading at $0.05 today, down from $2.50 in mid-February.

Plan Your Weekend Getaway with Sen. Kelly Ayotte

Looking to spend a little quality time with your U.S. Senator? How about a weekend getaway? Be forewarned, she doesn’t come cheap.

Cough up $1500 and you can join Sen. Kelly Ayotte in August for a “Universal Studios Weekend” at the Hard Rock Hotel in Orlando, Florida. If you who prefer something a little more sedate, you may want to wait for the “New Hampshire Weekend” at the Omni Mount Washington in Bretton Woods. It’s the last weekend in September and should be peak leaf peeping season.

If you’re representing a political action committee, you’ll have to kick in another grand for your outing with the Senator.

Ayotte Turns Blind Eye to Goldman Sachs’ Misdeeds

New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte has raised $1.3 million in campaign contributions from the finance, insurance, and real estate industries. That might explain her curious response to the New York Times op-ed in which Goldman Sachs director Greg Smith announced his resignation condemning the firm’s “toxic and destructive” environment.

MSNBC’s Chuck Todd asked Ayotte if the op-ed made her angry.

Well, I get angry when I think about bailouts. Bailouts not only for the private sector but also, obviously, for the car companies. I don’t think that’s the right direction for us. And that highlights it, I think that’s what part of the anger was from the Tea Party movement, but also just anger about what’s happening here in Washington with the fiscal state of this country.

ThinkProgress notes Ayotte said the Goldman Sachs whistleblower proves we should have let Detroit go bankrupt. Huh?

For starters, does Ayotte think that the American auto companies were not part of the private sector when they received government aid? But more importantly, does she not recognize the difference between rescuing a vital American manufacturing industry and bailing out banks in order to save the financial system, only to see them go back to the same practices that caused the mess in the first place?

Ayotte: Tax Cuts for the Wealthy (Contributors)

Adam Smith, who is with money-in-politics watchdog Public Campaign Action, notes New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte was in the Granite State earlier this week promising to rewrite the tax code ”to avoid increases in taxes for the wealthy that kick in at year’s end.”

Yesterday, would-be beneficiaries of those millionaire tax cuts had the opportunity to thank her.

Our junior senator started the day with a fundraiser for her political action committee. The Kelly PAC breakfast was held at Johnny’s Half Shell, a Capitol Hill restaurant named one of “America’s Best” by Gourmet Magazine.

She ended the day with a dinner for Wall Street lobbyists. Central Michel Richard, a “Power Spot of the Year” winner with $17 hamburgers, was the location for her Financial Services Dinner.

She’s no stranger to the [Financial Services] industry, having collected $1.3 million from the finance, insurance, and real estate (FIRE) sector during her time in Congress, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Executives at Elliot Management puts the hedge fund at the top of her donor list. Its founder Paul Singer, donated $3,142 to Ayotte’s election campaign in 2010. He made the Forbes list of the “World’s Billionaires” for the first time this year. Other top industry donors include Fidelity Investments, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, and the Blackstone Group.

PACs seeking to curry favor with Ayotte ponied up $1000 to attend or $2000 to sponsor one of the events. Mere individuals got by for half that.