As candidates and political parties slowly begin to gear up for the 2006 election season, the state Republican party has some work to do. The party now lacks a Chairman, a plausible challenger for Governor, and much in the way of money.
If you ask prominent members of the state GOP about the state of their party you get two basic points of view…..Some, like National republican committeeman Tom Rath, insist any talk of the party's demise is, as he put it, somewhat over-exaggerated..
"We have 4 out of the 5 executive councilors, we have 16 out of the 24 member of the state senate….we have 260 out of 400 in the house……we have all 4 congressional members…..we control all the county delegations -- that's a fair way to measure it."
But others, like former party chairman and house speaker Donna Sytek, say numbers aside, the GOP faces some serious issues.
"Talk about events converging to be very, very discouraging."
Different Republicans cite different convergent events…….But surely any list surely includes Warren Henderson's sudden resignation as party chairman…..The past year and a half has also seen John Lynch's unseat Craig Benson, as well as the fundraising and administrative miscues that separately toppled former House Speaker Gene Chandler and former Senate President Tom Eaton……There's also the residual bad blood over the Congressional delegations' unsuccessful push to oust executive councilor Ray Burton for employing a sex offender as a campaign aide……and the lingering hangover of 2002's election day phone jamming….……Gauging the effect of such issues, of course, remains impossible …….The same goes for guessing the local fallout from national republican problems such as the low poll numbers that have of late dogged both the president, and the entire congressional delegation.……..On the positive side, the GOP did score a big victory when Frank Guinta defeated Bob Baines in the Manchester Mayoral race. But at the same time, democrats have, since 2004 won 7 of 8 special elections for the New Hampshire house -- shrinking the GOP margin by five seats……..Former state GOP executive director Charlie Arlinghaus says what republicans most need to do to stop any real or perceived slide is to find a party chair to raise money and aggressively voice the republican point of view…….But most crucial, he adds, is to find a figurehead to rally around during the fall elections.
"What's important for party unity is that a strong candidate emerge that candidates can unite behind -- Republicans in particular like to have a strong leader to hold them together."
Who that might be remains anyone's guess……Plenty in the GOP had pinned their hopes on former state senator Bruce Keough topping the republican ticket……hopes Keough has all but dashed……And while other names have been bandied about -- none have materialized as probable candidates…..Again Donna Sytek.
"I wish we had a bench of 4 or 5 people who were going to have a vigorous primary. I wish we were going to be choosing from among giants -- that doesn’t appear to be the case…."
"I have a proven ability to get things done, but that's not on it's own adequate to unseat an existing Governor."
That's one-term Windham State Rep. Jim Coburn……The former high-tech CEO is the only Republican promising to challenge Lynch. He says if elected he'll fix the state healthcare system……That's no small promise, but Coburn says he'll intends to bring to government the logic of business and profit making…….an approach he say borrows -- at least in principle -- from the last Republican to hold the corner office.
"But the way you do it has to be differently than the way you did it in business and I think that was Craig's downfall, is that he tried to be CEO of the state, and it's almost like you're the team leader or the coach or the inspiration for the state John Lynch is doing a pretty good job at that."
Those aren't exactly fighting words………..But election day is nine months away…….And in 2004 John Lynch did not emerge as a candidate until June……For now, Republican stalwarts say they plan on getting busy…….GOP strategist Rich Killion says he'd preferred that had happened a bit earlier, but he stresses there's still plenty of time.
"If it was June and there was no Chairman, and there was no energy and there was no candidates, that would be a cause of concern. But nine months is a healthy season to turn this thing around."
Top state republicans say the party hopes to have a new chairman in place by the end of next week…..In the meantime, election day is 270 days away.
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