GOP Chair Semprini on Primary Turnout

"From everything we see, we're also expecting a low turnout, which is going to be - certainly it's going to make it that much more critical that the respective candidates really get their confirmed supporters out and into the polls.

"One thing we're doing that's a little bit different is - we as a party recognize that, especially after a presidential election year, there's a whole lot of interest, a lot of participation on the part of out of state people, to come up and to get intimately involved in the New Hampshire process. And so what we've done this year is, we're distributing t-shirts. They're bright red t-shirts that say 'I live in New Hampshire and I vote - and on the back - that's in white, on the front. The back, it says 'not from out of state.' And we're doing that just as a reminder that, you know, the people working the polls for us are your next door neighbors, they're the same people who you may go to church with, and they sit at PTA meetings with. And so it's just a subtle reminder that we're paying particular notice to who's working the polls this year."

Bevis: "Do you expect any places where turnout will be heavier than normal?"

Semprini: "Well, yeah, very much so. I think there's a lot of excitement over in the Executive Council race to replace Ruth Griffin. Three very, very good candidates in Sean Mahoney, and Russ Prescott and Chuck Morse. They've run a really, really good campaign, and I think they've generated a lot of excitement. I expect that you'll see really moderately high turnouts over there - they've all identified who their supporters are, and all three of those campaigns will make sure they get their people out."

Bevis: "The common wisdom is that during primaries, it's the hardcore party members that come out. Is that what you're expecting?"

Semprini: "That's correct. It's going to be the hardest of the hardcore, are going to come out."

Bevis: "What do you attribute that to?"

Semprini: "I don't think there are as many contested races, I think that's part of the case. Ever since the 2000 presidential elections, where all of a sudden it seems as though things got really, really partisan and things got almost nasty - I think people are starting to get worn down. I think a lot of people are getting really tired of politics as usual, and that ends up translating into weak voter turnout."

Bevis: "There was talk earlier in this election season that the phone-jamming scandal from four years ago had hurt the Republican Party this time around for the primary. Was that the case, and are you still feeling some of the pain?"

Semprini: "The phone jamming thing was just an absolutely idiotic thing to do. I've certainly made it be known that I apologize for the stupidity of, as far as I'm concerned, one Republican, who went and did something that was ridiculous and it certainly wasn't needed."

Bevis: "Is the party still kind of suffering from that?"

Semprini: "It provides us with an additional legal expense that we wouldn't be spending, and in some instances, it's given people reason to think twice about donating to the party, which I'm sure is the reason that the Democrats are continuing to keep this thing alive."

Wayne Semprini is the Chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party

He was speaking with NHPR's Mark Bevis.