President Bush’s popularity is still low in New Hampshire.
According to the latest poll from the UNH Survey Center, only 29 percent of NH adults says they approve of the job the President is doing.
How those numbers will translate into support for Republicans in the upcoming election is unclear.
But a recent Wall Street Journal poll shows GOP backing within the business commun ity is eroding.
And as New Hampshire Public Radio’s David Darman reports, many Republican business people in the Granite State are not happy with their choices.
The latest “after work” networking meeting sponsored by the Greater Concord Chamber of Commerce attracted dozens of business people.
And Chuck Hagopian of Concord, was very clear about how he felt about the Republican party.
I am not happy with it. And why are you not happy with it? Because I think they strayed a lot away from what they said they were going to do. Such as? Well, you know they made all kinds of bold statements. They were going to rein in spending and what have you and they haven’t done any of that stuff.
Hagopian is an account manager for Hershey Ice Cream and a life-long Republican.
Another Republican in the crowd said he felt strongly that none of the GOP candidates had any real solutions to the healthcare crisis.
Jaffrey attorney David Tower has ten employees at his firm.
Tower said he has yet to hear any Republican come up with a practical way to bring down sky high prices.
Every year, in my office, the premiums go up. And every year we struggle with whether we can still cover 100 percent of the employee’s cost everywhere we do. But it just seems like its…we’re on a cycle that there’s no end to it. So, I’m frustrated as employer.
Other Republicans who manage businesses say they’re also concerned about high health care costs.
Fred Kocher says it’s a problem in the high technology field.
He heads the state’s High Technology Council and has helped start up several tech heavy companies.
And Kocher says none of the candidates are talking about how this country is going to continue to compete in the world of high tech.
…You know, there are millions of engineers and technicians being graduated in asia and Europe and thousands in the united states. That can’t stay that way…because we’ll lose our competitive edge in the world and that bothers me.
Still other business owners worry that GOP candidates aren’t talking about trying to wean the nation off its dependence on petroleum.
Jameson French, president of Northland Forest Products in Kingston says he got involved with the party back when it embraced environmental causes in the 1970’s.
But he says Republicans aren’t talking enough about developing alternatives to oil.
I also would love us to be energy independent but I’d also like us to be global leaders and the technology of whether it’s wind or solar or geothermal or cellulosic ethanol. Whatever it may be, you know let’s get out there and put our research energy and dollars into getting this stuff going and boy, I think there’s a lot of economic potential which is a good republican issue.
Many of these dissatisfied voters are still looking for a GOP candidate to support.
Jameson French of Northland Forest Products says if things were different, Republicans might find former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney a good fit.
The business republicans would traditionally look at mitt Romney because he’s a successful businessman, he’s very smart and everything else. But I think for new Hampshire people having republicans, who have seen him as governor of Massachusetts and the positions he took….to flip on a lot of those positions, particularly on social issues….that’s a big turn off to anybody, people of all sides of the party.
Many Republicans say they’re still undecided about who they’ll support in the primary.
But while some Republicans say they could not imagine becoming a democrat, others admit they’re looking beyond the GOP.
They say they’re thinking about registering as independents, so they could at least vote for a Democrat.
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