With candidates sticking to well-worn lines of argument, the audience provided the show.
New Hampshire Public Radio's Josh Rogers has more.
Daniel Webster College's Collings Auditorium hosted the Gubernatorial race's most arresting debate. The candidates basically stuck to well-worn lines of argument……But the audience provided the nights' most lasting impression. When Craig Benson brought up his fight to defend the so-called NH advantage……the crowd let loose.
benson cheers/boos tape
The crowd also erupted when John Lynch spoke of restoring integrity to the corner office.
lynch cheers/boos tape
If a good part of debate audience -- which featured members of Benson's staff and inner circle issuing catcalls and whistles from the front row --…..seemed to have a limited appetite for letting the candidates fight it out alone, the mood was equally bellicose outside. Efforts to find undecided voters proved fruitless…..As were efforts to get true-believers out of attack mode.
-If you wanted to make a merit based argument for why the governor ought to get another term what would it be?
"Well, when Lynch says he is opposed to an income tax I really just don't it doesn’t resonate with me."
-You just don't believe him when he says that?
"No."
That's Rye attorney and former lawmaker Larry Gillis. He insists Benson's been a good manager for NH…..Adding, however, that he believes the Governor has plenty left to do.
"I think we can cut the size of state government dramatically, and when the Governor proposed a 10 percent cut, frankly I was a bit disappointed. I think we could do a 20 percent cut and reallocate the priorities."
Lynch partisans, meanwhile, proved no less committed to their own very different set of priorities.
"Everybody that crosses Craig gets fired or transferred or something like that."
Jay Downey is a state trooper from New Durham. He went on to cite chapter and verse on a range of Benson administration missteps -- enumerating in gleeful detail The Linda Pepin scandal, Benson's illegal bulldozing of wetlands at his beach house……and the Governor's role in the resignation of former Attorney General Peter Heed. For Trooper Downey the facts lead to one conclusion.
"The Governor's probably one of the dirtiest Governor we've ever had…..And instead of having corruption and dirt and scandals and all that junk we have another way to go with John Lynch."
Polls show the race for the corner office to be a near dead heat….Both sides say they'll do what it takes to sway undecided voters by election day…….And as Benson administration volunteer Ray Marshall's reaction to an open microphone indicates ---
"NPR loves Craig Benson…..NPR loves Craig Benson….NPR loves Craig Benson…..
Subtlety isn't likely to be a priority.
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