When he filed his campaign papers in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate last month, state Senate President Chuck Morse told reporters that while he’s now seeking a higher office, his bottom line remains the same:
“I’m going to do what’s right for the state of New Hampshire,” Morse said. “I’ve done that in New Hampshire and I will do that in Washington. And I’m not changing.”
Morse, 61, entered the race for U.S. Senate this year as a known quantity to the state’s Republican establishment. But what he lacks is much of a profile outside of the State House and the town of Salem, where he lives. There are signs that despite a long conservative record on issues like taxes, guns, and abortion, Morse’s long political resume could be a hindrance as he tries to excite Republican voters in 2022.
“We’ve seen politicians who are a very big deal at the State House, but they go outside of Concord, into the state at large, and they get this rude awakening,” said UNH political scientist Dante Scala.
Exhibit A for Morse came during the first GOP Senate debate at the end of June, when candidate Bruce Fenton, a Bitcoin investor seeking the nomination by running in a libertarian mold, used a question about the newly enacted federal gun law to take dead aim at Morse – and his long political resume.
‘You’re a guy who’s going to do what they say, and you’re going take away the guns from the people, and that’s why you won’t answer the question, Chuck,” Fenton said as he jabbed a finger in Morse’s direction. “You won’t answer the questions because you are afraid, because you are a deal maker. And you are what we needed many years ago, and maybe you would have done a good job, but you are not what we need right now. Not in these times, not in this America.”
Fenton could be on to something. The issues now motivating many core Republicans voters – including conspiracy-fueled claims of stolen elections, public school indoctrination and COVID-19 skepticism – are far from Morse’s native terrain. Fiscal matters have always been his focus. As the owner of a nursery and garden store in Atkinson, Morse’s business deeply informs his politics. And while his chamber of commerce style fiscal conservatism can feel quaint in this day and age, it’s driven Morse’s whole political career.
“I love the budget in New Hampshire, because it basically is a policy document that says what we all believe in, and we just make it balanced as we’re doing it,” Morse recently told a Nashua Public Access TV show.
Morse generally prevails at the State House, where votes on his core concerns follow an almost rote partisan logic, and everyone reads off a common spreadsheet. But the terms of engagement – with rivals and voters – change on the campaign trail.
“It’s a whole different ball game when you are out there: Nobody knows how much money you’ve funneled down for roads and bridges or the schools, so when you stand up and say, ‘This is what I did,’ people say, ‘Big deal,’ ” said Bob Clegg, a former Senate majority leader who left the State House to run for Congress in 2008. Clegg never made it out of the Republican primary, and now works as a lobbyist.
Clegg says Morse is an undeniably skilled state lawmaker. But thinks it’s tough to make the case that Morse’s talents will be put to good use in contemporary Washington.
“I can’t remember the last time the United States government had a balanced budget,” Clegg said. “So what will do when he gets there? They are not going to change for him.”
Morse’s immediate task is to move primary voters. He’s got nine weeks to do it. A prolific fundraiser thanks in large part to his position as Senate president, Morse will have the money to make his pitch. But whether primary voters will buy what Morse can plausibly sell – a solid record at the State House and deep ties to New Hampshire’s political establishment – may be another matter.
As he stood outside a recent campaign event for one of Morse’s main rivals, Doug Hirsch, a logger from Pelham, spelled out a litmus test he’s using to assess candidates hoping to win his vote.
“I don’t want to see politicians in there; they are not doing a good job,” Hirsch said.
If that view is pervasive among voters in this year’s Republican primaries, 2022 will be a tough year for Morse, or and any other candidate running on a long political resume.
