No politician will ever lose votes by coming down on the side of community banks. Unlike the mega-banks of Wall Street that helped fuel the world’s dive off an economic cliff, community banks have a better reputation. They avoid exotic financial deals and, for the most part, stick to their knitting.
GOP hopeful Newt Gingrich offered himself as their defender when he spoke to supporters at campaign headquarters in Manchester, N.H. "Community banks are 12 percent of the banks right now and 40 percent of the loans to small business," Gingrich said. "And they are being destroyed by Dodd-Frank."
True? Or not so much? NHPR's Jon Greenberg got on the case for Politifact NH and got a ruling.