Dems' not-so-secret plan: Attacks over abortion

Sep. 18—The general election strategy of Democratic candidates at the top of New Hampshire's November ballot is about as subtle as a 100-pound sledgehammer: Bludgeon your Republican opponents and accuse them of wanting to move further to restrict a woman's right to a legal, safe abortion.

What remains to be seen is whether enough voters will overlook the other issues that have bedeviled the Biden administration for months, including runaway inflation, a porous southern border and a supply-chain crisis that doesn't look like it's getting much better any time soon.

Since Tuesday's primary, the Democratic nominees for governor, U.S. Senate and the two congressional districts have all aired TV commercials, debuting the fall election season with an attack ad on the abortion issue.

Democratic state Sen. Tom Sherman's first ad depicted Gov. Chris Sununu as the face on the Old Man of the Mountain, which crumbled as the narrator spoke about Sununu having signed into law a ban on abortions after 24 weeks.

All the Democrats seeking federal office are accusing their GOP challengers of embracing a "national ban on abortion."

U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, who is being challenged by retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, stepped up the attack Friday with a news conference at the Concord Community Center.

The event featured Lisa Akey, a Brookline woman who could not get an abortion because she learned too late in her pregnancy that one of her two female fetuses had an anomaly that would not have allowed her to survive outside the womb.

Akey spent several weeks in the Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center before safely delivering both children. One of the two babies survived.

"She has always been a steadfast supporter of reproductive freedom," Akey said of Hassan. "Don Bolduc's record shows he supports further restricting a woman's right."

Hassan said for generations, younger women have had more rights than those who preceded them.

The Supreme Court decision last June overturning Roe vs. Wade reversed that progress, she said.

"Don Bolduc believes that this progress was a mistake. If he had his way, he would take this country back to a time when women were second-class citizens," Hassan said. "We do not need Don Bolduc and his extreme agenda."

Right after winning his primary, however, Bolduc said he didn't support changing abortion policy at the federal level.

He said he opposed a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks that Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., proposed on Tuesday, the same day as the state primary here.

"It doesn't make sense," Bolduc told Fox News, adding that abortion laws are better left to each individual state. "Women on both sides of the issue will get a better voice at the state level."

Bolduc's comment follows past statements in which he has said the state law Sununu signed did not go far enough.

Hassan said Bolduc can't be trusted on the issue, and pointed to Wednesday's campaign appearance on Bolduc's behalf by Vice President Mike Pence, a supporter of a national ban.

"Mike Pence knows he can depend on Don Bolduc to vote for a national abortion ban," Hassan said.

Rick Wiley, a Bolduc campaign aide, said voters won't buy Hassan's attacks.

"The general has made it very clear he doesn't support legislating this issue at the federal level. New Hampshire had this debate, and passed a law that works for Granite Staters," Wiley said. "It's sad but not surprising Senator Hassan is trying to scare voters by spreading this kind of misinformation."

Last week, Sununu also said the voters will not be fooled by the attempts by Hassan and other leading Democrats to make abortion a decisive issue.

"This has been resolved. It's over. We've adopted a policy at the state level, a ban on abortion after 24 weeks that exists in most states across the country," Sununu said. "There are attempts in other states to go much further, but those ideas will get nowhere here."

Hassan rejected Sununu's analysis and refuted the claim that even if Republicans take over the Senate, they couldn't get 60 votes to overcome a filibuster over a national abortion ban bill.

"We have seen Republicans in the past willing to undo the filibuster," Hassan said.

A GOP campaign consultant, who asked not to be identified, said Bolduc and congressional nominees Karoline Leavitt of Hampton and Bob Burns of Pembroke would be well-advised to parrot the governor on the campaign trail.

"I'd say that Sununu has been successful at messaging this issue for multiple cycles," the consultant said. "He gets where the voters are. Following his lead is the only way through."

Leavitt wasted no time punching back at 1st District Rep. Chris Pappas after his campaign ad debuted and claimed Leavitt backed a national abortion ban.

"We are less than 48 hours into the general election, and Chris Pappas is already lying about me," Leavitt said. "I have been consistently clear about my position on the issue of abortion. It should be left to our state Legislature in Concord as the Supreme Court has recently ruled."

Leavitt went on the offensive, insisting Pappas was out of the mainstream.

"The only person with an extreme position on abortion in this race is Chris Pappas, who believes in taxpayer funding of abortion right up until the moment of birth," she said.

During the 2nd District primary, Burns said he would sponsor and vote for a federal bill to outlaw abortion once a fetal heartbeat has been detected.

Some medical experts contend the fetus develops the structure that eventually becomes the heart at 10 weeks.

Among likely voters, 71% said they support abortion rights, but Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said it's unclear if it will become the pivotal issue that Democrats hope it will be.

Just prior to the Supreme Court's ruling, 78% said the decision was not likely to affect who they vote for this November.

Greg Moore, state director of Americans for Prosperity, said while it may not work, the Democratic tactic makes perfect sense politically.

"The entire Dem playbook is abortion, like, that's it," Moore said. "That's not going to help them when people need to pay their utility and grocery bills."

Last Thursday, state Senate Democrats made one last-ditch attempt to pass a bill to codify in state law the abortion protections that had been in place until the Roe v. Wade ruling.

Senate Republicans blocked the bill (SB 436) from being taken up on a 13-10 vote.

"We know that banning abortion will not stop abortions from happening," said Sen. Becky Whitley, D-Hopkinton. "It will just make abortions more dangerous."

klandrigan@unionleader.com