The Final 48 Hours | New Hampshire Patch Political Roundup

Tony Schinella
Updated ·8 min read

CONCORD, NH — Candidates are making their last pitches to voters as the 2020 general election begins to come to an end, presuming no major recounts in New Hampshire.

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, was canvassing around Concord with U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, D-NH, of the second congressional district Sunday. She then moved onto Dover where she met up with state Sen. Dan Feltes, the party's nominee for governor, for an opportunity to meet voters and drop literature in the state's fourth largest city.

U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas was campaigning with former Gov. John Lynch, D-NH, in Exeter after starting the day off campaigning in Laconia.

Democrats will hold a get out the vote rally in Manchester Monday on Mammoth Road in Manchester starting at 4 p.m.

Gov. Chris Sununu, R-NH, who readily admits he does not really like campaigning (he mentioned it again at a Thursday news conference), spent Saturday knocking on doors with state Sen. Regina Birdsell, R-Hampstead. The governor was also in Franklin campaigning with Corky Messner, who is challenging Shaheen for the Senate seat.

GOP candidate Matt Mowers, who is running in the first congressional district, spent time also campaigning with others including stops on the Seacoast with state Senate candidate Lou Gargiulo while Steve Negron, the GOP nominee in the second congressional district, recently received an official endorsement from the president. He was in the North Country the first part of the day and then, held an event at the party's Nashua Victory Office.

Sununu recently also made this video with Andrew Georgevits, a Concord Republican who is running for the Merrimack 28 floterial seat.

Newspaper Endorsements Hard To Find

A lot has been written about the bad blood between Joe McQuaid, the former publisher of the New Hampshire Union Leader, and President Donald Trump.

Ethan DeWitt of the Concord Monitor reported on some of the issues McQuaid's side including advice that wasn't taken.

So the newspaper's endorsement of Vice President Joe Biden, with an asterisk — the first time in a century it has endorsed a Democrat, was no surprise (although William and Nackey Loeb would probably be shocked).

Four years ago, the paper, which has been known for its ultra-conservative editorials, endorsed Libertarian Gary Johnson which, was a stunner, too, considering the former New Mexico governor's stances on issues like drug legalization.

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But the editorial did its job: Johnson received about 4 percent of the vote and Trump lost the state by 2,750 votes. In other words, some of those 31,000 votes Johnson earned, many probably prompted by the newspaper, would have gone to Trump, costing him the state's four Electoral College votes. Trump won the presidency anyway ... so it did not matter in 2016.

But it might this year. And that is probably what the paper must be thinking: Even though it is no longer the state's largest newspaper by circulation — that would be the Boston Globe, it still will have influence with voters.

That influence was what was probably on the mind of Boston Bruins hockey legend Bobby Orr when he took out a full page ad endorsing Trump.

But what has been a surprise — and this might be a good thing, depending on how one looks at it, is the scarcity of editorials from newspapers around the state. Maybe there will be a flurry of them in Monday editions. But, usually, major editorials are in the Sunday editions … and they were nowhere to be found.

The Monitor, nicknamed by some conservatives in the city as "Pravda on the Merrimack," due its heavy-handed often way left-of-center editorials (such as support for nearly every tax that has ever been thought of but suing the city of Concord to reduce its parent company's own property taxes) chose not to endorse anyone but, instead, offered a "We deserve better, attacking the president for being a racist among other things.

The Keene Sentinel, another newspaper well known for editorializing, offered a "get out and vote" cheer, with this line that we can all agree with when it comes to everything about politics today: "It’s exhausting; almost enough to make one want to skip the whole process."

Over at the Seacoast Media Group, editorials were also missing: The only election editorial up online was the competitive Maine Senate race. This not a complete surprise considering GateHouse Media, which owns the newspapers and recently merged with Gannett, was discouraging staff time on editorials a decade ago (I know, I used to work for GateHouse).

The Nashua Telegraph, however, backed Sununu, commending him for establishing full-day K, balancing budgets without new taxes, providing property tax relief, and skillfully navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.

Letters though from readers have been flourishing, like always, with all kinds of opinions offered by them. Which is always good to see.

Jack Heath Moves To Binnie Media

The host of the place where much of the state has found its on-air political news and information has switched radio networks.

Jack Heath, the former host of NH Today on WGIR in Manchester, is now hosting Good Morning NH on five of Binnie Media's talk radio stations — WEMJ, WTPL, WTSN, and those station's secondary signals. The former television reporter, who moved to radio after an unsuccessful bid for Congress, said the program would be similar to his former show but with better coverage areas.

"We are thrilled to have a talent like Jack join Binnie Media," owner Bill Binnie said, "he brings a breadth of experience and professionalism in journalism along with a connection to politics that will be of interest to our listeners."

New Political Podcast

While Heath has moved his radio voice and political coverage to Binnie, Michael Graham at NH Journal has created a new podcast with Drew Cline of the Josiah Bartlett Center for Public Policy.

The New Hampshire Journal Podcast has had a bunch of interesting interviews that do not run very long but pack a lot of info. If you missed the rundown with NRO's Jim Geraghty and the Boston Globe's James Pindell about the political landscape in the state, check it out here. In this podcast, both Cline and Graham spoke to Robert Cahaly of the Trafalgar Group about his polling data.

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Potential Second Husband In Concord

Doug Emhoff, the husband of U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-CA, flew into the state for events including a canvassing event In Concord last week.

Patch was hoping he would go out for a bit and canvas in North End neighbors or take questions from the limited amount of press there. But after speaking, he left for another event.

Here are some of his remarks.

Is Sununu Eyeing Washington?

Gov. Chris Sununu was on CNBC recently sounding like a "throw the bums out" candidate running for the House or Senate not governor.

Watch below.

No word on whether he is seriously considering something like a Senate run in 2022 vs. U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan, D-NH. But many have not forgotten the poll circulated about 21 months ago showing Shaheen with only a 3-point lead over the governor in a potential head-to-head that never was to be.

Interestingly (or maybe not so), Shaheen only held a 5-point lead over former U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, in that same poll. And Ayotte only lost her Senate seat to Hassan four years ago by about 1,000 votes. She has been out raising money for down ballot female Republican candidates so who knows what her future holds either.

Is Ayotte plotting a return? Time will tell.

New Hampshire Voters: Pretty Powerful

A personal finance website said last month that Granite Stater voters have clout (yeah, we knew that).

WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia, analyzed the power and value that voters have, and ranked New Hampshire at 9th on the list. The analysts looked at swing and safe states and eyed their power in electing the president and Senators.

But view the report here.

Trump Zombie Ad Runs On AMC

If you did not watch "Fear the Walking Dead" or the new spinoff, "Walking Dead: The World Beyond" last week, then you missed this 15-second Trump ad.

Election Problems? Call The AG's Office

Attorney General Gordon MacDonald was at the COVID-19 news conference Thursday answering questions about election issues.

Both his office and the U.S. Attorney's Office are working together to ensure a seamless and problem free election.

Problems at the polls can be reported by calling 1-866-868-3703 between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m.

Got a news tip? Send it to tony.schinella@patch.com. View videos on Tony Schinella's YouTube channel. Follow the New Hampshire Patch Politics Twitter account @NHPatchPolitics for all our campaign coverage.

This article originally appeared on the Concord Patch