Carpetbagger

That's what they called Scott Brown the day he joined the campaign.  I heard it said, over and over again.  I think that is the thing that tipped the election against him.  Jean Shaheen didn't campaign much, she hasn't done much except vote in Obamacare.  But she pulled it out in the end.  Too bad.  She is pretty much a do-nothing senator.  I'm afraid I live in a no-think blue state.   With yellow dog democrat voters that vote a straight party ticket no matter what, and no matter who is on the ticket. 

Running for US Senate in the Northwoods

.  Jeanne Shaheen had a prominent piece on the Littleton Courier's editorial page last week complaining that Scott Brown won't sign an agreement to limit out-of-state political contributions. Which is interesting inside baseball, but it doesn't really matter to me.  I care about what the candidate, if elected, might do for me, rather than where his/her campaign money comes from.  With Scott Brown, I figure I'm getting a reasonably dependable vote against Obamacare.  With Jeanne Shaheen, I know she cast the vote that gave us Obamacare.  This is the stuff that matters, what the candidate[s] did, or might do, in office.  Whether the candidate raises out-of-state money or not just doesn't matter.  At least not to me. 

   And let's be real, Scott Brown undoubtedly has a whole bunch of Massachusetts friends who just might chip in a little money to his campaign up here.  I don't see anything wrong with that.  After all, I sent Scott a modest campaign contribution back when he was running for Senate from Massachusetts.      

NH Republicans NEED candidates

Here we are, going into what looks like a very good year for Republicans.  Obama and the national Democrats have stuck us with Obamacare, and even the dimmest voter is beginning to sense that Obamacare is bad for him.  We need candidates to run for both US representative seats, the governor's office, and Shaheen's US senate seat. 
  So far, the only really competitive Republican candidate is Scott Brown, from MA, who is running for US senate.  I haven't met Brown, but he managed win Ted Kennedy's senate seat in 2010.  That's impressive in deep blue Massachusetts.  I have met Jim Reubins the other declared candidate, nice guy, but I don't think he is setting the voters on fire.  The talk down at the local breakfast place (The Coffee Pot) was not encouraging for Brown.  Just about everyone called him a carpetbagger, and disparaged his Massachusetts background.  Let's hope he can do some fence mending, quick. 
  We have Frank Guinta running in the other US rep district against Shea Porter.  Frank might be able to do it, he held the seat once, and lost to Shea Porter in 2012.  Maybe he can do a comeback like Charlie Bass did in 2010.  As far as the other US rep district (my district) we don't even have a candidate. 
    We do have a candidate for governor, Andrew Hemingway, nice guy. I've met him.  He is pretty young, and hasn't even gotten elected to the State House of Representatives yet.  He has only held town offices.  I'm thinking a successful governor has to have better name recognition and know more people that Andrew does.