NH Republicans rehab with 12-step recovery program
No one had bothered to turn on the lights at a post-mortem gathering of conservatives in Concord last week. A congressional staffer who just lost his job took his seat commenting, “Is it dark in here, or is it just my mood?” You can’t have a proper wake without dimming the lights, and the group shared a rueful laugh at the gallows humor. Before Republicans embark on a necessary 12-step recovery program, there is shock. As these Republicans sifted through the wreckage, Carol Shea-Porter attended a congressional orientation session and met the president she’d famously turned her back on when they were last in a room together. Terie Norelli secured the votes to become the first Democrat speaker of the New Hampshire house since Calvin Coolidge was president. Health and Human Services Commissioner John Stephen, perhaps the most capable administrator in state government, accepted that he will lose his job because Peter Spaulding lost his to a Democrat who didn’t get Gov. John Lynch’s vote and won anyway. It was a strange election.
After shock, there is denial. State Republican chairman Wayne Semprini implausibly argues that his party did as well as it could have and, like any 12-stepper, says he was powerless in the presence of a higher being. It was Gov. Lynch’s popularity that was at fault, Semprini says. Without enough staff or money, Republicans couldn’t prevent the Democrats from co-opting the GOP’s traditional anti-tax message. There was nothing anyone could do.
Republican realists have skipped ahead to the fourth step in recovery, making “a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves” and our shortcomings. For the state Republican party, this list includes gapping failures in the foundational party tasks of candidate recruitment, communications, fundraising, and getting out the vote. For Republican legislative leaders, headed by state Sen. President Ted Gatsas, the catalogue includes having done nothing to challenge Gov. Lynch during legislative sessions, and then throwing their own party’s gubernatorial candidate under the bus to run every-man-out-for-himself campaigns based on how well they got along with the governor.
Voters recognize codependency when they see it. If there’s no difference between the parties, then there’s no reason to vote for Republicans instead of Democrats. Tens of thousands voted straight ticket Democrat, swamping dozens of Republican candidates at all levels who won a majority of the votes of ticket splitters but couldn’t make up the straight ticket deficit.
The eighth step in recovery is to make a list of all persons harmed by our choices. For Republicans, these include scores of defeated candidates and tens of thousands of regular citizens, from charter school advocates to small business owners, now threatened by Democrat majorities on policy issues they hold dear.
How does the party makes amends to these people – the ninth step of recovery? By learning the lessons of the election; making changes, including of personnel leading the party; and putting the party in a position to win many of these seats back in two years. Three more steps:
First, house Republicans can select as minority leader a candidate who pledges to redraw distinctions between the parties by opposing Gov. Lynch when the parties have a philosophical disagreement. Alton state Rep. Mike Whalley, a leading contender for the job, talks about “appropriate confrontation”. Blanket obstruction won’t impress voters, but selectively picking fights shows commitment to principle even when you lose.
Second, take Gov. Lynch at his word and accept that an income and sales tax is off the table as long as he is governor. Stop trying to convince voters that his pledge to veto such taxes can’t be trusted. Election results from 2004 and 2006 prove that voters believe Gov. Lynch will veto an income tax, just as they believed Gov. Shaheen when she said the same thing. Democrat legislators aren’t going to test Lynch’s commitment. Move on.
Third, if taxes aren’t the issue that differentiates the parties, develop other ones that will. Maybe it’s education, where Republicans believe in empowering parents and teachers and Democrats defer to unions and courts. In the wake of an election that saw 85 percent of voters approve a constitutional amendment limiting eminent domain, maybe it will be personal freedom vs government intrusion. On health care, Republicans prefer market-based approaches while Democrats opt for big government.
New Hampshire Republicans can regain their footing the same way so many other 12-steppers do, by meeting their future one day at a time with a commitment to change their bad habits.
Fergus Cullen, a Union Leader columnist, is a painting contractor in Wolfeboro. He can be reached at ferguscullen@aol.com. His column runs every other Wednesday.