New Hampshire Megathread: Sherman in

[Meatball Ron]

Quick recap of last night:

Great write-up! Was pleasantly surprised about the EC results (sort of expected the House and Senate to flip).

Can you elaborate about where the re-alignment occurred, what it means, why, etc.?

[Meatball Ron]

The Executive Council just voted down Gordon MacDonald’s nomination, 3-2 along party lines

[Meatball Ron]

Executive Council candidate, former state rep, and former congressional candidate Mindi Messmer endorses Feltes.

This is a huge get for Feltes. Messmer is very popular within the grassroots and has (in effect) become the standard-bearer for the Bernie wing of the party in the southern part of the state.

Yes I suspect Feltes will have a fairly easy time winning the nomination. Volinsky is a strong candidate but there always seems to be this excitement around Feltes in the NH Democratic base that has never quite made sense to me, but is hard to deny.

[Meatball Ron]

He's also currently embroiled in a lawsuit against Facebook over the false termination of his account,

Haha what's the backstory here?

[Meatball Ron]

Never forget that Paul Hodes endorsed Marianne Williamson

This is still insane to me. What was he thinking?

Overall, Volinsky was more substantive on the issues and more authentic. I'll be voting for him with a clear mind and a full heart.

Super interesting, thanks for this post! Do you think there is any difference between their ability to beat Sununu?

[Meatball Ron]

Also in case you haven't heard Feltes won the gubernatorial primary. I did that thing where I got distracted by the downballot again.

Any idea why Buckley, Soucy, etc. are congratulating Prentiss when Pastor is only down by a few votes (and was actually up at one point AFTER they had congratulated Prentiss)? I guess it's possible candidates and their staffers get results sooner than the press, but I've never heard of that being a thing?

[Meatball Ron]

Also in case you haven't heard Feltes won the gubernatorial primary. I did that thing where I got distracted by the downballot again.

Any idea why Buckley, Soucy, etc. are congratulating Prentiss when Pastor is only down by a few votes (and was actually up at one point AFTER they had congratulated Prentiss)? I guess it's possible candidates and their staffers get results sooner than the press, but I've never heard of that being a thing?

Maybe they had Claremont results earlier? Idk. I found it as weird as you did.

Bummer. I am just now getting smart on this race, but it looks like Pastor had a bunch of great endorsements including Hennessey, Pierce, Burling, and Fuller Clark. Meanwhile Prentiss looks...not great. I guess a lot of the endorsers I just mentioned were also for Buttigieg, so I can't realllly fault her there, but also seems like she was a Republican till pretty recently. Feels like we could do a lot better in the safest / most liberal district.

[Meatball Ron]

And even if she isn't, she's not a sexual assault apologist POS like Hennessey.

Wait what, can you elaborate? I assume this is not related to her disclosing that she

[Meatball Ron]

And even if she isn't, she's not a sexual assault apologist POS like Hennessey.

Wait what, can you elaborate? I assume this is not related to her disclosing that she

Hennessey said that the Flores accusations were a Bernie Bro plot.

Which is very hard to jump to that conclusion, given that Flores was undecided at the time of her accusations, there weren't any inconsistencies in her story, her accusations were purely focused on touching, and eventually decided to back Elizabeth Warren.

In my mind, there's a clear difference between "this is overblown, I believe she feels uncomfortable and can see why but I don't believe Biden didn't mean anything sexual" and "she's only pretending because she wants to help "her candidate"." I found her attitude absolutely revolting, especially coming from a purported advocate against sexual assault. As a victim of sexual harassment, she should have resigned for this.

Ah jeez. Yeah. I missed that. No bueno at all. I agree with you on all of this.

On the other hand, the Tara Reade accusations could potentially be dismissed as a "Bernie bro plot" given who broke/promoted them and everything that ensued after. But that language is still a bit too harsh/dismissive for my liking.

[Meatball Ron]

Rochester City Councilman/business owner/former EC candidate Emmett Soldati has decided to run for NHDP chair. He's explicitly running on building the state party up from local apparatuses up. There's an impression that the NHDP is losing connection to its communities. He has my endorsement. Soldati has a history of overperforming, nearly running even with Plunkett and overperforming her and Warmington in his turf, and is deeply connected around various NH circles.

There have been a lot of red flags recently that support Soldati's claims of the tail wagging the dog. Aside from the obvious, there's the 2018 SoS race (which we could have won if the NHDP didn't turn the nominating process into a coronation), and the party's immediate embrace of Dan Feltes (most progressive candidate in years, worst campaigner I've seen in NH politics).

Oh boy. Stand by for Buckley twitter meltdown.

I hope he wins. Buckley has obviously done an incredible job bringing Dems from the perpetual minority party to the prevailing force in NH politics over the last several years. But you are right about the red flags (I think Buckley has been particularly ineffective with regards to Sununu - he clearly doesn't know how to land a message against him, which is alarming for 2022), and new blood / energy can only help the party. I hope Buckley gracefully decides to bow out and pass on the reigns but that seems very unlikely.

[Meatball Ron]

Rochester City Councilman/business owner/former EC candidate Emmett Soldati has decided to run for NHDP chair. He's explicitly running on building the state party up from local apparatuses up. There's an impression that the NHDP is losing connection to its communities. He has my endorsement. Soldati has a history of overperforming, nearly running even with Plunkett and overperforming her and Warmington in his turf, and is deeply connected around various NH circles.

There have been a lot of red flags recently that support Soldati's claims of the tail wagging the dog. Aside from the obvious, there's the 2018 SoS race (which we could have won if the NHDP didn't turn the nominating process into a coronation), and the party's immediate embrace of Dan Feltes (most progressive candidate in years, worst campaigner I've seen in NH politics).

Oh boy. Stand by for Buckley twitter meltdown.

I hope he wins. Buckley has obviously done an incredible job bringing Dems from the perpetual minority party to the prevailing force in NH politics over the last several years. But you are right about the red flags (I think Buckley has been particularly ineffective with regards to Sununu - he clearly doesn't know how to land a message against him, which is alarming for 2022), and new blood / energy can only help the party. I hope Buckley gracefully decides to bow out and pass on the reigns but that seems very unlikely.

Of course. The entire strategy has been repeating "orange man bad" over and over again. Not showing how Sununu has been similar to Trump, making him seem like less of a moderate, or whatever. Just repeating a 4-year-old debate line ad nauseam.

iM a tRuMp gUy tHroUgH aNd tHrOuGh

Lmao. Do you think Soldati has a good shot? If names as prominent as Mo Baxley are backing him, that's a pretty good sign.

[Meatball Ron]

Rochester City Councilman/business owner/former EC candidate Emmett Soldati has decided to run for NHDP chair. He's explicitly running on building the state party up from local apparatuses up. There's an impression that the NHDP is losing connection to its communities. He has my endorsement. Soldati has a history of overperforming, nearly running even with Plunkett and overperforming her and Warmington in his turf, and is deeply connected around various NH circles.

There have been a lot of red flags recently that support Soldati's claims of the tail wagging the dog. Aside from the obvious, there's the 2018 SoS race (which we could have won if the NHDP didn't turn the nominating process into a coronation), and the party's immediate embrace of Dan Feltes (most progressive candidate in years, worst campaigner I've seen in NH politics).

Oh boy. Stand by for Buckley twitter meltdown.

I hope he wins. Buckley has obviously done an incredible job bringing Dems from the perpetual minority party to the prevailing force in NH politics over the last several years. But you are right about the red flags (I think Buckley has been particularly ineffective with regards to Sununu - he clearly doesn't know how to land a message against him, which is alarming for 2022), and new blood / energy can only help the party. I hope Buckley gracefully decides to bow out and pass on the reigns but that seems very unlikely.

Of course. The entire strategy has been repeating "orange man bad" over and over again. Not showing how Sununu has been similar to Trump, making him seem like less of a moderate, or whatever. Just repeating a 4-year-old debate line ad nauseam.

iM a tRuMp gUy tHroUgH aNd tHrOuGh

Lmao. Do you think Soldati has a good shot? If names as prominent as Mo Baxley are backing him, that's a pretty good sign.

100%. The progressive wing (which I'd consider Soldati a part of) is already upset with Buckley. Volinsky just called out Buckley's leadership on Twitter, and Martha Hennessey just endorsed Soldati.

Great. I think this needs to be framed as "Buckley has been fantastic for NH Dems, but it is time for a change" and NOT an all-out repudiation of Buckley's leadership. I think the latter would backfire - if it turns into a full-on referendum on Buckley, he'll have plenty of compelling counter-arguments and stats on how he's made the Dems a majority party in the state, and I think undecided delegates would be swayed to his side. The time for change argument feels much likelier to resonate.