2010 election week in review: Can GOP play nice?

New Hampshire Republican Party boss John H. Sununu encouraged GOP candidates for the U.S. Senate to play nice with each other as they head into the final weeks of the primary campaign.

A recent spate of campaign ads might indicate they're ignoring the party boss.

Face to face at a couple of candidate forums last week, however, they held their tongues.

The two main antagonists are Kelly Ayotte and Bill Binnie.

Binnie says he's trying to defend himself from the attack ads that seek to label him as a liberal -- not what you want these days as a Republican candidate.

He went after Ayotte with a new ad that criticizes her behavior as attorney general during the FRM Ponzi scheme.

“This is a lack of enforcement behavior on the part of Kelly Ayotte,” says FRM investor Al McElvane, 70, of Kittery, Maine, in the ad. Adds his wife, Susan, “She destroyed a way of life for hundreds of people because of her inactions.”

But Ayotte turned right around with an attack ad of her own accusing Binnie of having liberal positions on the issues.

Sununu remains frustrated. “I am obviously disappointed at the attack ads that are now running in our Republican Senate primary. I continue to be hopeful that all candidates in that race will make it a primary worth winning,” Sununu said in a statement on Tuesday.

Candidates Ayotte, Binnie, Jim Bender and Ovide Lamontagne seemed more civil, according to media reports, at forums in Portsmouth and the North Country.

Seacoastonline.com said the Portsmouth forum sounded familiar Republican themes of smaller government and fewer taxes.

At the North Country forum, according to the Associated Press report, they talked and answered questions about taxes, spending, the federal bailout and foreign policy.

Binnie and jobs to Mexico
Bill Binnie doesn't like the Union Leader newspaper very much, and probably likes it less so as a result of the paper looking into whether or not he closed a plastics factory he owned in California so that he could open one in Tijuana, Mexico, with cheaper labor.

The newspaper found a Securities and Exchange Commission filing from the company that contradicts Binnie's statements of last week in which he denied that the plant had relocated to Mexico, saying rather it had moved to a new facility in the Los Angeles area. He took out a full-page in last Wednesday's New Hampshire Union Leader to claim that last week's Sunday News story on the matter was "wrong."

Binnie's statement to the Union Leader after the latest revelation said: "A plant was opened in Mexico while a large plant was also opened in California, seven miles away from the smaller plant that closed. The larger California facility did both manufacturing and warehouse/distribution. We were a large company."

But the Union Leader story noted, however, that Carlisle's annual reports from 1991-95 refer to the California facility only as a distribution warehouse and to the Tijuana plant as a manufacturing facility.

Endorsements
The New Hampshire State Employees Union endorsed Katrina Swett, Democratic candidate for the U.S. House in the 2nd Congressional District.

Charlie Bass, Republican candidate for Congress in the 2nd District, received the video endorsement of the National Rifle Association. The YouTube video includes Bass highlighting his position on the 2nd Amendment and has a representive from the NRA praising Bass for his views.

Manchester Mayor Ted Gatsas endorsed Ayotte for Senate.

Gatsas, Republican state senator from 2000 to 2009, said: "When I was State Senate president, I had an opportunity to work directly with Kelly. I can say this from personal experience: she's a tough leader who gets results."

Also in Manchester, Bender won the city Republican Committee straw poll with 41 percent. Lamontagne had 36.5 percent, Ayotte 18 percent and Binnie 4 percent.

Election Central
The LFDA has completed our State House of Representatives section. We've spent the last few months building a database of candidates (800+) seeking office in the House.

We are extremely proud of the interactive district map. There are 103 House districts in New Hampshire. Voters who don't know their district (it can be confusing) can slide their cursor along the map for a list of cities and towns in each district. Be sure to check it out.