Gubernatorial wanna-be decides to stay out of NH GOP primary afterall

An endorsement from Ovide Lamontagne would have been an important and meaningful tchotchke for one of the Republican candidates for president.

Enough of them made it a point, after all, to pay homage to one of New Hampshire’s leading conservative voices by paying a visit to the Lamontagne home as part of their first-in-the-nation primary pilgrimage.

And with the Jan. 10 primary on the not-to-distant horizon, and with endorsements coming right and left, a nod from Lamontagne had been greatly anticipated.

But -- after all that -- he’s decided to sit this one out.

His decision to take a pass is rooted in the pragmatism of politics, a dynamic that for Lamontagne changed when he went from presidential primary kingmaker to Republican candidate for governor.

“Being publicly uncommitted gives me the opportunity to support, enthusiastically and without reservation, whoever that nominee is,” he said to the Union Leader.

A non-committal committal.

Lamontagne, at least at this very early stage in the campaign, has to be considered the frontrunner to replace Democratic Gov. John Lynch, who decided not to run for a fifth term.

Lamontagne has name recognition and political star power leftover from a run for the U.S. Senate when it almost beat GOP establishment darling Kelly Ayotte in the primary.

Should he win the GOP nomination for governor, he doesn’t want to be in the uncomfortable position of sharing the November 2012 ballot with a presidential candidate he didn’t endorse.

And, to take it a step further, he doesn’t want to be in the uncomfortable position of winning the governor’s seat and potentially having as his president someone he didn’t endorse.

Politicians, as a rule, remember that kind of stuff: Who was with you, who wasn’t. Lamontagne wants to play both ends of the middle by being neutral.

To be fair, Kevin Smith, the former executive director of the conservative issues group Cornerstone Action, is also running in the GOP primary for governor and he said he will not endorse in the presidential primary.

But there had been a great deal of weight placed on the Lamontagne nod, which suits Ovide’s needs just fine … not so much one of the presidential contenders who were hoping to get the kingmaker’s nod.