TO: Interested Parties
FROM: DCCC Communications
RE: New Hampshire Republican Primary Results
DATE: September 9, 2014
The one clear takeaway following Tuesday’s Congressional primary election in New Hampshire is that the Tea Party got their nominees and both Frank Guinta and Marilinda Garcia come to the general election with all the out-of-touch baggage that will turn off independent-minded voters.
Both candidates faced competitive primaries that exposed their far right positions and have now left their beleaguered campaigns depleted of financial resources.
Democratic incumbents Carol Shea-Porter and Annie Kuster are strongly positioned for success in November. Neither Democrat faced a primary Tuesday and as a result, both have stockpiled financial resources, rallied their base of support, and focused on the general election by fighting for hardworking middle class families while showing how their Republican opponents will stack the deck for special interests.
New Hampshire’s Republican Nominees: Beleaguered, Broke, and Beyond the Mainstream
NH-01: Tea Party Repeat Candidate Frank Guinta
The best Republicans could do in this seat is former Tea Party Congressman Frank Guinta, who New Hampshire voters ousted from office in 2012 after just one term. The people who know Frank Guinta best had a tough time voting for their former Congressman, as he barely eked by his lesser-known and underfunded opponent. The reason is simple: Guinta’s campaign has been a carbon copy of the same out-of-touch agenda voters rejected in the last election. Guinta has struggled to raise money for his campaign since he got in the race, was forced to spend it all to win his primary, and has little time to make up ground with the election just eight weeks away.
The Portsmouth Press Herald Editorial Board may have put it best when it said,
Guinta has a recent track record from his single term in Congress, from 2011 to 2013, where he was largely a GOP rubber stamp, accomplished little and had the sad distinction of being a member of arguably the least productive Congress in modern history, which voters swept out in disgust in the 2012 general election. [Portsmouth Press Herald, 8/31/14]
NH-02: The Tea Party’s Newest Crusader: Marilinda Garcia
The Tea Party found their newest standard bearer in Marilinda Garcia. Whether it’s her refusal to take another government shutdown off the table, her opposition to equal pay for equal work, or her readiness to rubberstamp the far right wing’s plan to stack the deck in favor of big oil and the special interests by shifting the burden onto the middle class, Marilinda Garcia is running to represent the Tea Party.
Despite backing from Ted Cruz and the Koch Brothers, Marilinda Garcia’s fundraising has been virtually non-existent and what little resources she had, she spent communicating with the far right Republican base. With only eight weeks to go until election day, New Hampshire voters won’t soon forget just how far outside the mainstream Marilinda Garcia proved she was to win her primary.
Summary
The Republicans in both New Hampshire Congressional districts faced primaries that exposed their far right agendas, fractured their base of support and depleted critical financial resources.
While Republicans have been battling each other and forcing themselves even farther outside the mainstream, Carol Shea Porter and Annie Kuster have gotten a head start on the general election campaign and are strongly positioned for success in November.