After the disastrous special election two weeks ago in which the NH GOP lost a Republican House seat in Speaker Bill O’Brien’s backyard, NHGOP Chair Jack Kimball took full blame and said he was conducting a top-to-bottom review of the party’s approach to special elections. That’s important because there are three more special elections for Kimball to deal with in the coming months.
NH Journal asked our readers what advice they would give Kimball if they had been invited to offer their input. The results were, well, kind of brutal. The majority of responders suggested that Kimball resign his post. One known Tea Partier even said “Juliana Bergeron is starting too look really good now.” Bergeron lost the race for chair against Kimball after a nasty campaign.
“Grow up and stop acting like a mean and petulant child,” said another respondent.
“I voted for Jennifer Daler because I consider her a moderating influence in this radically Republican legislature,” said another, who identified herself as an Independent. “The last thing I wanted was Peter Kucmas, whose website claimed that being pro-life is the most important thing. I don’t want the Republicans’ radical agenda. I just want reasonable people to talk to each other and figure out how to solve the problems in the state, like balancing the budget. If the Republicans insist on overreaching and pursuing a radical agenda, they will be thrown out the next chance people get to vote.”
“If he (chairman) does nothing else to restore confidence in the GOP he needs to get ‘wild Bill’ O’Brien and his side-kick Bettencourt out of their House jobs if not out of the House altogether,” said a Republican. “As long as they reign they will be the best friends the democrats ever had.”
Finally, another respondent said, “NO TRASH TALKING. We need to clean up the campaigning so voters, especially Independents, do not turn away in disgust.”
We received no responses in support of Kimball’s performance as chair.
