Names not in the news

Even before E-Day was over, there was growing disgruntlement over the performance of one 44-year SOS Billy Gardner, at least judging by the list of peeps who are either putting their own names out there as possible Org. Day challengers, or whose names are out there just floating in the speculative ether.

A lot of the names of the peeps mulling whether to pull a Van Ostern come from the ranks of reps and other State House hangers-on who sense an opportunity. It’s a good chance ya never heard of ‘em or, if you did, would likely reply, “Meh.”

But two names floating out there are interesting, to say the least.

One is Maggie Goodlander, a lawyer and adjunct UNH prof who just happened to clerk for Merrick Garland (remember him?) and Stephen Breyer (who you should know). She’s also been an advisor to then-Sen. Joe Lieberman and, later on, John McCain.

The other is nunuther than Andy Volinsky, the ex-Dem guv wannabe and education equity aficionado, who’ll be leaving the Exec Council after his term expires at the end of the year and, it so happens, just recently retired from the Bernstein Shur law firm.

In both cases, neither MG or AV are among the blatantly active SOS candidates but are names being floated by others.

And, in both cases, the possibilities are pretty intriguing, wouldn’t you say?

Get a hold of this

Just for the record: On Oct. 29, a mere five days before E-Day, Donnie Trump Jr., son of the prez, made his seemingly umpteenth campaign appearance in NH this go-round.

This time, he graced us with his presence at a rally at the DoubleTree in Manch. And he gave WMUR viewers a full-throated taste of what his spiel to rally-goers was like.

Suffice to say that there was a lot of the same yadda-yadda. But among all that yadda-yadda was a rather startling statement:

“Look at Europe and look at America right now,” DJTJ told the TV peeps. “They talk about infection rates going up in America, because they’re testing 1,000 times more than they were a month ago. So, they pick up more of it. But if you look at actual death rates, the number no one in the media wants to talk about, it’s almost nothing because of the therapeutics. Because of the advancements in the treatments, we’ve been able to figure this thing out.”

A mind-boggling statement from so many angles, least of which is that on that very day — Oct. 29 — more than 80,000 new Covid cases were reported in the U.S. And 1,016 Americans died from the disease that day.

And in case you think DJTJ’s blatantly false claim was only heard by NH ears, later that same day — in an appearance on Fox News’ “The Ingraham Angle” — he repeated it yet again, claiming: “The numbers are almost nothing” and adding that “we’ve gotten control” of the virus.

“If you look at my Instagram, it’s gone to almost nothing,” said DJTJ. “We’ve gotten a hold of it.”

For the record, on Oct. 31 — just two days later — the U.S. just missed the 100k daily cases mark with 99,321 reported. And there were 1,030 Covid deaths that day.

“We’ve gotten a hold of it,” says DJTJ. Ya gotta be kidding.

Just do the math

Here’s yet another Questionable Covid Claim.

This one actually came in the NH Supreme Court, where Atty. Peggy Dean was arguing that the NH House of Reps should not be allowed to hold remote sessions during the pandemic.

And part of her argument was this:

“We call this pandemic unprecedented. I respectfully say that that word does not apply here. We have flu to a greater or lesser degree every year. Usually, depending on the year, more people die from the flu than have died from Covid.”

Yes folks, at the time of PD’s statement over 230k Americans had died from Covid and over 9 million had contracted the virus. In NH, there were 33 flu deaths in the 2019-20 flu season and 482 Covid deaths during the same time frame. Last we checked, 33 is a little less than 7% of 482. At least using something called mathematics.

But it is certainly possible that PD and the groups she was representing, the NH Firearms Coalition and anti-maskers ReopenNH, aren’t privy to mathematics. After all, that’s pretty much like science, ain’t it?

MAKING THE ROUNDS

Chris Christie sidekick and bridge expert Matt Mowers sure brought some of that oldfashioned Jersey politics up from Bergen County (from where he was exported by CC to NH in preparation for the failed CC prez run) during his race against Chris Pappas in CD 1.

It wasn’t too long ago when ex-NHGOP chair and front-row anti- Trumper Jenn. Horn was facing financial troubles. But it looks like her anti- Trumpism, via the Lincoln Project that she helped found, may turn out to be a golden parachute from the Trumpist Party. The project, it’s been reported, has signed with the United Talent Agency to help build out a Lincoln Media arm with offers from TV studios, podcast networks and book publishers.

Not for nothing, but NH was graced for the second time in a month with the presence of Kristi Noem, the Covid-denying guv of coronavirus hot zone South Dakota. And, yes, she wasn’t wearing a mask again. And, no, she didn’t self-quarantine, as NH guidelines ask visitors to do.