“A discrepancy of 300 votes out of 800,000 cast does not define massive voter fraud by any means.”

– Guv Sununu reacts to the claims of the ex-prez that “massive Election Fraud” took place in NH in 2020. Trump was ranting about a rep race in Windham.

The gathering swarm

Forget about vaccines, masks, taxes, the Sox even – Enquiring minds want to know: Is Guv Sununu or isn’t he?

Running for US Senate against Maggie Hassan, that is.

It sure seems like his “to run or not to run?” soliloquy has been growing increasingly public. And he’s got a bunch of fans among GOPers. Look no further than a piece in Politico for all the proof you need.

According to the piece, a group of GOP senators is launching an “all-out effort” to recruit the guv to run in 2022 against MH.

Apparently, the senators – who include nunuther than Minority Leader Mitch Mc-Connell, who apparently is looking at the guv as the key to retaking the Senate, and of course his old job as majority leader.

They’re convinced, apparently, that the guv – who won last time out over Dem Dan Feltes by over 30 points – is some kinda pol with superpowers who will be unbeatable, no matter who the opponent is. And they’re also convinced that MH is among the most – if not the most – vulnerable Senate Dems up for re-elect next year.

As nunuther than that well-known expert on New Hampshire politics, Sen. Rick Scott of Fla., put it: “If he runs, we’ll win.”

RS, according to Politico, even met with the guv this spring to twist his arm – if his arm needs twisting.

And for those looking for a quick resolution to the show – well, you’re outta luck.

He’s supposedly not gonna reveal his plans until later this year – whatever that means.

An interesting sidebar to all this: The Politico piece reports somewhat authoritatively that the person MH defeated in 2016 for the seat – on Kelly Ayotte (remember her?) – “is not currently interested” in running for the Senate spot. But it adds, also somewhat authoritatively, that if the guv did decide to run for Senate, “she would consider running for governor, however.”

The plot thickens …

Desperate times call for desperate measures

Speaking of NH’s upcoming US Senate race: There is already a candidate for the GOP nod, in case you hadn’t noticed. It’s one Don Bolduc, the retired Army general.

If it seems like Bolduc’s been running for Senate for a few years now, you’re not wrong. His name likely sounds familiar (although not as familiar as he’d probably like) because the same DB ran for the GOP Senate nod only a year ago. In that one, he lost to Corky Messner, who took a shot at Jeanne Shaheen and came up 15% short.

Well, it turns out his strategy this goround is pretty much the same as last go-round: get that GOP base all excited about his candidacy. It didn’t work too well last time because, well, no matter what the base may have thought of him, they got their voting orders from the exprez, who endorsed CM in the primary.

Hard to swim against that current.

But DB might have found a way in to the ex-prez’s heart this time.

Turns out he was a signer of a letter from 120 former members of the military that was released th’other day. In it, they not only attacked the Biden admin. for a bunch of perceived failures, but they dredged up the continued false (actually, fraudulent) claim that there was something illegitimate about the 2020 prez election. For some reason, the letter claims, the election did not “accurately reflect the will of the people.”

Interestingly, DB doubled down on the letter in an interview with NH Journal, claiming that he “certainly” believes “there was some lack of election integrity, and there was voter fraud that needs to be policed up. 75 million people don’t believe it was fair.”

Let’s stop there for a sec. 75m people (Trump’s vote tally) don’t believe it was fair – quite a claim – so by that logic it’s probably just as true that 81m folks (Biden’s vote tally) do, so it doesn’t matter what they think?

And, BTW, the letter also attempts to suggest that Prez Biden doesn’t have all his marbles: “The mental and physical condition of the Commander in Chief cannot be ignored,” it reads.

And DB doubled down on that too: “The symptoms are there, we can see it,” Bolduc said. “You can see it in his eyes, there’s a blankness sometimes in his eyes.”

If your eyes are glazing over now, no one could blame you.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

Wouldn’t that be a kick in the pants if it’s the House GOPers who put the kibosh on the effort to exempt PPP loans from NH biz taxes? Who woulda thunk?

For those keeping score at home, the number of school districts joining ConVal in its lawsuit over the state’s schoolfunding scheme is an even dozen, now that Manch. has joined in. At some point, this could get serious.

Yes folks, you read that correctly. The House’s bid to strip the DHHS commish of the ability to issue emergency orders by instituting legislative oversight – a move the Senate seems to have issues with – stems from one rep being ticked off about a DHHS April 2020 order that limited prescriptions of hydroxychloroquine (remember that?).

Wow, that was a quick change of heart.

On May 9, the UL reported that the guv had no plans to discontinue federally enhanced unemployment benefits. On May 13, he announced that, yes, he is getting ready to end them.