On the wrong track?

Is it possible that we’re all watching a NHGOP train wreck occurring in slo-mo?

It certainly seems that way, considering that close followers of the U.S. Senate primary probably feel like the warning whistle’s been blaring for weeks now.

To bring you up to speed: With less than three weeks left until the primary, there sure seems to be a front-runner in the field of five GOPers brawling for the nod — Don Bolduc, the former general who’s essentially been running for the office since 2019, when he first entered the battle to take on Jeanne Shaheen in 2020.

He ended up placing second, losing by 8 points to Corky (remember him?) Messner. But his never-ending campaign sure seems to be helping out this time, with the latest St. A’s poll shows him with 32% support — more than the total of 26% the other five wannabes in the race could muster among themselves. (Of course, that means there are about 39% undecided voters, so take it as you will.)

Nevertheless, DB sure seems to have momentum, something that none of the other peeps in the race — Chuck Morse (16%), Kevin Smith and Bruce Fenton (4% each) and Vikram Mansharamani (2%) — have in the slightest.

So why the train wreck? Well it’s the locomotive, namely DB, that’s cause for concern for some folks, and they’re not exactly being quiet about it.

At the head of the line for the exit is the guv, who told WGIR radio one fine Friday that there was no way in hell he was gonna support DB.

“He’s not a serious candidate. He’s really not, and if he were the GOP nominee I have no doubt we would have a much harder time. He’s kind of a conspiracy theorist-type candidate.” Can’t walk back those words, can you?

Left unsaid by the guv was the time DB said the guv is a “communist Chinese sympathizer.” And then there was another time he said the Sununu family’s business “supports terrorism.” Can’t walk back those words either.

And right behind the guv is nunuther than Corey Lewandowski, Trump’s Man in New Hampshire, who has gone on record more than once that if the GOP nominates DB, NH will no longer be a winnable seat for the party.

In fact, CL told Politico he has spoken to the ex-prez “at length about this race,” and apparently is urging (pleading may actually be a better word) him to back someone else, anyone else, over DB.

The bottom line is this: If DB wins the NHGOP Senate nod, what do the guv and CL do, especially the guv?

Just asking.

Don’t touch that dial!

Forget about HBO’s “House of the Dragon,” it’s time to set a bookmark for what is sure to be some really cutting-edge programming — so advanced that it’s only audio, none of these moving pictures you might hear about.

Yes folks, starting at a “feasible” date, the Exec Council has agreed for us regular folks to listen in on their meetings live(!) and remotely(!) for the first time.

Th’other day, the five EC’s voted to allow live audio “by telephone, the internet or other means which allows the public to listen to proceedings as they occur.”

Alexander Graham Bell couldn’t have said it better.

A prickly list

Those wacky Free Staters are at it again.

In case you missed it, Insider reported that the Free State Project has produced and disseminated a list of Christian churches in NH that they have deemed “woke.”

And how does one define “woke”? Well, apparently if a church is LGBTQ-friendly, advocated for racial or social justice, or has implemented Covid precautions, they’re considered woke.

And how many churches are on the Free Stater-curated list? Almost 900, identified by their location and denomination. And the Free Staters really drilled down in informing their fellow travelers of the “violations.”

Like one Episcopal church listed because it had the temerity to donate to the NAACP. Or the one that was cited for displaying a Ukrainian flag on its website. And then there’s the one that displayed utterly insane (and probably not close to being incorrect) statement that it is located on “unceded Native American land.”

Interesting list coming from an organization that on its website says it “does not welcome anyone who promotes violence, racial hatred, or bigotry.”

Oh, and BTW, they also say they believe in free speech and association. But apparently that only depends on what you’re saying and who you associate with.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

If certain NHGOPers needed another reason to feel even more uncertain about Don Bolduc’s Senate campaign, look no further than the town of Londonderry’s recent condemnation of a DB supporter flying a Confederate flag during the town’s Old Home Day parade. The rebel Jeep was traveling in DB’s parade contingent, no less.

You’d think in a race that’s gonna be close — no matter which GOPer he faces in November — Chris Pappas’s peeps would have thought long and hard about who they would be casting in their TV spots and why. Like when they actually had a spot with Alan Raff, chair of the Manchester Dems and a Queen City attorney, playing an auto mechanic, it was like giving the NHGOP a hanging curveball.

Apparently they don’t agree on everything over at the Hitchcock household in Manch., where the entrepreneurial power couple of Jeremy and Liz are each taking a side in the US Senate race. JH has joined the steering of GOP wannabe Vikram Mansharamani, and LH is taking a public stand in support of Maggie H on the Dem side as one of 144 businesspeeps backing the senator.