BEDFORD – There may be no second acts in
American life, but former Gov. John H. Sununu stepped easily into the
role of state Republican Party chairman yesterday on stage at the
Bedford High School theater, blaming Democrats for ruining the state and
promising a GOP revival.
Sununu was elected unanimously as chairman.
Outgoing chairman Fergus Cullen did not seek re-election and no one
opposed Sununu for the position. Sununu was governor of New Hampshire
from 1983 to 1989 and was White House Chief of Staff for the first
President Bush from 1989 to 1991.
Sununu seized the reins of the party leadership yesterday and did not
hesitate to immediately fire shots across the bow, accusing Democrats of
taking the Pledge against no new income or sales taxes, while letting
the state budget grow by 17.5 percent.
"The Democrats have done a good job of
fuzzing up the difference," Sununu told the New Hampshire Sunday
News. "They give lip service to the Pledge and they spend like
drunken sailors, which puts pressure on the tax structure, so they don't
really mean it."
Sununu said he would focus on defining
differences with Democrats, calling on his fellow Republicans to help
educate New Hampshire voters.
"I ask that you join with me for the next two years and give just a
little bit of extra time, a little bit of extra energy, a little bit of
commitment, additional commitment to a unified party and help us educate
our citizens so we can once again make this a great state to live in, to
raise a family, and to do business in," he said in his acceptance
speech. "The Democrats are ruining our state. It is up to us and
our fellow citizens to put the Republicans back in power and fix that
mess."
He said Gov. John Lynch had been "unable,
or unwilling, or incapable" to stand up to his own party members in
the Legislature to pass a constitutional amendment on education funding.
Sununu warned that the state was limiting local control over education.
New Hampshire "is so special because it is a state where the
citizens have the strongest individual voice for making their own
policy," he said.
1-22-2009 Concord Monitor:
Sununu takes reins of NH GOP
by Margot Sanger-Katz
With a smile and a bright red tie, former
governor John Sununu took the helm of the state's Republican Party
yesterday, promising to fight for New Hampshire's values and crusade
against newly ascendant Democrats, who he said have mismanaged the state
and misled the voters.
"The Democrats are ruining our state, and
it is up to us and our fellow citizens to put the Republicans back in
power and fix that mess," Sununu told an enthusiastic auditorium of
400 party faithful as he accepted the party's chairmanship for the next
two years. "In 2010, we will fix it; 2010 will be the year the
state of New Hampshire goes red again," he said.
At the party's annual meeting in Bedford,
Sununu promised his party a Republican governor, Republican majorities
in the state Legislature, the re-election of Sen. Judd Gregg and wins in
New Hampshire's two U.S. House seats.
His predictions earned the 69-year-old former
governor and White House chief of staff a standing ovation yesterday.
But by all accounts Sununu will have a tough row to hoe if he is to
deliver on his promises. He inherits a party that has lost resoundingly
in back-to-back elections, suffers significant financial and
organizational disadvantages and faces demographic changes that analysts
say have shifted the state to the left.
But Sununu has certain advantages too - a
fighting spirit, which was on display yesterday, statewide celebrity
that could help him fundraise and recruit, and a state led by Democrats
in the midst of a massive budget deficit.
Sununu's speech yesterday suggested that he will continue to hound
Democrats for their budget choices. He argued that through clever
campaigning, Democrats have fooled voters into thinking that they
support the same small government and anti-tax positions that once
assured Republicans solid electoral majorities.
"We have allowed a legend to persist in
this state that the Democrats are committed to the same sorts of things
that we are," he said, adding that a 17.5 percent budget increase
in the last cycle belied those claims.
Democrats should not be able to take "the pledge" against a
sales or income tax and inoculate themselves against criticism on fiscal
policy, Sununu said. Reminding voters that Republicans will hold down
spending and reduce the pressures to tax, he suggested, will help the
Republican Party mend its fissures and win back voters it has lost.
"The Democrats were very smart," he
said, in an interview following his speech. "They pretended to be
fiscally responsible, and they governed in a fiscally irresponsible way.
And once the state understands that, they won't believe them
again."