Belknap Republicans donating plenty of blood to race for party chairmanship; vote is today

LACONIA — As the feud within the ranks of the New Hampshire Republican Party over the election of a chairperson has grown increasingly bitter, Belknap County has become something of a dueling ground where champions of the two candidates — Jack Kimball of D0over and Juliana Bergeron of Keene — thrust and parry with more energy than effect.

Only 19 local Republicans are among the 493 members of the New Hampshire Republican State Committee who will choose the successor to former governor John H. Sununu when they meet this morning at Pinkerton Academy in Derry. A dozen of the 19 members are state legislators, including Representatives Harry Accornero, Don Flanders, Bob Kingsbury, Bob Luther and Frank Tilton of Laconia and Alida Millham of Gilford. Alan Glassman, chairman of the Belknap County Republican Committee, Tom Brown, the chairman of the Laconia Republican Committee, and Belknap County Commissioner Steve Nedeau are also voting members.

Fran Wendelboe of New Hampton, herself a voting member supporting Kimball, said that most of her colleagues are "playing it close to the vest, but estimated Kimball would draw six or seven votes from the county.

"It is one of the nastiest campaigns I can remember," said Wendelboe, who a lost a bid for the party chair in 2oo6. "Not on the part of Jack and not on the part of Juliana, but because of their supporters."

Skip Murphy of Gilford, owner of the conservative Internet blog GraniteGrok and a member of the state committee, is one of Kimball's supporters who has become a prime target of Bergeron's forces. Quick to endorse Kimball, a fellow tea party activist, Murphy has touted his candidacy with his characteristic mix of bombast and derision. A week ago, Murphy reported that Bergeron "demanded" to speak at a meeting of the Nashua Republican Committee then proceeded to troll the room for votes, showing "a blatant disregard and disrespect" for the committee.

Murphy's counterparts in the Bergeron camp immediately countered. Writing beneath the headline "Kimball Campaign Accused of "False and Exaggerated ad hominem Attacks" on the blog NHJournal, Amelia Chasse pointed out that Murphy was not at the meeting and claimed that those who were, including the chairman of the committee, disputed his account and "are lashing out angrily at Murphy." Chasse closed by noting that, according to unnamed sources, if Kimball succeeds, he intends to hire Murphy as communications director of the state committee.

Two day later the NHJournal smugly reported a spokesman for Kimball to say "Skip Murphy plays no role in the Kimball for Chair campaign and would play no role in a Kimball chairmanship." The NHJournal further noted that Kimball also disassociated himself from Murphy's rejoinder to Chasse's post, in which he twice referred to her as a"skirt."

Pressing its guilt by association campaign, the NHJournal reported that despite Kimball's disavowals, Murphy often travels with him and takes videos of his interviews — "duties usually reserved for communications staff."

Next, much to Murphy's surprise, an ad, attributed to GraniteGrok, appeared on Facebook picturing Kimball alongside Bill Binnie, the failed candidate for the United States Senate who many Republican suspected of being a moderate, urging state committee members to join Binnie "in proudly endorsing" Kimball. Kimball said that he never sought nor received Binnie's endorsement while acknowledging that Binnie had agreed to serve on the party's finance committee.

Murphy denied posting the ad and in a post on GraniteGrok fingered Pat Hynes, who once shared the microphone with Murphy and Doug Lambert on a radio talk show aired by WEMJ-AM and now is associated with NHJournal. "This has Pat Hynes written all over it," he wrote. "I've only called him despicable...not stupid. He certainly is the master of dirty tricks."

Hynes denied all responsibility.

"It has become heated," Murphy said yesterday. He dismissed any suggestion that he would even be suited, much less considered, for the position of communications director and said that he persuaded Facebook to take down the ad.

Murphy described the contest for the chairmanship as "the third leg in the Triple Crown of the tea party versus the Republican establishment." In November, he said that "the liberty and freedom wing" of the GOP led the rout of the Democrats. In December, Representative Bill O'Brien (R-Mont Vernon), leader of the conservative House Republican Alliance, was elected Speaker of the New Hampshire House of Representatives.

Murphy pointed to Sununu, who picked, endorsed and promoted Bergeron, as the epitomy of the GOP establishment. "People are upset that he has gone so deep into this race," he said. "Sununu is not leaving anything to chance, to luck."

Likewise, Wendelboe traced much of the venom in the campaign to "Sununu's people." Casting Kimball as an outsider with a strong appeal to grassroots voters, she said "What they can't control, they fear."

Meanwhile, veteran conservative activist and radio host Niel Young of Laconia, who is full square behind Bergeron, joined the fray yesterday. In a letter to The Daily Sun he implied that some of Kimball's local allies "are looking for a paying job," remarking that "if they are to be part of the Kimball regime then NO THANKS!" And in a veiled reference to Murphy and Lambert, both his former protegees, he said that "those who reside in Gilford and seldom pop their heads out to the public while hiding in the sphere will not add credibility to Jack."

So much for Ronald Reagan's 11th commandment — "thou shall not speak ill of a fellow Republican."