PACs seen as a sign of increased engagement in local elections

LACONIA — In Belknap County, two political action committees — one local, the other from out of state — spent significant dollars in this year’s state Republican primary election. Citizens for Belknap was a ubiquitous presence on the trail, with signs sprinkled across the county, while nationwide Make Liberty Win, focused on backing limited-government, “pro-liberty" candidates.

Citizens for Belknap bills itself as a bipartisan, “anti-radical” group with a focus on taking Free Staters and Libertarian, anti-government candidates out of the equation.

“We won’t support wing nuts, extremists, Libertarians, Free Staters, some of them don't like to be labeled, but people who don’t represent the views of their constituency,” said Al Posnak, Citizens for Belknap’s chair.

CFB raised around $40,000 in gross donations, according to Posnack and state filings. Most of the funds went to buying advertisements, signs, and other material promoting the PAC and printing its voter guide, with one exception.

“Our filing will show we helped Mr. [Travis] O'Hara with some door hangers, and that was the only direct contact with a candidate,” Posnak said, adding the amount spent on Rep. Travis O’Hara’s (R-Belmont) materials was around $200.

O’Hara defeated incumbent and Make Liberty Win-endorsed candidate Rep. Mike Sylvia (R-Belmont) in the state District 9 House race.

Although CFB didn’t fund most candidates directly, the group did publish an extensive voter guide that recommended voting for the following candidates: Richard Beaudoin, Steven Bogert, Cindy Creteau-Miller, Russ Dumais, Alan Glassman, David Hershey, Steve Hodges, David Nagel, Michael McFadzen, Glen Waring, and Reps. Harry Bean (R-Gilford), Mike Bordes (R-Laconia), Juliet Harvey-Bolia (R-Tilton), Richard Littlefield (R-Laconia), and O’Hara.

Of those candidates, only Hershey and MacFadzen were unsuccessful in earning their party's nomination.

CFB traces its roots to frustrations with the Gunstock Area Commission — Gunstock Mountain Resort's oversight body — and a series of budget cuts by the Belknap County Delegation and its former delegation Chair Sylvia and Belknap County Republican Chair Rep. Norm Silber (R-Gilford).

Silber, Sylvia and Republicans of a similar persuasion appeared to be the targets of CFB, while moderate and “pro-Gunstock” delegates were favored by the group.

Make Liberty Win was born from Young Americans for Liberty, a 501(c)(4) political group with strong Libertarian, anti-Socialist and free speech platforms. New Hampshire Senate Republican candidate Bruce Fenton spoke at a Young Americans for Liberty event earlier this year before making his doomed bid for the Republican Senate nomination.

Carter Quill, Young Americans for Liberty’s director of media relations, explained that due to recent rule changes regarding PACs, Make Liberty Win had to split from YAL as a separate entity. The departure happened not long after starting Operation Win at the Door, an initiative to elect 250 “pro-liberty” candidates across the country. The two groups still communicate and pass money between each other, according to opensecrets.org.

Make Liberty Win spent just over a quarter of a million dollars in the state, with $36,227.94 allocated to fliers, door hangers or other campaign paraphernalia for 14 Republican candidates in Belknap County. Each candidate received $2,587.71 in campaign materials from the group as donations of goods, not cash donations.

The 14 candidates include Sylvia, Silber, Bean, Harvey-Bolia and Littlefield; Reps. Glen Aldrich (R-Gilford), Barbara Comtois (R-Barnstead), Gregg Hough (R-Laconia), Dawn Johnson (R-Laconia), and Paul Terry (R-Alton); as well as Steven Bogert, Erica Golter, Nikki McCarter, and Jeanne Tofts.

Of those candidates, Aldrich, Hough, and Silber Sylvia lost their seats, and Golter and Tofts were unsuccessful.

“We as a PAC, we’re just supporters of people we believe have good ideas and good ideology that can benefit folks and Americans in general,” said Keith Braun, Make Liberty Win’s deputy executive director who explained the organization's candidate selection process. Due to Braun’s operational role within the organization, he was not able to comment explicitly on MLW’s ideologies.  

Candidate selection

“We look for quite a few things, we're probably one of the staunchest organizations out there in terms of finding candidates we support,” Braun said. “You have single-issue groups looking for candidates to champion a single issue. We're looking for candidates that are well-rounded. It's not just 'Do you support the Second Amendment? Criminal justice reform?' We want to see what their entire view is.”

For Make Liberty Win, candidates were chosen after a rigorous selection process that begins with a 10- to 15-page survey.

According to Braun, MLW reviews the surveys “line by line” and continues the vetting process if they like what they see, but that each candidate and district they run is vetted individually, not through a “one size fits all” lens.

“We review the survey with the candidate on the phone with 20 to 30 questions outside of the survey,” Braun said. “Then we do a whole bunch of stuff outside of that to give us a look to ask not only are they aligned with us, but are they viable?”

All of this is done in a relatively short time table within an election cycle, usually with a month and half cut off date from the time of candidate filings.

“The voters spoke,” Posnak said of the results of the election and CFB's involvement. “I think our role was educational. With the help of the Gunstock meltdown, creating awareness upfront we got a lot of people listening and got people to listen to what is going on.”

Braun was not able to provide comment on Belknap County’s primary results, but expressed elation at what he sees as increased engagement in politics.

“The sheer increase of seeing new folks run for office, it’s a good sign,” Braun said. “Inevitably, even if they lose, that might inspire the next generation to run.” 

“As for the makeup of the group, we are strictly bipartisan,” Posnak asserted. “We had a very spirited two-hour meeting Tuesday night to talk about who we want to support going forward. I'm not ready to release that yet, but we’re going to support a number of Republican candidates. Our criteria is representative, responsible and reasonable people.

“We haven’t got a nickel of outside money,” Posnak said. “All of the donors have been individuals. Several have donated through their businesses, a couple seem to be from elsewhere. They may be people who vacation here, but there’s no outside money. We’re not hooked up with anybody.”

Voter engagement

For Braun, the emergence of local PACs like CFB are just another sign of people getting more engaged, even if their views are different. 

“I love it. I think that when you’re a candidate running for office, the two most important things you can ask is people to spend time and money,” Braun said. “For those not running themselves, to spend their time and money to create a PAC that is going to support candidates that share their values, whether or not I agree with those values, I applaud the effort. If you’re not going to run for office, at least support your candidates. The more people that get involved, the more we have an influence in who’s representing us.”