Republicans in awe of Lynch's clout

Republicans are taking a hard look at their state organization, or lack of one, after the debacle last week. Democrats are making plans to carry out the huge mandate they say they won at the polls.

“Let the Democrats know I’m here if they can’t decide on a senate president,” joked incumbent John Gallus, R-Berlin. He was grateful to survive the toughest election in state history, for Republicans anyway.

“This sure changes the house speaker race too,” Gallus said. “The governor cast long coat tails, but there really weren’t many local issues. I’m lucky my opponent was unknown and did nothing.”

Gallus was amazed that executive councilor Ray Burton, R-Bath, got such a surprise from last-minute, write-in opponent Mark Blotner of Glen. The Democrat did little campaigning, never raised the minimum $500 to require a campaign finance report, and took 40-percent of the vote.

“It was tidal wave from Washington,” Gallus said.

Republican state rep Jim Fitzgerald lost to newcomer Kathy Sgambati in senate district 4, which includes Tilton, Laconia, Belmont, Alton and towns in between. He said the Democrats did a good job playing up dissatisfaction about the war, and Governor Lynch helped them tremendously. Fitzgerald thought Lynch was so popular because he’s cordial to the core.

“The combination surprised a lot of people,” Fitzgerald said. “I was impressed with how the governor got right out in front of the flooding in Alstead and the flooding this spring.”

So does Fitzgerald plan a comeback?

“I don’t have any plans yet,” he said. “I’ll do anything I can to help Republican candidates in the future. I haven’t ruled out another run for senate. I haven’t ruled it in.”

Rep. Betsey Patten is kissing goodbye her race for house speaker. She won’t be chairing the Municipal and County Government Committee either.

“That’s a given,” she said. “I’d like to stay on the committee, but that’s not my decision. We should know the next house speaker after Nov. 18 when the Democrats hold their caucus vote.”

She predicted a broad-based tax stands a pretty good chance of reaching Lynch.

“If he vetoes it, it could even get overridden,” she said.

She chided her party for years of bickering among conservatives and the Main Street wing, sometimes called “Republicans in Name Only.”

“We couldn’t get ourselves untied when it came time to get out the vote,” she said. “(Party chairman) Wayne Semprini came aboard when things were still fractured. If the executive committee asks him to step down, I don’t see anyone waiting in the wings to take the job.”

Rep. John (Crow) Dickinson, R-Conway, lost in a wave of straight ticket voting, and blamed party leadership as much as the war, the president and the party’s scandals.

“I don’t think the Democrats came out of this with any mandate at the state or local level,” he said. “We had a party standard bearer of questionable skill (James Coburn for governor). Maybe the party should have run nobody for governor. We might have been better off.”

Dickinson said Semprini had so little name recognition up north he couldn’t do any fundraising.

“I’ll be putting my name in for the town Budget Committee” Dickinson said.

Rep. Tom Buco, D-Conway, thanked Dickinson for helping him in his first term to learn the ropes in Concord

“I really appreciated his 32 years of experience,” Buco said.

The Conway Democrat thought any broad-based tax would die because Lynch promised to veto one.

“People had confidence in him. They want us to do what’s right,” Buco said. “And we have to something reasonable about school funding, not just take the court out of it. That would be a return to the old system where nobody got any state aid.”

New senator Kathy Sgambati, D-Tilton, looks forward to party caucuses soon to pick a senate leader and a united legislative agenda. After beating Fitzgerald, she said the Democratic platform would include covering every child in the state with health insurance and giving welfare parents the education and job skills to become productive and independent. She said the first step in education funding is to define the state’s responsibility.

“You can’t go anywhere until you do that,” she said. “That was the court’s mandate. A constitutional amendment won’t be the first step, but I’d hesitate to rule anything off the table. I heard over and over that people don’t want the property tax to be the sole bearer of cost.”

Rep. Fred King, R-Colebrook, knows he’s lost his powerful role as Finance chairman. He’ll fight hard for his educational plan, which would fund the schools with a higher statewide property tax even if it creates donor towns again.

“I know an income tax doesn’t have legs,” he said. “The governor would be in trouble if he let that pass. But he’ll face some challenges now.”

Bill Grimm chairs the board for the Franklin Career Academy Charter School and hopes the Democrats see fit to give such free-standing public schools around $7,000 per child per year to survive. Today they get $3,600 from the state. That’s too little after some federal start-up grants expire next year.

“We’d like to still be around to help the Franklin schools end the cycle of illiteracy in this community,” Grimm said.