Tea partiers join chorus vs. N.H. chair
The N.H. GOP is uniting ahead of Jack Kimball’s impending ouster as state party chair. | AP Photo Close
By KENDRA MARR | 8/31/11 11:08 PM EDT
New Hampshire Republicans are uniting ahead of embattled state party chairman Jack Kimball’s impending ouster — a marked contrast to the deep divide between the tea party and establishment wings Kimball warned would result from the efforts to remove him.
“This has gotten to a point where there is no appetite for dragging it out any longer than it needs to,” said Fergus Cullen, a former New Hampshire Republican Party chair. “Your toothache doesn’t get any better in three days.”
The drama has consumed local Republicans in the first-primary state, prompting a wave of controversy just as the presidential candidates are beginning to plan their fall campaign schedules and line up support.
“This isn’t about Jack Kimball,” said state Republican Liberty Caucus secretary Carolyn McKinney. “This isn’t about his job performance. This isn’t about one person. This is about saving the party.”
The closing of the ranks against Kimball picked up Tuesday night, when state House Speaker Bill O’Brien and Republican National Committee member Phyllis Woods met with about 35 state lawmakers — including a number of the freshman representatives who backed Kimball’s victory in January — to lay out the case of a seven-month tenure of incompetence, according to Republicans familiar with the meeting. A number of people walked away from the meeting convinced that the effort wasn’t about stepping on the tea party, and that Kimball needed to step down.
“They realized this was not cut and dry, and people began to understand that it wasn’t [former Gov. John] Sununu going after Kimball,” said one source, referring to the fact that Sununu’s handpicked successor lost to Kimball by just 23 votes.
Not everyone was swayed, though. State Rep. J.R. Hoell said Kimball’s faults — lackluster fundraising, special election defeats and signing a Libertarian Party petition — don’t rise to the level of impeachment.
“In any divorce, the kids lose,” Hoell said. “We have a whole bunch young Republican freshman and sophomores that stand to lose a lot in blowing up the party. It’s much better to keep mom and dad together.”
Kimball seems to have strengthened the case against him in his response to the effort to boot him. After a private meeting last week with party officials about donor concerns, Kimball lashed out in public, confirming allegations that the Republican Governors Association had offered the New Hampshire GOP $100,000 for his resignation. While the RGA denied the report, New Hampshire Republicans bristled at sudden national attention to its family feud.
Kimball went public again days later, holding a combative press conference after being asked quietly by the party leadership to resign, angering even more people.
there's more...
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0811/62454.html#ixzz1WgwAouZY
DO SOMETHING!
| 