Haley Barbour and New Hampshire
Haley Barbour has downplayed his upcoming visits to the all important primary states of Iowa and New Hampshire by saying he will be visiting states throughout the country campaigning for GOP candidates. Barbour is set to become chairman of the Republican Governors Association in 2010.
Based on Barbour’s comments, visiting Iowa would make sense. Governor Chet Culver is a first-term Democrat and Republicans are looking to mount a serious challenge against him. Naturally it would make sense for the next head of the RGA to campaign in that state.
However, his reasoning behind visiting New Hampshire is a little trickier. John Lynch is a popular Democrat who has been in office since 2004 and has not faced a serious challenge since the first victory. Governors in New Hampshire serve two-year terms so Lynch will be looking to win his fourth election in 2010. At the same time, New Hampshire has broke considerably more Democratic than the nation as a whole over the past four years.
While I imagine the GOP will field a candidate for New Hampshire in 2010, I doubt the party will put much effort and/ or money behind him or her. But Barbour is visiting the state anyway.
New Hampshire will not be having a competitive gubernatorial race in 2010, but it will be having a competitive GOP primary in 2012.
Excellent insight re: NH. I believe the GOP will try to win back one or both of the House seats they lost in 06 but don’t know what that has to do with the RGA.
Well Haley is a popular guy within the GOP so I could see him campaign for all types of Republicans whether governors, Senators, or Congressman, or anything else really. Haley is a “big tent” guy so this might be similar to Howard Dean’s 50 state strategy. And hey, you can’t win a state if you don’t compete.