Ayotte lead increases to 1,600 votes

Concord Monitor ^ | 15 Sep 2010

[bjorn14]

Link only

[US Navy Vet]

Is this a good thing?

[rahbert]

Ovide was on Rodger Hedgecock last night, sounds like a great guy, too bad if he goes doen to defeat.

[bolobaby]

This one, yes.

She’s the establishment candidate, but also backed by Palin. I like the fact that the Tea Party candidate is threatening - it sends a message, but both candidates are conservative. No RINOs in this race.

[wilco200]

That’s definitely a blow to Ovide. Looking town by town - all the big towns are in. Only small rural towns remain (under 5K residents).

It’s an uphill climb from here. while I’m disappointed, at least Ayotte isn’t as bad as Castle. Just need to SHOVE her right and MAKE her understand her error in verbally supporting the wise Latina.

[sunmars]

I think she’s gonna pull it out, seems she is winning all counties bar Hillsborough and tied virtually in rockingham now

[bjorn14]

Both candidates claim to be the conversatives in the race. Palin endorsed her and DeMint endorsed the other guy so who knows.

[US Navy Vet]

So it’s a Win-Win then.

[McGavin999]

We win either way in this one. Both are great conservatives. She’s pretty much endorsed by the establishment but the race being this close is bound to impress her with the fact that she’ll have to work hard to keep her place.

[Redleg Duke]

I voted for Kelly, but would be just as happy with Ovide.

Yes, a win-win.

[techno]

If Ayotte wins, I think it is safe to say she would NOT have won without the Palin endorsement.

[BigEdLB]

262 of 301 Precincts Reporting - 87%
Name Party Votes Vote %
Ayotte, Kelly GOP 47,302 39%
Lamontagne, Ovide GOP 45,638 37%
Binnie, Bill GOP 17,113 14%
Bender, Jim GOP 10,606 9%
Lamare, Dennis GOP 1,232 1%
Alciere, Tom GOP 444 0%
Beloin, Gerard GOP 345 0%

[CynicalBear]

Sounds like a win win to me. Lamontagne came up pretty fast but I thought Ayote polled well against the Dem didn’t she? Either one looks good to me.

[freeandfreezing]

Yes, its is a good thing. Both Mrs. Ayotte and Mr. Lamontagne are good solid conservative candidates, and any one of them is better than the Democrat. In his last state wide run Mr. Lamontagne did very poorly, and his campaign was not very well organized. By contrast Mrs. Ayotte seems to be better at organizing and pulling off a winning campaign. She also will be in a much better position to fend of attacks from the Democratic machine here, and that will help her win independent voters and get elected.

There are two conditions we need to have in our candidates

(1) They are conservative.

(2) They can win the general election.

In the latter category Mrs. Ayotte is the stronger candidate. She also shoots pretty well I hear, which we value up here.

[Beagle8U]

She is pro-gun and polls as the favorite to beat the RAT in Nov.She had the support of some of the TEA groups, but not all.

[andy58-in-nh]

It’s still too close to call, and several decent sized towns have not reported. Also, there was a voting glitch in my town that appears to have under-counted Lamontagne’s votes by 500. Don’t know whether that has been accounted for yet.

[kevkrom]

So it’s a Win-Win then.

Yeah, either is immensely preferably to Binnie, who is only scraping 14%.

Lamontagne is generally considered "less electable" than Ayotte in the general election, but I think you have to throw all of those labels out this year. It's all about turnout, and turnout is favoring conservatives.

[bvw]

Another win for Palin! That makes her 22(won)-11(lost) in decided races so far, at least as I counted the following map:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/special/politics/palin_tracker/

[ClearCase_guy]

So it’s a Win-Win then.

I agree -- but I've seen some in the media portray it as a "lose-lose":

Ayotte wins? "Tea Party loses steam! NH candidate Lamontaigne loses primary!"
Ayotte loses? "Tea Party loses steam! Palin's hand-picked candidate defeated by voters!"

[meadsjn]

This is a win across the board for Sarah Palin, and a smack-down loss for establishment RINOs and Mitt Romney.

Funny thing in NH: the establishment GOP supported Ayotte until Sarah endorsed her, which the establishment did not like. Then the NH GOP switched their support to Lamontagne and against Ayotte.

My guess is that the RINO establishment expected Ayotte to be a good tool for Romney’s primary in 2012, but not with Palin’s endorsement. Lamontagne had some connection to the Romney campaign in 2008 in NH.