For better or for worse, she is running with him until election day. Globe:
In addition to formally endorsing House Speaker Paul Ryan, Trump on Friday evening also threw his support behind Arizona Sen. John McCain and New Hampshire Sen. Kelly Ayotte, with whom he has sparred. Trump says, ‘‘We have to unite.’’
Since she already has the New Hampshire Republicans it is hard to see how this will help her attract independents or Democrats. Instead, it effectively makes her the political partner of the Gold Star parents-defaming, secret-tape imagining candidate.
Please share widely!
Today’s column:
“I’m going to marry the guy, but do not intend to … “
You’ll go ahead and take the person to the prom, but not committing any further to that person.
Maybe it’s all the time I’ve spent working on campaigns, but to me the distinction is very clear and logical. “Support” is something any private citizen can do and an elected official can do as a private citizen. Therefore, Ayotte can cast her own vote for Trump, maybe even donate from her personal funds or display a yard sign or bumper sticker. “Endorse” is something that elected officials or institutions do in their public capacity. Actions backing that up would include Ayotte stumping for Trump, giving him access to her database, and contributing to his campaign from her campaign account. I suppose the distinction is clearer with institutions. For example, Wayne LaPierre as an individual can SUPPORT candidates, but the NRA would ENDORSE them. The analogy would be that Ms. Kelly Ayotte, citizen, would support, but SENATOR (and candidate for re-election) Kelly Ayotte would endorse. The former is a natural person, whereas the latter is the office.
If you think of endorsement as some kind of public official action, your logic makes sense.
But anyone can endorse. It’s more meaningful if the person has more stature, but that person need not be elected. Could be a former judge/pol/military official. Could be an organization. Could be a well liked person.
As of a MassINC poll published August 1st Hassan is leading Ayotte 50-40%.
HuffPo/Pollster, RealClearPolitics, FiveThirtyEight.com and most other such sites use polling aggregates; sometimes augmented by models, sometimes not.
The HuffPo/Pollster aggregate (linked to here) includes the MassINC survey under the heading “Latest Polls”.
I was focusing on the trendlines before and thought I know it’s not that close anymore.
I think there is a subset of voters that will be voting against Trump and will use their Senate votes to vote against Clinton too. Kirk is done, and Portman is starting to look like he’s in trouble. I think Ayotte and Toomey will come down to the wire. I think Maggie Hassan is a future president so I hope she wins.
…especially now that Trump has put his seal of approval on Ayotte whether she wanted it or not.
Ayotte, and others in downballot races, have plenty of room to maneuver between now and election day. They can, among other things, argue that they will be the best counterweights to Clinton and the hated democrats.
I’m not saying it isn’t awkward for these folks, but it’s not a slam dunk either.
And it worked for them when Dole was a goner. Dole was also an honorable war hero, and not a total piece of shit like Trump.
But the Times had a good outline of the downballot implications. Its bad enough Ryan is telling the Kochs he might lose the House.
We are seeing the Ayotte ads because we are in the NH media market, and the latest boils down to – This is ridiculous, we KNOW Ayotte – these claims from the democrats are bullshit! And she has a track record of working with others – think MAGGIE would do that?
The more apocalyptic and strained the claims that Ayotte will mind meld with Trump are, the better she does.
…in a state with GOP control of other branches. That should answer your question. Ayotte’s record speaks for itself and it’s not good.
and Hassan would be able to go further left as a Senator than as NH Governor. She’s really hampered by the budget (not much money in NH) as well at the NH legislature.
All Federal officeholders in purple NH get challenged at the end of their first term and they have a hard path threading the ideology needle. Carpetbagger Brown almost beat Shaheen. Shaheen beat Sunnu. The state has lots of Bernie and Trump lovers. How do you play to them without losing the middle?
Probably will come down to how people are feeling on election day.