Big names on right won’t sway N.H. voters, Senate hopeful says

Endorsements from Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) and Sarah Palin won’t sway
New Hampshire’s “famously independent” voters, according to Senate
candidate Bill Binnie (R).

“I have great faith in the average New Hampshire voter just to look through it,” he told The Ballot Box.

{mosads}DeMint
announced Friday he was backing Senate candidate Ovide Lamontagne, a
staunch conservative who was the GOP nominee for governor in 1996.
Palin announced in July she’s supporting former Attorney General Kelly
Ayotte, the frontrunner for the GOP nomination.


Binnie said the involvement of national Republicans and outside groups has shifted the focus to social issues.

“The
social issues have emerged, obviously with Jim DeMint and Sarah Palin
entering the race, they have focused on those types of social issues
and made an issue out of it but I certainly have not,” said Binnie, who
calls himself “socially moderate” and supports abortion rights.

His positions prompted death threats, he told a New Hampshire
newspaper, and inspired several conservative groups to campaign against
him.

Binnie has been hammered in TV ads by Cornerstone Action, a
pro-life advocacy group, and the National Organization for Marriage,
which said the businessman was “excited about imposing gay marriage on
New Hampshire.”

Binnie said he’s not worried about losing the socially conservative
vote. “I think that this really is a referendum not on social issues
but on the economy,” he said.

“I definitely think there’s a
fight for the right side of the party between Kelly and Ovide,” he
added. “The good news for me is that we have a very moderate and
fiscally conservative Republican wing of the party, that’s certainly
going to be my base.”

Secretary of State Bill Gardner has estimated 152,000 Republicans
would vote in the nomination contests for senator, governor and the
state’s two congressional seats. Independents are also allowed to vote
in the state’s GOP primary.

“That may add a whole new dimension that is not very [apparent in] the polls,” Binnie said.

A
recent survey by Magellan Data and Mapping Strategies had Ayotte
getting 34 percent of the vote, Lamontagne at 21 percent and Binnie in
third with 17 percent of the vote.

Businessman Jim Bender (R) rounded out the field with 13 percent.

The
results were based on 887 interviews of likely Republican and
independent primary voters, and had a margin of error of plus or minus
3.3 percent.

Binnie was in second place in a May survey, but he launched an
aggressive ad campaign against Ayotte in August, which some observers
have speculated cost him support.

Ayotte eventually responded
with her own tough ad that accused Binnie of supporting “more bailouts;
higher taxes; false attacks.”

“That’s liberal Bill Binnie,” the announcer said at the close of Ayotte’s ad.

The
aggressive exchanges between Binnie and Ayotte promoted John Sununu,
New Hampshire’s GOP chairman, to call for cooler heads ahead of the
Sept. 14 primary.

Binnie has put more than $5.25 million of his own money into his
campaign, but said he’ll have no hard feelings if he loses on Tuesday.

“I
would be honored to support whoever wins out of my primary and I expect
the same from the people that I’m running against,” he said.