NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY/ POLITICAL DIARY / LAURA A. KIERNAN

Chat with Clinton impresses activists

BY Laura A. Kiernan, February 28, 1999

Party activists in the first-in-the-nation primary state are used to being courted by the political high and mighty. They expect to be sought out and wooed. But, even some well-seasoned New Hampshire Democrats were still on a high last week about the private, 40-minute chat session they had with President Clinton during his recent visit. Others were just a little ga-ga.

The Democrats, many of whom pushed Clinton into a crucial second-place finish in the 1992 primary, were ushered up a back stairway at the Center of New Hampshire in Manchester, under tight security, and into a suite. They sat in a circle on couches and chairs. House Democratic leader Peter Burling and Cheshire County Democratic chairman Chris Coates sat on the floor. Clinton looked tired and thinner than some people remembered. But, said Coates "he has that persona about him . . . it was amazing just to see how he works."

"I mean, think about it, it was historic," said Keene Mayor Pat Russell, an old hand at local presidential politics. It was as if they were in somebody's living room, talking local issues, but with the most powerful man in the world. Clinton got up at one point in the conversation to get himself a Diet Coke. He autographed the cast on 13-year-old Jonathan Burling's broken wrist. During the conversation, when Clinton wanted to remember something, presidential aide Bruce Lindsey made a note of it. The mood was very relaxed. "I had to remember I was sitting there with the president of the United States," said former state representative Miriam Dunn of Concord.

Clinton arrived late -- as is his way -- and stayed longer than expected (this was the second of three small group meetings scheduled with Clinton at the hotel). White House staff asked Burling to stand up after 20 minutes and say it was time to move along, but when he did, the look on Clinton's face said not yet.

"He was in no rush," Russell said. "He truly loved it."

There were about a dozen people in the room including Russell's husband, state Representative Ronnie Russell, Tom Britton of Troy, Greg Martin of Keene and Stephanie Powers, an early Clinton supporter now in Washington, state Senator Sylvia Larsen of Concord, Jean Hennessey and deputy Democratic leader Sharon Nordgren, both of Hanover and state Representative Alfred (Gus) Lerandeau of Swanzey. State Senate President Clesson (Junie) Blaisdell of Keene made his case right to Clinton about cutbacks in federal housing subsidies for the elderly in Keene; Larsen explained the need for more federal money for special ed.

The only remote reference to you-know-what was made by Clinton, and all he said was that he hoped that after the past year, Hillary Clinton would take her time deciding whether to run for US Senate in New York.

"You get past it," said Nordgren, "and you go on with your life, and that's what I think we are doing."

Politics launches into cyberspace

We now know why Governor Jeanne Shaheen's son-in-law, Craig Welch, was seen among the crowd at the Elizabeth Dole coming out party in Manchester. He was not a Democratic spy. He's getting ready to play "politics in cyberspace."

Welch left his State House job as volunteerism coordinator in December to develop what he describes as an "electronic whistle stop" for a venture called "Sirius Media." The address is www.Primarydiner.com and it's meant to be New Hampshire style retail-politiking on the Internet. Think Bill Bradley in a chat room, or Lamar Alexander on live video. It would be interactive, meaning you could be home in your jammies while quizzing a candidate. Welch says the site is meant to be a resource for the media, political activists and savvy voters. It should be up and running by spring.

And onetime Seabrook antinuclear protester Kurt Ehrenberg, a longtime political activist and consultant around New Hampshire, is in on the cyberspace act too now. He's producing a page, PoliticalJunkie.com. It's a bottomless pit of political information, providing links to more than 1,000 Web sites. Much of the info is free, some not. PoliticalJunkie will link you to a Web page for a daily political update called The Hotline. But if you want to read it, you have to subscribe, for $4,649 a year.

Candidate's name sounds familiar

We doth protest too soon (last week) about the lack of daughters with well-known names running for office. Manchester's Donna Soucy, wearing a rhinestone "Hillary" pin, was seen making the rounds at the Clinton event at the National Guard Armory -- fliers were on all the right tables, announcing she is running for mayor. Soucy, 31, is no novice in Democratic politics: her father, Arthur Soucy, was an alderman and her late mother, Lillian, was a much loved member of the House. Donna Soucy herself is a former state legislator and former member of the Manchester Board of Aldermen.

Soucy says she will announce her candidacy in mid-April. Incumbent Mayor Ray Wieczorek, a Republican, is expected to run for a sixth term. West High school principal Bob Baines, also a Democrat, has announced his plans to run in the nonpartisan September primary.

Room for one more at Lincoln dinner

From the ever-expanding list of ambitious Republicans floating around New Hampshire: New York Governor George Pataki will be the guest speaker at the March 18 Lincoln Day dinner sponsored by the Manchester Republican Committee. Organizer Bobbi Arnold says the requests for tickets have been coming in before the invites were ready.

Impeachment vote spurs her to run

On the Seacoast, there will be a new Democratic candidate in the 1st Congressional District race, she's just not sure when. Katharine Paine, 46, the founder of the Delahaye group, a media research firm in Portsmouth, says she decided to run after she watched the impeachment vote, which she says "had everything to do with following party dictatorships." She says she is proof that Republicans will face a backlash at election time. She says, however, she hasn't decided whether to run in 2000 or two years later.

Democrats of course are anxious for a candidate to make a run against Republican incumbent John Sununu, who faced only token opposition last fall. Paine, who lives in Durham on a farm her family has held since 1900, says she is not deterred by Sununu's name or by the big bucks he can raise as an incumbent.

"My feeling is it's a new era, a new century and all the old rules aren't going to apply," Paine said. Anyway, she says, so far nobody has told her she would be crazy to try it.

Gore campaign attracts old hands

On the political personality parade: Expect Charlie Baker, who ran Massaschusetts Governor Michael Dukakis's campaign here in 1988, and Chuck Campion, who ran Walter Mondale's 1984 campaign, to be heavily involved in Vice President Al Gore's New Hampshire effort. Baker, Campion and Michael Whoulley run the Dewey Square Group, a Boston-based consulting firm. Nick Baldick, who spent eight months here for Clinton in 1996 and then ran the Florida campaign, is expected to be on the ground again here for Gore.

Financial disclosure is low on the list

New Hampshire flunks the test when it comes to requiring public officials to disclose information about their financial holdings, according to the Center for Public Integrity in Washington. We ranked 44th on the list when it comes to giving the public the facts it needs about its lawmakers and possible conflicts of interest. Half the states got a failing grade from the center, which tries to get the nation worked up about campaign finance reform and financial disclosure. But it's tough to compete for attention with sex scandals.

Anway, New Hampshire is the only state that doesn't require lawmakers to identify all their investments, and we are one of only 19 states that don't require them to disclose property holdings.