Gregg Will Back Bush In Primary

By Jill Zuckman, Globe Staff, April 7, 1999

Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire will throw his support behind Governor George W. Bush of Texas, sources said yesterday, ending the competition for the most coveted prize in the state's GOP presidential endorsement game.

Besides receiving Gregg's backing, which may be made official as early as tomorrow, Bush is expected to win the help of Gregg's chief of staff, Joel W. Maiola, to run his New Hampshire operation. And Barbara Russell resigned as assistant chairwoman of the state Republican party yesterday to back Bush. Russell is expected to work with Maiola to organize the state for Bush.

Gregg could not be reached for comment yesterday, but he has said previously that he would be intimately involved in whichever campaign he decided to endorse. Most of the Republican candidates for president have wooed Gregg with intensity, and at one point, Gregg said he felt like a priest at a confessional, as each sought his guidance.

Within Republican circles, Gregg is known as "the big dog," because he has a skilled field organization that he has tended to assiduously over his 20-year political career.

"Not only do people look to him, but a lot of people in the state have worked for him in a campaign," said Will Abbott, who was former President Bush's political director for the 1988 New Hampshire primary.

Despite attempts by other candidates to latch onto Gregg, his decision to support Bush is not surprising. His ties to the Bush family are longstanding and well known.

In 1980, when Gregg was a freshman congressman, he ran Bush's father's New Hampshire field operation, in the year he lost the presidential campaign to Ronald Reagan. Gregg's father, former Governor Hugh Gregg, was the campaign chairman. Both Greggs also supported the former president in 1988 and 1992.

In another Republican camp, Lamar Alexander is moving his political operation from Nashville to New Hampshire in an effort to energize his efforts in the state.

Thomas D. Rath, Alexander's principal adviser and chief backer in the state, and Brian Kennedy, Alexander's national political director, will announce the move today in Concord.

"I think it's really going to enable us to respond well to what we need to do out here," Rath said in an interview yesterday.

The change sounds more dramatic than it is. Only two campaign workers will move to the state, working out of a leased office in Manchester. Alexander's press office, finance team and administrative staff will remain in Nashville.