NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY / POLITICAL DIARY

Looks like Howard might consider run

By Laura Kiernan, Globe Correspondent, April 4, 1999

Laura Kiernan can be reached by e-mail at kiernan(at sign)globe.com

Is former New Hampshire attorney general Jeffrey Howard getting ready to run for something? Howard, who now practices law in Manchester, says he was just visiting with old friends at the Cheshire County Republicans Lincoln Day dinner last weekend (he was their guest speaker last year). And the week before, Howard, who was AG under former governor Stephen Merrill, says he just took up Sullivan County GOP chairman Beverly Rodeschin's longstanding invitation to attend their dinner. Howard says there's no political hay to make out of his social schedule, but he was not dodging questions about whether he's interested in an elected office -- say governor.

"I'd have an interest in that office if I thought I could be helpful," Howard told us. "I believe that based on my experience with state and federal government that I may have something to offer the people of New Hampshire."

Rodeschin, a former state lawmaker, says she told Howard, "You've got to meet people and see how they feel," and so she introduced him around at the events. "Jeff didn't ask me," she said. "I just did it for him."

Howard says no one from the GOP hierarchy has talked to him, but business leaders have approached him in the past several weeks. Howard, also a former US attorney, had to keep out of partisan politics while he was on the government's payroll. But now, things are different. "I'm starting to take a look at the issues facing the state to see if I can be helpful," he said.

McCain believes he will stand out

US Senator John McCain of Arizona -- who plans to make his presidential campaign official Tuesday in Bedford -- closed out a day-long visit to New Hampshire last week with about 40 voters at the American Legion Jutras Post in Manchester. A former US Navy fighter pilot who spent more than five years in a POW camp in Vietnam, McCain talked tough on Kosovo, said twice that women have to get the message that the GOP is an "inclusive" party, and guaranteed his audience that when elected president, "I will never do anything to embarrass you."

McCain has a military pilot's low-key self-confidence and he can tell a joke well enough to draw applause. During a radio interview, he hummed a few bars of "Hail to the Chief" and quipped to one listener that he had started to doze off. Mostly McCain is politely straightforward, a smoother version of his ever-direct supporter, former US senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire.

In a crowded field with some well-heeled competitors (read Steve Forbes and George W. Bush), McCain, who has fought for campaign finance reform, says confidently that he will have the money he needs to run. Asked how he plans to distinguish himself from the long list of other Republicans either in the race or thinking about it, McCain simply looked us in the eye.

"Do you think I'm like them?" he asked.

And Jimmy Carter once slept there

When Democratic activist Debby Butler in Concord asked attorney Martin Gross if his home would be available for a "small gathering" for Vice President Al Gore last weekend, Gross just wanted to make sure she meant "small." Back in January 1992, more than 160 people jammed into Gross's stately Victorian to meet then Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. "He was very accommodating," said Butler. "There are a lot of shenanigans" when a sitting vice president wants to pay a visit.

In fact, over the years, Gross, a former mayor of Concord, and his late wife, Caroline, a much-admired Republican House leader, often welcomed politicians into their home. Jimmy Carter slept there, former Delaware governor Pete DuPont and Elizabeth Dole (appearing for her husband, Bob) have visited, as well as Walter Mondale when he was testing the waters in 1974. Gore was there during the 1988 primary campaign. He was Then a US senator from Tennessee making a short-lived run for the White House.

The host provides coffee and danish

Martin Gross was an early Gore supporter back then, along with Butler, attorney Kate Hanna, Andrea Goldberg, former Democratic gubernatorial hopeful Ned Helms of Concord, and John Lynch of Hopkinton, who was a 1988 campaign cochair. On board this time with them is Shireen Tilley (a top aide to former congressman Dick Swett), former GOP state senator Susan McLane and daughter Ann Kuster, a Concord attorney.

As is customary on the political house party circuit (or so we're told), the host paid for the coffee and danish, got the house cleaned and rearranged the furniture. In this case, Gross also showed the Secret Service and its dog around the house (every drawer in the place was searched).

"It's fun," Gross said about his role as party host. (Last weekend drew about 70 people.) "It's the highest form of New Hampshire junkie-ism."

Gore's not ready to make any lists

Just before he sat down for dinner with Carroll County Democrats in Conway last weekend, a reporter asked Gore if Governor Jeanne Shaheen was on his short list of potential vice presidential running mates. Gore suggested such a thing was a tad premature, considering he hadn't won a single primary yet. "I'm respectful of the voters here so much that I'm not going to presume to put together a list short or long until I've earned the right to do it," he said.

And one more thing: Our sources tell us that the vice president will be the commencement speaker at the University of New Hampshire on May 22.

House members got their chance to vote

Little more than three weeks after the House rocked history and passed an income tax bill by four votes, and just five days after an amended version was shoved through the Senate (where it failed at first), the bill came back to the House for approval, and, as expected, crashed. In the House chamber, it was clear this train had really lost its steam. Lawmakers seemed anxious to get it over with; the vote was perfunctory, compared to the excitement that filled the hall as the first vote neared. The 211-168 vote -- executed (even with testimony) in under 45 minutes -- sent the bill packing into legislative limbo.

After all the hoopla about tax history in the making, why the reversal of fortune? State Representative Liz Hager, a Concord Republican, blamed Shaheen's repeated veto threat for the change. Others think that after the state Supreme Court nixed plans for a public referendum on the income tax, some House supporters backed off. All but a handful of Republicans stuck with their first vote in favor of the income tax bill: but this time 27 Democrats voted against it -- 20 more than the first time.

On the Senate side, only one Republican, Jim Squires of Hollis, voted for the bill the first time, and it was defeated. But it became painfully clear that if they wanted to get any other tax ideas moving, flexible moderates would have to appease entrenched pro-income tax Democrats and give them one more shot in the House on the income tax. So, the bill finally passed in the Senate after a contentious day of failed negotiation. Joining Squires this time were Republicans Rick Russman of Kingston, Leo Fraser of Pittsfield and Fred King of Colebrook.

Who has time for all of this?

The strain of being a volunteer lawmaker began to show the day of the second income tax vote, when Russman, a lawyer, balked at a suggestion that the Senate work an extra day. Russman said he had a "real job," that he had to try a case and was not coming into Concord. The vote was taken late that night and Russman made it to court the next day.

"I did it for tactical reasons," he said later. "It was the only way to move anything forward."

One more lawmaker backs King holiday

In January, when The Boston Globe surveyed House members about their support for a Martin Luther King Day Holiday, freshman state lawmaker Michael Blaisdell of Keene was one of three undecided Democrats. Supporters only needed two of those votes to finally get the measure passed in the House.

Now, Blaisdell, the son of Senate President Clesson "Junie" Blaisdell, tells us he will support the holiday. Blaisdell says when he ran for election, he favored the holiday, but once in office, he wanted to hear from his constituents.

"Overwhelmingly, they were in favor,' Blaisdell said.