NEW HAMPSHIRE WEEKLY / POLITICAL DIARY / LAURA A. KIERNAN

Rudman sends invite for politics over easy

By Laura A. Kiernan, January 31, 1999

Former US senator Warren Rudman of New Hampshire says he had a free morning yesterday so he planned to "have a nice breakfast" at the Holiday Inn in Manchester -- with US Senator John McCain of Arizona, a GOP presidential hopeful. And Rudman, who is co-chairman of McCain's exploratory committee, faxed out invitations to some Republican activists to join in.

Rudman wouldn't say who was coming. But House Speaker Donna Sytek of Salem, the highest-ranking Republican in the State House, said she got an invite along with deputy speaker Donnalee Lozeau of Nashua. Sytek, who supported former Tennessee governor Lamar Alexander in 1996, says it's a new field and she's unattached. Who's her favorite? "I don't have one yet," she said.

Here's how the ever blunt Rudman assesses some of the GOP field:

"Elizabeth Dole is seriously thinking about it . . . [Texas governor] George Bush is thinking about it . . . Lamar has been thinking about it for 18 years." And right now "no polls mean anything . . . it's wide open."

And what's Warren Rudman thinking about, well, Warren Rudman? His name has surfaced in presidential cycles past.

"Absolutely not. I will never seek elective office again," said Rudman, who is practicing law, on corporate boards and advising on foreign intelligence matters. "I like my freedom . . . I don't want a public life again."

Got that?

Democrat's remark ruffles feathers

"Probably the most insulting thing I ever heard anybody say." That was Democrat Bill Verge's reaction after he read incoming party chairman Kathy Sullivan's comment that Bill Bradley, the former US senator from New Jersey, needed to start lining up "second- and third-tier" party activists in New Hampshire to launch his presidential campaign.

The suggestion -- as Verge saw it -- is that all the party bigshots and experienced campaign workers have signed on with Vice President Al Gore, and the other candidates can have the leftovers. It's a spin that's beginning to irk some Democrats who think somebody else could have a fighting chance.

Sullivan, a Manchester lawyer who takes over the party apparatus next month, says she didn't intend to insult anybody -- especially Verge, whom she helped out when he ran, unsuccessfully, for Congress. But, she says, the fact is the majority of hard-cores are committed. She says she told Bradley herself, at a gathering at Lee Nyquist's law office in Manchester last week, that she would be neutral and that the party wasn't stacking the deck in favor of anybody.

Verge, the party's Rockingham County chairman, believes there is life beyond Gore -- and he's not even suporting Bradley. He's backing US Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, if he decides to run.

Verge says he's been talking to the Laconia Chamber of Commerce about having Kerry pay a visit in February.

Kerry wonders as he ponders

So what's Kerry been stewing about? How about whether can you beat an opponent (i.e. Gore) who is perceived to have the nomination in the bag? During a test run through New Hampshire last fall, Kerry asked Governor Jeanne Shaheen what convinced her to support then US Senator Gary Hart in the 1984 Democratic presidential primary. Now there was an upset -- Hart won over then Vice President Walter Mondale, the designated front-runner.

"He had ideas," Verge says Shaheen told Kerry about Hart. The former US senator from Colorado, the "issues candidate," Hart also had a skilled political strategist running his 1984 New Hampshire campaign -- Jeanne Shaheen. Unfortunately for Kerry in the 2000 presidential campaign, there's no doubt Shaheen will be on board with -- you got it -- the designated front-runner, Al Gore.

Kurk stays cool in the hot seat

You could tell some lawmakers and lobbyists were salivating last week when the House Finance Committee finally served up for questioning the man they call "the entree" in the debate about defining an "adequate" education -- a critical step in the state's education financing wars. He's the committee's own chairman, Representative Neal Kurk, the pinstripped Harvard-educated lawyer turned small college business professor whose powerful influence is always felt when it comes to deciding how state money is spent.

Brainy, brusque and respected, the Weare Republican was in the hot seat defending a special commission that decided, in a 5-4 vote, that $631 million would cover the yearly cost of an "adequate" education -- a calculation critics called arbitrary, capricious and laughable. Kurk, always firm, says the number is a "reasonable" estimate and starting point.

Democrats say House Republicans deliberately lowballed the number so they could cover it with existing revenues -- meaning no new taxes. They say $850 million is a realistic figure. But the GOP leadership says the $630 million figure would take New Hampshire out of the cellar for state spending on schools and move it up to 19th place.

Now, unless you've been spending all your time in the Polar Caves, you know the state Supreme Court said in the "Claremont" lawsuit that New Hampshire is obliged to provide an "adequate education" to all schoolkids. What that means and what it would cost is up to the Legislature. At the same time, the court said the state has to change the way it pays for schools, because relying almost exclusively on property taxes is unfair to poor towns.

During the standing room-only hearing, House finance committtee member Jean Wallin, a Concord Democrat, pushed Kurk, a member of the commission, on his role in the calculations.

"What is a Kurk adequate education?" she asked.

Kurk said he was only the "reporter" not the "creator" and then "respectfully" declined to answer.

"I just wanted to get him all rattled," Wallin said later. Other lawmakers prodded Kurk too, but he kept his studied cool.

Some GOP veterans sign on with Quayle

Former vice president Dan Quayle will be in southern New Hampshire on Feb. 11 and 12. Signing on for the 2000 presidential primary are former GOP candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne and his wife, Bettie, who will chair Quayle's statewide campaign. Brian Moushegian and Kelly Domaingue will be on the staff. And, Lamontagne says former governor John Sununu, who was the chief of staff to President George Bush, will be a national player for Quayle.

Don't expect stats when Bradley shoots

If Bill Bradley, former star of the New York Knicks, is going to continue to shoot hoops on the campaign trail, then the media hordes are going to have to improve their scoring technique.

By our count, nine still photographers and four videographers were lined up to capture Bradley's every shot during an appearance at the Concord Boys and Girls Club last week. But, sticklers for accuracy that they are, the reporters had to have a powwow when it came to figuring out how many shots Bradley had made or missed, how many were swishes or rim shots. The final numbers were inconclusive.

Baseball player is not interested

Concord's Bob Tewksbury, newly retired from professional baseball, was on hand to play with Bradley and the kids at the Boys and Girls Club -- as a member of the club's board of directors. Democratic party chairman Jeff Woodburn floated Tewksbury's name as a possible candidate for Congress, or even governor or Senate. "No, no," said Tewksbury, a registered independent, when asked about any such plans. He says he wants to go back to school and spend time with his family.