Guinta pays himself, empties campaign account

As he weighs options for his next run for political office, former Congressman Frank Guinta has emptied his campaign account, writing himself a $25,000 check in the process.

In paperwork filed with the Federal Election Commission, Guinta reports having just $148 left in his campaign account at the end of March. The former congressman paid himself $25,000 as partial repayment for personal loans to the campaign. Guinta has now paid back $66,500 of the $355,000 he loaned the campaign, leaving a loan balance of $288,500.

As former New Hampshire Republican Party chair Fergus Cullen noted previously, political candidates typically do not repay personal loans:

While many candidates loan personal funds to their campaigns, repayment is less common. Former Congressman Jeb Bradley and Governor John Lynch are among the New Hampshire candidates whose personal loans to campaigns were never repaid, in part to avoid the potential conflicts of interest that can arise when campaign contributions become personal payments.

Guinta has been dogged by ethics controversy since reporters first questioned the source of the funds he loaned his campaign. The First District Republican eventually amended financial disclosure reports and identified the source as a previously undisclosed bank account. Guinta blamed the omission on an “inadvertent oversight.”

Portsmouth Herald: Guinta’s short, unhappy tenure

In his final act, outgoing Republican Congressman Frank Guinta voted against the fiscal cliff legislation, claiming it “failed to include any meaningful spending cuts, increases our debt by trillions, and does nothing to promote pro-growth economic principles.”

In an editorial, the Portsmouth Herald looked back at Guinta’s “short, unhappy tenure” representing the state’s 1st congressional district and noted the vote “epitomizes his flawed thinking and the reason he failed to win a second term:”

Guinta thundered into office in a stampede of tea party emotion fueled by the public’s justified insecurity over our nation’s economic future. But Guinta failed to recognize that he had hitched his wagon to a team of wild horses that were doing far more damage than good. He somehow failed to recognize that the people of New Hampshire were no longer buying what the tea party had to sell.

In our meetings with the outgoing congressman, we have found him to be full of insights about politics but lacking an understanding of issues voters truly care about. Before deciding which office to seek next, we urge Guinta to do some soul searching about why he wants to seek another public office. Unless he learns to put serving and protecting the people of New Hampshire ahead of political ideology, we expect voters will reject him in future campaigns.

Roll Call: Frank Guinta ‘interested’ in U.S. Senate race

Publicly, 1st District Congressman Frank Guinta professes to be weighing his electoral options following his four point loss to Democrat Carol Shea-Porter. Privately, he appears to be greasing the skids for a U.S. Senate run against Sen. Jeanne Shaheen.

Roll Call has the story:

“My name comes up for Senate, House and governor,” Guinta told Roll Call Thursday in a phone interview. “Obviously, it’s nice to be thought of in that way. Quite frankly, at this point, it’s something that I will focus on sometime next year.”

But two well-placed New Hampshire GOP sources noted that Guinta, the former mayor of Manchester, expressed a particular interest in the Senate race….

Guinta emphasized that he thought it was too early to select a race, but said he plans to “see how things play out and keep options open.”

“I’m certainly going to take some time in 2013 to assess and make a determination at some point if I would run,” Guinta said.

That was then, this is now: Guinta and the Tea Party

2012. WMUR/Union Leader Granite State Debate:

Guinta said Shea-Porter has resorted to “name-calling” in an effort to undercut what he has accomplished. “This notion of labeling every Republican as a member of the tea party is ridiculous,” he said.

2010. Frank Guinta addressing a Tea Party rally in Dover:

NEC Poll: Obama up by 5, Guinta by 7, Kuster by 6

The latest New England College poll from the school’s Center for Civic Engagement is out with results for the Granite State’s presidential and congressional contests.

• President Obama leads Mitt Romney by a 49.5% to 44.4% margin. Last week, Obama led 49% to 46%. This is the fifth consecutive survey over the last seven days showing Obama with a lead.

• Congressman Frank Guinta has opened up a seven point lead over Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in the state’s 1st Congressional District. The incumbent leads his challenger 48% to 41%, with 9% undecided.

• In the more Democratic 2nd District, Democrat Annie Kuster leads Congressman Charlie Bass by a 47% to 41% margin. 11% are still undecided.

The results are based on automated calls using landlines and cellphones to 1017 likely voters with a +/- 3.7% margin of error and subsamples of 511 likely voters in the 1st and 2nd Congressional Districts with +/- 4.3% margins of error. The survey was conducted on October 29-31, 2012.

Frank Guinta’s ‘chilling’ anti-abortion extremism

Democrat Carol Shea-Porter today hit Congressman Frank Guinta over his endorsement from Susan B. Anthony List. The hardline anti-abortion political group today announced its endorsement of Guinta in his 1st District rematch with Shea-Porter:

Rep. Guinta has a 100 percent pro-life voting record and has also earned the endorsement of the National Right to Life Committee. Former Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter, has been endorsed by EMILY’s List, NARAL, and Planned Parenthood….

Shea-Porter noted while the National Right to Life Committee believes abortion should be permitted to prevent the death of the mother, Guinta has stated he would support an abortion ban with “no exceptions” if Roe v. Wade is repealed: 

Congressman Frank Guinta’s chilling position to let a woman die rather than a life threatening pregnancy is being “honored” with an endorsement from the Susan B. Anthony group. National Right to Life disagrees with Guinta’s extremism. They would let women live.

PPP NH-01: Guinta 48%, Shea-Porter 47%

A new poll from Public Policy Polling has Congressman Frank Guinta and Democrat Carol Shea-Porter in a virtual tie in their 1st District rematch. The survey, commissioned by the left-leaning CREDO SuperPAC, gives Guinta a one-point lead (48% to 47%) with 5% still undecided.

Public Policy Polling surveyed 654 likely Granite State voters on October 25-26, 2012. The poll has a +/-3.8% margin of error.

Rothenberg Report: N.H. House races “Pure Toss-Up”

The Rothenberg Political Report, a non-partisan newsletter covering campaigns and politics, changed its ratings for both New Hampshire congressional contests today to “Pure Toss-Up.”

The 1st District rematch between Congressman Frank Guinta and Democrat Carol Shea-Porter had been rated “Toss-Up/Tilt Republican.” The 2nd District race between Congressman Charlie Bass and Democrat Annie Kuster had been rated “Toss-Up/Tilt Democrat.”

Rothenberg Report projects a Democratic gain of two to eight U.S. House seats, short of the 25 seat pickup they need for a majority.

NY Times charts $2M in outside spending on NH-01

New York Times reporter Derek Willis points to New Hampshire’s 1st District Congressional race as one of the competitive House districts around the nation that has seen an explosion of outside spending driven by the proliferation of Super PACs.

In New Hampshire’s First District, for example, Representative Frank Guinta, a Republican, is trying to hold off a challenge from the woman he ousted in 2010, the Democrat Carol Shea-Porter. After a few relatively quiet weeks in early September, interest groups and national party committees spent nearly $2 million through Oct. 21 trying to influence voters. Most of the money was spent in the past two weeks.

Split decision for N.H. congressional delegation?

New Hampshire voters have not sent a Democrat and a Republican to the U.S. House in the same election since 1992, when the 1st District elected Republican Bill Zeliff and the 2nd District chose Democrat Dick Swett. But today, two national observers said that is a distinct possibility this year.

Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball makes a call in every single House race before Election Day. Editor Kyle Kondik made picks in their 14 remaining toss-up seats today, changing the rating for the 1st District to “Leans Republican” and the 2nd District to “Leans Democratic:”

New Hampshire’s schizophrenic politics makes deciphering elections there quite difficult, and the very close presidential and gubernatorial races are providing little top-of-the-ticket evidence of a partisan lean one way or the other in the Granite State. For most of the cycle, it has appeared that Rep. Charlie Bass (R, NH-2) was in worse shape than Rep. Frank Guinta (R, NH-1), and that in addition to the district fundamentals (Bass’s district is more Democratic than the first) is why we favor Bass to lose to Ann McLane Kuster (D) but Guinta to hang on against ex-Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D).

Meanwhile, Roll Call’s Abby Livingston claimed “Democrats are more confident about their prospects in the 2nd district, while Republicans are more upbeat about holding the 1st district:”

The reasons that many Granite State political observers are preparing for a split delegation are plenty. There is no national wave; as House race veterans, the candidates are already well-known and defined; both parties are overloading the television airwaves with political advertising; and polling indicates the presidential race is tightening.

Republicans are confident Romney will win Guinta’s 1st district, and Democrats share a similar confidence that Obama will carry Bass’ 2nd district.

In the 1st district especially, it is hard to imagine much crossover voting. Guinta and Shea Porter are often described as fierce partisans, and as a result, this is a district where the presidential contest will matter more than most.

Writing in the Guardian, Harry J. Enten is not convinced:

Any combination of House winners seem possible. Democrats could win both seats, Republicans could win both seats, Guinta could win but see Bass lose, or Shea-Porter could win with Kuster losing.

Frank Guinta: I don’t need the FDA (cont.)

At least ten New Hampshire residents have contracted fungal meningitis linked to contaminated steroid injections produced by a Massachusetts compounding pharmacy. The outbreak has prompted health advocates to call on Congress to grant the FDA the same authority to regulate the safety and efficacy of drugs produced by compounding pharmacies that they currently have over drug manufacturers.

Not on my watch, says New Hampshire Congressman Frank Guinta. Think Progress reports that during last week’s debate with Carol Shea-Porter, Guinta rejected the suggestion that the outbreak highlighted the need for FDA regulation of the pharmacies.

Guinta: If your question is do you need more regulation, I don’t think you need more. What you need is the existing regulatory agencies to actually do their jobs properly. We know what the basic rules are, what the basic laws are. They need to be utilized in such a way where the bad actors are identified.

We should not have been surprised that Guinta opposes FDA regulation. After all, when he first ran for Congress, he made his disdain for the FDA very clear:

Guinta: Don’t you want the Food and Drug Administration inspecting every single piece of food you eat? My answer is no. I can go buy fresh farm food from a New Hampshire farmer. I don’t need the FDA to make that transaction!

Shea-Porter garners newspaper endorsements

Portsmouth Herald:

In 2006 and 2008, the people of the First Congressional District sent Shea-Porter to Congress, and she was our advocate and ally. Our interests were her interests. She was swept out during the Republican tidal wave of 2010, but we firmly believe that the tide has turned and that the First District is once again ready for more reasonable and productive representation in Congress.

Conway Daily Sun:

[W]e solidly endorse Shea-Porter. We don’t want ObamaCare repealed, we don’t have a problem with rich people kicking in a few extra tax dollars, and won’t support Tea Party social conservatives who are in powerful enough political positions, like a congressman, to take away civil rights such as same-sex marriage and the right for women to choose.