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.”

Carol Shea-Porter: We owe them a vote

After 20 little innocents and six caring adults were gunned down at school in Newtown, Americans didn’t just grieve for the victims – they changed their minds about our gun laws. …

On television, solemn politicians vowed to do something to prevent the next tragedy. …

Action seemed imminent. Then, suddenly, something made many politicians freeze in their tracks. That something was the National Rifle Association. …

Who will win this battle? Will it be the people, the majority of whom want tighter gun laws, or will it be the NRA and their friends in Congress? We owe the victims of Newtown and the astounding 2,200 Americans who have been killed by guns since then more than posturing. We owe them a vote.

— New Hampshire Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter

Kuster charts a ‘bipartisan’ course

2nd District Congresswoman Ann Kuster is one of six House Agriculture Committee Democrats who voted with the Republican majority and approved legislation last week that would deregulate Wall Street derivatives.

Huffington Post reports the proposed legislation “would expand taxpayer support for derivatives and create broad new trading loopholes allowing banks to shirk risk management standards created by the 2010 Dodd-Frank bill:”

Prior to the vote, the top Democrat on the Agricultural Committee, Rep. Collin Peterson (D-Minn.), gave a speech warning that the legislation could repeat the deregulation debacles of the 1990s.

“You’re putting taxpayers on the hook…. At the time we did the Modernization Act, there were $80 billion in swaps, in derivatives. We gave ‘em legal certainty, we eliminated the regulation requirements, and it went to $700 trillion and it blew up on us. So just be careful: You can vote any way you want, but this could come back and haunt you.”

Kuster’s vote repeats a pattern of siding with House Republicans on key legislation.

Kuster, who represents the more Democratic of the the state’s two congressional districts, was one of 86 Democrats who crossed party lines in January and supported a Republican measure that tied a raise in the debt ceiling to congressional pay.

Kuster said she voted for the measure to “remove the immediate threat of default and ensure that America will continue to meet its obligations.” 1st District Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter voted against the bill. “The debt ceiling should not be tied to any political issue, no matter how desirable the goal may be,” she explained.

In February, Kuster again split with Shea-Porter and joined 43 Democrats who voted with the Republican majority to block a 0.5% pay raise for federal workers. “Leadership should concentrate on closing loopholes and reforming the tax code instead of shrinking middle class wages,” said Shea-Porter.

In a series of budget votes last week, Kuster was one of 35 Democrats who crossed the aisle and voted against the Senate Democratic budget and one of 28 who voted against the House Democratic budget. Kuster said the budget proposals did not “reflect the type of bipartisan compromise that New Hampshire families expect and deserve.”

Shea-Porter supported the Democratic budgets, noting they would “protect the middle class by investing in things like education, transportation, and research and development” and would “reduce the deficit in a balanced manner that closes tax loopholes, replaces sequestration’s irresponsible cuts, keeps our commitment to seniors, and cuts spending through a targeted and steady approach.“

Sabato rating: NH1 toss-up, NH2 leans Democratic

In its debut House ratings for the 2014 cycle, Larry Sabato’s Crystal Ball identifies New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District as one of just seven toss-up races.

That’s an improvement for Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter. In ratings updated just before the 2012 election, editor Kyle Kondik handicapped the race as “Leans Republican” and wrote that he favored incumbent Frank Guinta to “hang on” against Shea-Porter.

Congresswoman Ann Kuster is also listed as one of the 69 House members who is, at least potentially, vulnerable. The state’s 2nd Congressional District is rated as “Leans Democratic.”

Kuster kicks off 2014 campaign

Days after the 113th Congress was sworn in, the National Republican Campaign Committee identified 45 Democratic-held House seats as “potential targets” for Republican takeover in 2014. Both of New Hampshire’s seats were included.

Second district Congresswoman Annie Kuster wasted no time in responding. In a fundraising appeal, she asked supporters to help her kick off the 2014 campaign:

The NRCC announced Annie as one of their top 2014 targets. Stand with Annie while she is in Congress standing up for us. … Help us kick off the 2014 campaign today!

Shea-Porter: Common sense acts to fight gun violence

“It is time to stop bowing to special interests,” writes U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, “and talk about how we are going to protect the right to have guns for sport and for protection, and the right to be safe from gun violence.”

The first district congresswoman acknowledges an assault weapon ban will be politically challenging. Her list of “common-sense” legislation, she writes, should be easy:

The easiest step should be to require background checks for gun sales. This means gun sales involving most private sales, too. The majority of Americans support this plan. We also need to make sure that critical information is available when there is a background check. Records now are too often incomplete, and do not identify a buyer’s criminal history or a dangerous mental illness.

It is time to end high-capacity magazine sales. … I support banning magazines holding more than 10 rounds. This will help law enforcement and the public to disarm a mass shooter, and it will give people a better chance to escape a madman.

I support President Obama’s call to close loopholes in gun trafficking laws, and to beef up law enforcement in communities. Let’s also step up mental health services, and work together to encourage a reduction of violence in video games and television and movies. … Let’s get it done now. It has been a long and deadly wait.

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:

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.

Quote of the day: Absurd gyration

I’ve been telling you for years how shoddy UNH’s work is. Here’s a great recent example: Look at their trendlines in the NH-01 congressional race. In the last month alone, they’ve gone from showing Democrat Carol Shea-Porter up 9, then down 10 to GOP Rep. Frank Guinta, and now down 3. That’s an absurd gyration, and it just shows you they have no quality control.

— David Nir, Daily Kos political director, on the UNH Survey Center 

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.