Sununu sees 'wide-open' GOP presidential primary; recount-a-palooza begins

Don't miss these highlights:

🧮 Recount-a-palooza might decide balance of NH House.

🏁 This could be the voter confidence committee's finish line.

📺 Sununu sees a "wide-open" 2024 presidential primary.

⛔ Giuliani invitation prompts pro-democracy kibosh.

🧮 Here come 16+ recounts

Republicans appear to have won a very narrow 203-197 majority in the NH House, but recounts have the potential to shift that partisan balance.

Sixteen recounts in state rep races have been scheduled for this week, and more may be added to the schedule. Candidates have until 5 p.m. on Monday to petition for a recount.

Here's a quick overview of what could happen:

• Monday, Nov. 14 – Four recounts are on the schedule. Three could help Republicans; one could help Democrats. The recount to watch is Rockingham 5, where the Republican incumbent lost by 7 votes.
• Tuesday, Nov. 15 – Four recounts are on the schedule. Three could help Democrats; one could help Republicans. The two to watch are Rockingham 1, where a Democrat lost by 5 votes, and Coos 7, where a Democratic incumbent lost by 4 votes.
• Wednesday, Nov. 16 – Four recounts are on the schedule. Two could help Democrats; one could help Republicans; the other involves two Democrats, so it would likely not affect the partisan makeup of the NH House. The big recount to watch is in Strafford 8, where a Democratic incumbent lost by 1 vote.
• Thursday, Nov. 17 – Two recounts are on the schedule. Both could help Democrats. The recount to watch is in Hillsborough 42, where a Democrat lost by 3 votes.
• Friday, Nov. 18 – Two recounts are on the schedule. One could help Republicans; the other involves two Republicans, so it would likely not affect the partisan makeup of the NH House. The recount to watch is in Sullivan 8, where a Republican lost by 3 votes to another Republican in a four-way race.

For a full rundown of whose races will be recounted when, see Friday's memo:

4 towns pass post-election spot audit; recounts next week in 16+ state rep races

Republicans appear to have won a very narrow NH House majority. Recounts might change that.

Granite MemoSteven Porter

🏁 Voter confidence finish line?  

The Special Committee on Voter Confidence is scheduled to meet Wednesday for what could conclude the group's work.

• The committee has been drafting a final report that includes findings and recommendations, as well as a summary of the testimony collected during a series of meetings over the summer.
• A draft report reviewed earlier this month by Granite Memo included unvetted claims presented without context, discussion, analysis or rebuttal.
• Multiple committee members said they believe the draft's summary of testimony included unreliable information.
• The group discussed possibly moving the summary of testimony from the body of the report to an appendix and beefing up a disclaimer.

The committee's meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in Room 202 of the Legislative Office Building, 33 North State Street in Concord.

Unvetted claims folded into NH voter confidence draft report: ‘It really does scare us to our core’

Some committee members and observers said the report, if left in its current form, will blur the line between what the public said and what the committee concluded.

Granite MemoSteven Porter

📺 Sununu sees 'wide-open' presidential primary

Gov. Chris Sununu has been making the rounds on Sunday morning TV shows lately, visiting the Big Three broadcast networks over the past three weeks. He was on NBC's "Meet the Press" with Chuck Todd two weeks ago, CBS's "Face the Nation" with Margaret Brennan one week ago, and ABC's "This Week" with George Stephanopoulos on Sunday.

With each appearance, Sununu has been asked about what he expects from the 2024 presidential campaign season, including whether he has plans of his own to run. Each time, he has acknowledged the question as a form of flattery but emphasized his current job. "I've got a state to run," he told Stephanopoulos.

Three noteworthy interview moments:

1. Unprompted nod to "extremism." The first question from Stephanopoulos asked how Sununu sailed to reelection while Don Bolduc lost his race to Democratic incumbent Sen. Maggie Hassan by a wide margin. In his response, Sununu said candidate quality matters, and he used the word "extremism" four times. He said there's extremism on both sides of the aisle, and he said the results from Tuesday's election showed a "rejection of extremism."
2. Broad call for GOP moderation. Sununu said Joe Biden was "the most moderate" presidential candidate on the Democratic side in 2020. "America has been asking for more moderation for quite some time. There's just certain parts of the Republican Party that haven't listened so well," he said. "We've just got to get back to basics. It's not unfixable. We've just got to get back to basics." Sununu said the GOP should have moved on from election denialism immediately after the 2020 election. (Sununu backed the full slate of GOP nominees in 2022, including those who denied the 2020 election results.)
3. Unlikely he'll back Trump. Stephanopoulos asked Sununu whether he can see "any circumstance" in which he'd support former President Donald Trump's candidacy in 2024. "Not really," Sununu replied. "Because I think there's going to be a lot of great candidates out there. I'm excited to see who runs for president on both sides. I don't think Joe Biden is running. I think it's going to be a wide-open race on the Republican side. I think everybody who wants to get in is going to get in. That's a good thing. That's a great thing. You see new ideas."

Sununu was also asked about his presidential aspirations in an interview Friday with Adam Sexton for WMUR's CloseUp. The interview aired in full on Sunday. Sununu said his focus is on New Hampshire, even as he shares New Hampshire's successes with the country. "I have no intention of running for president," he said. "I really don't."

Nonetheless, Sununu is listed as a featured speaker — alongside FL Gov. Ron DeSantis and at least six other potential GOP presidential candidates — for the Republican Jewish Coalition's Annual Leadership Meeting, which will kick off Friday in Las Vegas.

By the way: Trump, who isn't listed among the RJC's featured speakers, is expected to announce Tuesday that he's running for another term as president.

⛔ Event canceled over Rudy Giuliani invite

The executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College isn't putting up with Rudy Giuliani's anti-democratic ackamarackus.

When Neil Levesque learned that the former New York City mayor and close ally of former President Donald Trump had been invited to join him and others for an election-related panel discussion Friday at the institute, Levesque put his foot down.

Levesque said he personally wouldn't participate in the event with Giuliani and the institute wouldn't host the discussion.

"We chose not to provide a platform for an individual who has actively worked to undermine the integrity of our elections," Levesque said in a statement released Saturday to Granite Memo. The institute "is in the democracy business," he said.

Giuliani has been described as "a lead architect" of Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election results. ... [Read the full story:]

Why Rudy Giuliani isn’t welcome at NH Institute of Politics

The institute “is in the democracy business,” its leader said.

Granite MemoSteven Porter

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