With election nearing, Sununu enjoying the benefits of incumbency

Call it one of the perks of being an incumbent.

From Wolfeboro to Tamworth to North Conway, Gov. Chris Sununu spent Thursday touring through Carroll County and hearing from local business owners.

While the governor’s office listed the trip as part of Sununu’s duties as governor, the stops got him out among potential Granite State voters with less than four months to go until he’s up for re-election for a second two-year term in the corner office.

“One of the nice things about being an incumbent governor is the line, so to speak, between campaigning and governing can be pretty fuzzy,” University of New Hampshire political science professor Dante Scala said.

Since officially filing for re-election in mid-June, Sununu hasn’t held any traditional campaign-style events other than marching in Laconia’s July 7 parade to celebrate the city’s 125th anniversary. And for good reason: New Hampshire’s first GOP governor in a dozen years really doesn’t have to right now.

“If I’m Sununu, sitting on really good (poll) numbers, both personally and in terms of what people think about how the economy’s doing, about how New Hampshire’s doing, I don’t need to be in full-out campaign mode,” Scala said. “I can be getting my name out there in a way that’s in keeping with being governor of New Hampshire.”

Friday morning, another official government duty brought Sununu to Salem, the town where he grew up. The governor was there to swear in the town’s former fire chief, Paul Parisi, as New Hampshire’s new state fire marshal.

But Sununu’s gubernatorial duties aren’t just getting him exposure on hand-shaking jaunts around the state – sometimes all he has to do is put pen to paper. Sununu is getting his message out and grabbing media attention through high-profile bill-signing ceremonies, another perk of incumbency.

The governor was surrounded by cameras as he signed an extension of the state’s Medicaid expansion program into law in late June in Manchester. The measure enjoyed bipartisan support.

Less than two weeks later, the governor was once again in the spotlight, this time at the Portsmouth Fire Department as he signed into law a bill providing funding for firefighters diagnosed with cancer.

Sununu will likely have more to celebrate on Wednesday, when state lawmakers meeting in a special session are likely to pass a measure that would set up roadblocks to discourage other states from collecting sales taxes from New Hampshire businesses that sell goods online.

The governor called for the special session following last month’s South Dakota v. Wayfair ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ended a longtime ban on collecting online sales tax across state lines, even in New Hampshire and the four other states without sales taxes.

Sununu’s crusade to protect New Hampshire’s businesses from the Supreme Court ruling is garnering bipartisan support, too, especially after the 12 Republicans and five Democrats on the special committee worked hand in hand to hammer out the measure that will be voted on in the House and Senate on Wednesday.

This past week, the governor also received some good economic news, as officials reported that New Hampshire’s unemployment rate remained at a low 2.7 percent in June.

Sununu took to Twitter to tout that “more than 735,540 New Hampshire residents are employed in the Granite State – the most in our state’s history. We are open for business and getting the job done.”

Molly Kelly, one of the two Democrats running to challenge Sununu in November’s election, said the governor is missing some important points.

“The economy is not good for everyone,” she said. “What I want for New Hampshire is an economy that works for everyone and not just a few. We have 44,000 children in New Hampshire who are food-insecure. I want to take care of that. I don’t think the economy is working for them or their families.”

The Democrat from Harrisville, who served 10 years in the state Senate, also raised concerns that businesses “are looking for a good, prepared and skilled workforce, and we’re not able to provide that.”

Kelly made her comments during a campaign event Thursday at Throwback Brewery in North Hampton. Kelly stopped at the brewery, which receives half of its power from solar energy, to criticize Sununu’s recent vetoes of two renewable energy bills.

Kelly described last month’s move by Sununu as “our governor putting a wet blanket on moving forward with renewable energy.”

In explaining his vetoes of the bills – which were designed to subsidize development of biomass and solar energy – the governor cited their expected cost and said they’d move New Hampshire “in exactly the wrong direction.”

Sununu said that the two bills would cost electric ratepayers approximately $110 million over the next three years in higher costs, which he said would be a financial burden on businesses and on people on fixed incomes, such as seniors.

Kelly and former Portsmouth mayor Steve Marchand, her rival for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination, also spent last week continuing to criticize Sununu for his signing a controversial measure into law July 13 – House Bill 1264 – which imposes voter residency requirements in New Hampshire.

And Sununu was also targeted by Democrats in recent days after not speaking out against President Donald Trump’s performance during Monday’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki.

Trump was blistered by bipartisan condemnation of his embrace of Putin during a news conference, as well as for discounting U.S. intelligence by saying that he saw no reason to believe Russia had interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Kelly and Marchand will face off in the Sept. 11 primary.

Expect Sununu to enter full campaign mode once he knows which Democrat he’ll face in November’s election.

In an interview last month with the Monitor and WKXL radio, Sununu touted his poll numbers and said that he was ready to hit the campaign trail.

“This is the Democrats’ worst fear. I’m one of the most popular governors in the country and I haven’t even started campaigning on all the success we’ve had yet,” he said.

And Sununu says he loves the job.

“I have a lot of passion for what I do,” he said. “I have a lot of passion, and I’m excited.”

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https://www.concordmonitor.com/Governor-Sununu-enjoys-the-perks-of-being-the-incumbent-18992068