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From a political standpoint, the issue of gas prices is different. It just is.

Issues like abortion or the baby formula crisis are important. But when gas prices go to $5 a gallon and head toward $6 a gallon, it impacts every one of us, directly or indirectly. It doesn’t matter what kind of vehicle you drive or how much driving you do, because gas prices make inflation worse.

And when you go to pay, and you don’t have enough money to put gas in your vehicle to drive the kids around or go grocery shopping, it makes everything worse. But Washington just doesn’t get it.

President Joe Biden keeps talking about ‘Big Oil.’ There’s talk about price gouging. There’s talk about unused leases.

If that’s the case, if the Big Oil companies really do have the power to solve this problem, why isn’t this White House sitting down with them? Even if they don’t like the oil companies politically, why don’t they sit down and say, ‘We need more oil and gas, we need more production, what can we do to get it done?”

Instead, the Biden administration is going to crawl to Saudi Arabia to beg them to produce more oil for us. I have to say, having the president go to the Saudis is probably not in our best national security interest.

In fact, I’ll go a step further. It’s un-American. I’m embarrassed that the President of these United States is going to Saudi Arabia to kiss the ring of the kingdom so we can get more oil.

I’m not saying we haven’t taken their oil b before. I’m not saying it’s not part of the mix. I’m saying the same president of the United States could spend less money on Air Force One and, instead of the Middle East, he could go to Western Pennsylvania or Colorado or North Dakota and speak with the CEOs of the companies that produce oil and gas here.

Why isn’t the White House doing that? It’s a simple question: ‘Mr. President, why don’t you go to the producers of the oil and gas here in America to get more production? Why are you going over to Saudi Arabia to kiss the ring?’ And I’d like an honest answer.

And since he hasn’t provided one, I’ve got my own answer: It’s because members of his own White House, like his climate czar John Kerry, have him tied up. They’ve cut a deal with the extreme progressives in his own party, and now American consumers are getting screwed over politics. And the politics of this White House are basically that the oil and gas producers of America are the enemy. And we don’t want any of their products anymore.

President Biden can act like they’re the enemy, but for consumers paying these high gas prices, they could be our friends.

And the fact that he won’t go to them, but he will go to Saudi Arabia — and that nobody in the national media will ask him about it — is a blanking shame.

It’s an insult to my intelligence, and I assume to yours, too.

In an emotional speech from the floor of the New Hampshire House, Rep. Maria Perez accused members of the state’s federal delegation of treating voters of color like “tokens” while supporting Trump-era immigration policies.

“I will say to the congressional delegation who’s been criticizing the previous administration about going to the border and speaking negatively about immigrants — What happened to you? You tokenized us to talk negatively about the previous administration, but now you’re utilizing immigrants to win some votes. Shame on you!” Perez said.

Perez echoed complaints from the New Hampshire Democratic Asian American Pacific Islander Caucus which is critical of U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas’ right turn on immigration.

“All of us feel like we’re tokens,” said Shideko Terai, a member of the New Hampshire AAPI Caucus. “This is not okay. You can’t use us and abuse us.”

According to multiple sources, leaders in the state Democratic Party have been pressuring Black and Brown activists to remain silent as Pappas and Hassan push for Trump-era immigration policies like building more of the border wall and continued enforcement of Title 42 authority against would-be migrants at the U.S.-Mexico border.

“I feel very disgraceful to calling myself a Democrat because a lot of Democrats have been calling people [of color] onto the carpet saying just to say ‘do not go out in public, do not talk about it,'” Perez said Thursday. “Shame on you! Shame on you for trying to silence our voices.”

Terai says she received the same message from Granite State Democratic Party leaders. “I was told, ‘We have to be really careful. We need Sen. Hassan’s fundraising,’” Terai said.

Last week, the New Hampshire Democratic Party Latino Caucus resigned from the party en masse over Hassan and Pappas’s new policies. Now, Perez said, it is a non-partisan organization promoting issues important to her community.

“I had to take a hard decision for my caucus to leave the NHDP,” Perez said. “We left the executive committee of the Democratic Party because my caucus doesn’t feel welcomed by the Democratic Party. I believe our community has been tokenized, and it’s time for us to win the respect.”

Sen. Maggie Hassan in front of the Trump-era wall at the U.S.-Mexico border in April 2022.

Hassan’s reversal on immigration, from repeatedly voting against Trump’s border wall to calling for more of it to be completed, has caught the attention of national media. According to Politico, Hassan is one of a handful of embattled Senate Democrats whose prospects for re-election are in trouble and are trying to distance themselves from Biden and his policy.

“On social media, where they shy away from praise of the president and instead focus on their efforts to prod the White House to action, it’s hard to tell they’ve voted in line with Biden no less than 96 percent of the time,” Politico reported Thursday. And, they add “Democratic operatives” say Hassan is making the right move politically by supporting tougher immigration policies, “even if it’s at the expense of alienating some progressives.”

Some of those progressives at the national level are speaking out.

“Attn: Sen. Hassan. We need you in the Senate, but going after GOP anti-immigration voters and introducing a bill to keep Ukrainian and LGBTQ migrants out will lose you more voters than you gain,” tweeted Douglas Rivlin, communications director with the progressive immigration group America’s Voice.

In a later tweet, he added: “Sen. Hassan [is] defining Dems as the party in support of Stephen Miller’s approach to excluding immigrants, and refugees.”

Stephen Miller was President Donald Trump’s lead immigration policy advisor.

New Hampshire’s lead immigrant’s rights advocate, Eva Castillo, is outraged by Hassan’s pro-wall politics.

“It was a slap in the face for us Latino immigrants,” said Castillo, director of the New Hampshire Alliance for Immigrants and Refugees. “She could have talked about anything other than the stupid wall.

“That’s not an issue for a New Hampshire incumbent senator to be running on. I’m sick and tired of people playing politics with immigration, on both sides. And it’s especially annoying when it’s the Democrats that are supposed to be friendlier to immigrants,” Castillo said.

Hassan apparently needs the help. A new UNH Survey Center poll found Hassan is in a statistical tie with her potential GOP rivals retired Gen. Don Bolduc, state Sen. Chuck Morse, and former Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, despite the fact they have very little name ID.

Also problematic for Hassan: Just 35 percent of voters have a favorable view of the incumbent senator, while 51 percent view her unfavorably.

The right to vote is the most sacred right a citizen has in a democracy. It underpins the whole concept of self-government and the very idea of “We the People.” It’s a right that has not come easy for many in our country, and one that must be guarded fiercely because it holds the key to the power and prestige that those with unbridled ambition are willing to lie, cheat and steal to acquire.

That is why election integrity is so important to Republicans, and why we are unwavering in our commitment to the principle of one man, one vote. When that principle is violated, it breeds dangerous cynicism that is cancerous to our republic. We must treat vote fraud and election tampering for the crime against democracy that they are and be vigilant in preventing and punishing them.

That is why I recently issued my plan to strengthen election security and improve confidence in our election outcomes through a series of simple measures that keep it easy to vote, but make it harder to cheat. My seven-point plan will do the following:

• Require Voter ID. Those seeking to vote should present verified identification just like you must do when you buy a beer, board a plane or establish employment eligibility.

• Remove The Statute Of Limitations For Vote Fraud. Those who commit voter fraud, whether it was a year ago or six years ago, must be held accountable and prosecuted to the maximum extent of the law. We must remove the statute of limitations on cases of election fraud.

• Increase Penalties For Vote Fraud. Every fraudulent vote cancels out a legitimate one. We need to treat voter fraud as the crime against democracy that it is by increasing penalties so that would-be election thieves think twice before cheating.

• Implement Election Audits. Where credible evidence of election irregularities exists, we must conduct forensic audits by a multi-partisan committee of election security experts, just as we did in the town of Windham. Proper audits in legitimate circumstances will serve to strengthen confidence in our elections and our government.

• Require In-Person Voting Except With A Legitimate Excuse. In-person voting on Election Day is not just an important part of our civic culture, but it is a critical election security measure that requires you to show yourself at the polls. New Hampshire should retain its custom of in-person voting, and continue to allow absentee voting only under special circumstances where it is a necessary accommodation for someone to cast their ballot.

• Provide Enhanced Training For Election Workers. Our election officials are mostly volunteers doing the best they can to implement free and fair elections, and they almost always get it right. But innocent mistakes do happen. By providing enhanced training on proper election procedures, we can reduce human error and the resulting frustration and cynicism.

• Protect States Rights & The First In The Nation Primary. Our friends and neighbors, who we know and trust – and who know us – should oversee our elections, not nameless, faceless, federal bureaucrats. While Chris Pappas supports the federalization of our elections, which would undermine New Hampshire’s state constitution and our long history of competently run elections, I will always put New Hampshire first. And we must never give up New Hampshire’s status as the First-In-The-Nation primary. Our unique, grassroots style of politics is a critical safeguard that ensures big money and Big Tech aren’t deciding factors in making our presidential nominations.

These are important measures for restoring trust in our elections, which are the lifeblood of our democratic republic. In the Republican primary for Congress, we have a responsibility to nominate a candidate who can credibly advance election integrity and the principle of one man, one vote. Our nation truly does depend on it.

Gail Huff Brown is a candidate in the Republican primary in the First Congressional District. If you also stand for Election Integrity, please donate to Gail here. 

[Paid for by Gail Huff Brown for Congress]

Gen. Don Bolduc’s appearance on Fox News was meant to highlight his military bona fides. Instead, it sparked a backlash from a respected Pentagon reporter and a call for him to drop out of the U.S. Senate race from at least one prominent Republican.

“Don Bolduc made reckless, dangerous, irresponsible comments regarding the escalation of the Ukraine war which renders him unqualified to serve as a U.S. Senator,” said Republican Corky Messner. “There are 100 Senators who will be called upon during these times to make critical decisions. Bolduc cannot be trusted to make those decisions.”

Messner defeated Bolduc in the 2020 GOP primary before going on to lose to incumbent Democrat Sen. Jeanne Shaheen. He was outraged by Bolduc’s comments on “The Next Revolution with Steve Hilton” Sunday night. And he wasn’t alone.

In the interview, Bolduc repeatedly claimed there were direct military actions the U.S. and NATO could take against Russian forces in Ukraine. He suggested the CIA or military could “get in there on the ground” in Ukraine, using “indirect fires and direct capabilities” to attack Russian targets. At one point, he said the U.S. could use “special operations troops in a way that we get in there,” though without “boots on the ground.”

His comments were viewed as so extreme, Fox News Pentagon correspondent Jennifer Griffin called them out when she appeared on the show a few minutes later.

“I have to respond to comments from Gen. Bolduc,” Griffin said. “He really was way off the mark talking about what the U.S. really could do on the ground.

“Clearly, Brig. Gen. Bolduc is not a student of history. He’s a politician. He ran for Senate in New Hampshire and failed. He is not a military strategist. To suggest the U.S. would put an indirect fire or special operations or CIA on the ground to give Putin any excuse to broaden this conflict is extremely dangerous talk at a time like this.”

“I was surprised to hear it,” the host replied.

It was not Bolduc’s first media misstep. In November, he was roundly criticized for calling Republican Gov. Chris Sununu a “Chinese Communist sympathizer” whose family business “supports terrorism.” Bolduc also claimed he drove the governor from the U.S. Senate race.

Messner says enough is enough.

“Politician Bolduc has a reputation for outrageous, divisive political comments which demonstrates that he has very poor judgment. In the past, Bolduc’s comments could be laughed off, walked back, or cleaned up by his supporters,” Messner said.

“But now, Bolduc’s extreme comments are dangerous to all Americans, your sons and daughters, Ukraine, Europe, and the world. Politicians must have the prudence and judgment to avoid statements that potentially could push the Ukraine conflict to a wider war. Don Bolduc does not have that prudence and judgment.

“I am calling for politician Don Bolduc to withdraw from the New Hampshire U.S. Senate race and to end his campaign.”

Not surprisingly, the Bolduc campaign is not ready to fold up its tent. Asked about Jennifer Griffin’s criticism, the campaign declined to comment.

UPDATE: After this article was published, Bolduc’s spokesperson Jimmy Thompson sent this statement:

“If recent world events have taught us anything, it’s that American leadership matters on the international stage. As usual, Senator Hassan has been missing in action, and needs to be replaced. But you can’t defeat a career politician like Senator Hassan with another career politician like State Senator Morse or Town Manager Smith. It’s going to take a true outsider like General Bolduc, and that’s why he is the frontrunner in this race.”

National Review magazine reported Thursday Sen. Maggie Hassan has collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate donations, including cash from lobbyists. The money includes donations from lobbyists for Chinese tech giant ZTE, which is labeled a “national security threat” by the federal government.

In an article headlined “Senate Democrats Rail against Corporate Influence While Accepting Piles of Tainted Cash,” National Review lays out details of campaign contributions collected by the most vulnerable 2022 Senate Democrats, including Hassan and Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock.

“New Hampshire’s Maggie Hassan has frequently returned to denouncing the corrupting influence of money in politics as a campaign strategy,” they report. “She’s a supporter of the ‘For the People’ Act, which she claimed would stop ‘corporate special interests that dictate our elections’ — but she’s happy to continue to let them dictate hers for now.”

One of Hassan’s most common arguments in defense of a federal override of New Hampshire’s election laws is the need to “get big money out of our elections.” However, as National Review reports, she has accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate cash from some of America’s biggest companies.

“In 2021, Hassan accepted $429,150 in contributions directly from Amazon, BlackRock, Intel, Deloitte, Barclays, Nike, and other corporate PACs,” they report. And she collected an additional $264,000 in corporate dollars filtered through other committees.

Hassan also took more than $77,000 from corporate lobbyists, among them representatives for a Chinese company the FCC’s Public Safety and Homeland Security Bureau formally designated “a national security threat,” according to a 2020 statement from the agency.

“Notably, Hassan had no issues taking $1,500 from current and former lobbyists for ZTE: A Chinese technology company that’s been fined for exporting U.S. technology to Iran and North Korea,” National Review reports.

Ajit Pai, the FCC Chairman in 2020, said at the time ZTE had “close ties to the Chinese Communist Party and China’s military apparatus, and [is] broadly subject to Chinese law obligating them to cooperate with the country’s intelligence services.”

Hassan’s office did not deny the accuracy of the reporting when contacted by NHJournal. However, it also refused to comment on the report.

Kevin Smith is running in the GOP primary to replace Hassan, and he called her out for her lack of transparency.

“Why won’t Sen. Hassan answer questions about these donations from corporate lobbyists? If she’s getting money from Chinese companies on the ‘national security’ watch list, she has serious questions to answer. This hypocrisy is why America despises politicians,” Smith said.

And it is not just lobbyists for China who are helping fund Hassan’s campaign. According to Axios, a top lobbyist for Nord Stream 2 has maxed out his contributions to Hassan as well.

“Vincent Roberti’s firm, Roberti Global, has been paid $8.5 million for its Nord Stream 2 lobbying work, according to lobbying disclosure records,” Axios reports.

State Sen. Chuck Morse (R-Salem) is running in the GOP primary to replace Hassan,

“Maggie Hassan is always putting her special interests over New Hampshire and American interests. After taking the maximum donation from Nord Stream lobbyists last year, Maggie did no lobbying within her party to pass sanctions last month,” Morse said.

As long as Hassan declines to answer questions, expect Republicans to keep raising this issue from now until November. The National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) has kept up a steady drumbeat of attacks on Hassan, a sign they see the seat as a potential pick-up, even without GOP Gov. Chris Sununu in the race.

“Democrats like to set rules for themselves, but they would never dare actually follow those rules,” NRSC spokesperson T.W. Arrighi said. “Criticizing corporate money in politics is a prime example as vulnerable Democrat senators like Maggie Hassan roll around in piles of corporate cash. There is no limit to what these dishonest radicals will do to deceive voters.”

A day after NHJournal’s report on her vote to keep COVID checks going to convicted criminals, U.S. Sen. Maggie Hassan confirmed her support for the policy. At the same time, she pointed to a letter confirming the funds could be seized to go toward victim restitution.

Many New Englanders were shocked to learn convicted Boston Marathon Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had received a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act passed on a straight partisan vote in March. Last week, acting U.S. Attorney for the District of Massachusetts Nathaniel Mendell asked the court to let the government confiscate the funds from Tsarnaev as restitution for the victims of the 2013 bombing.

Republicans opposed the ARP provision sending funds to incarcerated felons like Tsarnaev, and they proposed an amendment to prevent it. The amendment was voted down on a 49-50 vote, with all 50 Democrats in favor of keeping the checks flowing. If a single Democrat had supported the amendment, it would have passed.

Hassan refused to respond to NHJournal’s questions about her vote. However, after the news broke, she gave a statement to Fox News that did not contradict the reporting but instead touted her efforts to partially undo the policy.

“Sen. Hassan believes that the funds Tsarnaev received must be seized for victim restitution,” Hassan’s spokesperson Laura Epstein told Fox News in a Friday email. “She led the successful push in the Senate to help ensure that this could happen.”

Epstein referenced a letter to the U.S. Treasury Department from Hassan and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) asking for clarification on whether state officials would be able to seize the money they and their fellow Democrats voted to send all incarcerated felons.

“We strongly support state efforts to seize criminals’ Economic Impact Payments and to ensure that these payments benefit families victimized by crime rather than incarcerated criminals,” the two senators wrote. The Treasury Department confirmed the funds could be confiscated to pay outstanding restitution orders.

“To the extent permitted by applicable state and local law, amounts paid in the third round of [economic impact payments] may be subject to garnishment by state governments, local governments, or private creditors, as well as pursuant to a court order (which may include fines related to a crime, administrative court fees, restitution, and other court-ordered debts),” a Treasury official wrote.

But what about the millions of COVID relief payments that went to convicted murderers, rapists, and other felons who don’t have court-ordered debts? They would keep the money they received, thanks to the ARP plan as passed by Democrats and signed by President Joe Biden.

Hassan sent her letter to the Treasury Department two months after her vote to kill an amendment blocking the checks, a fact her GOP critics noted.

“It sounds like Hassan was for giving money to convicted murderers before she was against it,” quipped New Hampshire GOP Executive Director Joe Sweeney.

State Senate President Chuck Morse (R-Salem) told NHJournal Hassan’s vote “is just one more outrageous example of how out of touch Maggie Hassan is with New Hampshire. Funding the radical progressive agenda and voting to send stimulus money to the Boston Bomber, a convicted mass murderer who already resides in prison at taxpayers’ expense for the rest of his pathetic life, is not representing our New Hampshire values. Time for the 603 way rather than the D.C. way.”

Morse is expected to enter the GOP U.S. Senate primary for a chance to challenge Hassan in November. Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, who has all but announced his candidacy, tweeted his comment: “There’s only one correct answer here from Sen. Hassan: ‘Yes, I regret voting to send stimulus checks to Boston Bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and convicted cop-killer Michael Addison.’ Period. Full stop.”

The status of Addison’s COVID relief check is still unclear. Addison is New Hampshire’s only death row prisoner, convicted for the murder of Manchester police officer Michael Briggs in 2006. He remains on death row despite the state’s repeal of its capital punishment law in 2019.

Paul Raymond with the New Hampshire Department of Corrections told NHJournal the DOC had no record of Addison receiving the ARP COVID relief funds. However, he also said New Hampshire allows prisoners like Addison to maintain bank accounts outside the DOC system, and it’s possible the funds could have gone there.

In a sense, this story isn’t news. The day the Senate voted down the amendment blocking these funds, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) tweeted: “Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the Boston Bomber, murdered three people and terrorized a city. He’ll be getting a $1,400 stimulus check as part of the Democrats’ ‘COVID relief’ bill.”

The left-leaning Washington Post claimed at the time this statement was untrue and gave it ‘Two Pinocchios” in its fact-checking section. After the news of Tsarnaev’s payment last week, the Post acknowledged Cotton was correct and amended their reporting.

Democrats are celebrating the latest Granite State Poll, conducted by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which found Gov. Chris Sununu’s approval rating continues to decline.

“Passing an unpopular abortion ban and failing to lead during COVID is coming back to haunt Gov. Chris Sununu,” the NH. Democratic Party tweeted. “Lowest approval since taking office. 1st time since 2003 that voters think NH is moving in the wrong direction. Record low approval of his handling of COVID.”

And it’s true Sununu’s numbers have been slumping for months — though he’s still got a 52-47 percent job approval.

The more fascinating finding is the change in Sen. Maggie Hassan’s standing over the past two months. Simply put, her numbers have soared.

In October, Hassan’s approval/disapproval was a dismal 33 percent approve, 51 percent disapprove, leaving her underwater by -18 points. Two months later, that number in the UNH Survey is +3 points, at 43/40. That’s a dramatic, 21-point swing.

So, what happened?

The new poll was taken before Hassan announced she was abandoning the filibuster in order to back a new federal election law. That was by far the most high-profile political move she had made in months.

And while millions of dollars have been spent promoting Hassan and her support for Biden’s spending packages, a similar amount has been spent attacking her on issues like rising inflation and deficit spending.

What makes the Sununu v Hassan divide interesting isn’t the net number, but the trends. Sununu’s seem to make sense. Hassan’s don’t.

The story of Sununu is the story of COVID-19. He was one of the country’s most popular governors, according to polling, before the pandemic hit. Then, as he dealt with the public health emergency, his numbers shot through the roof. From April 2020 until February 2021, he was essentially at 70 percent job approval or higher in the UNH Survey. In May 2020, he hit a jaw-dropping 82 percent approval rating.

But COVID-19 has lingered. The economy has been a troubling mix of rising inflation, disappearing workers, and an unsteady supply chain. Despite having one of the lowest rates of unvaccinated citizens, the state hit the number one spot for COVID-19 cases. And then there are the millions of dollars in attack ads accusing him of banning abortions in New Hampshire (only abortions after six months are prohibited).

Put all that together and the steady decline of Sununu’s polls is hardly a surprise. When the state’s COVID-19 numbers improve, it is likely Sununu’s will, too.

But Hassan? For months, her approval has hovered in the low to mid-30s. Her current 43 percent approval is the highest it has been since February 2020. There is no storyline, just a sudden surge. Why?

Some veteran New Hampshire politicos refused to discuss the UNH numbers, rejecting the “panel” system Dr. Andrew Smith and the UNH Survey Center use as unreliable.

However, its findings are wildly off from the recent Trafalgar Group poll — one of the most accurate pollsters since 2016 — which showed a 46-40 percent Hassan lead in a match-up against Gen. Don Bolduc. And an October St. Anselm Survey Center poll put her at 44 percent approve, 50 percent disapprove, not too far from the UNH Survey number that month.

One theory several strategists suggested to NHJournal is Democrats are rallying around Hassan as their party’s fortunes appear to be fading.

“Partisanship is back,” said GOP strategist Dave Carney. “The [political] team jerseys are back down from the attic. They might have been under the Christmas decorations.”

It may seem an odd time for a Democrat’s poll numbers to rise. The party has been plagued by in-fighting for months over the Build Back Better bill. There is a split between the progressives and the rest of the party. And the issues Americans say are their top priorities — inflation, spending, jobs, even COVID — aren’t breaking their way. Plus, President Joe Biden’s approval dropped to a new record low of 41 percent just last week.

That partisanship gets Hassan to the mid-40s. If there’s not a third-party candidate splitting the anti-Hassan vote (in 2016 there were two), that’s not enough to win.

More bad news: According to the UNH survey, she is underwater with independent voters 26 to 49 percent. In the St. A’s poll in October, that number was 27 to 64 percent.

There aren’t enough Democrats to make up that gap, particularly in a “red wave” midterm election when, it appears, Republicans are likely to be highly motivated voters.

Still, the poll is a reminder that the Democratic Party is very strong in New Hampshire. It is no coincidence the entire delegation is Democratic, or that Republicans have only won the presidential election here once since 1988.

The UNH Survey adds more evidence to back up the theory that Hassan is viewed by the public as “Generic Democrat,” and her fortunes will closely follow those of her party.

All the hullaballoo over West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s steadfast opposition to the Democrats’ so-called “Build Back Better” spending bill distracted from a broader point with more far-reaching implications: it never had to get this far.

Because the U.S. Senate is evenly divided 50-50, any one of the Democratic senators in Washington could have put the brakes on this disastrous spending boondoggle at any point in time, including New Hampshire’s own Maggie Hassan.

Make no mistake, this is all political. Maggie Hassan doesn’t have the will to stand up to the left-wing progressives in her party like Bernie Sanders and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and Granite Staters will be left holding the bag, again.

During her first five years in the Senate, Hassan has been a reliable and loyal Democratic rubberstamp. This year alone she has voted for 100 percent of the Biden agenda. Think about that for a second; failing to reign in a pandemic he promised to crush, soaring energy prices, supply chain challenges with no end in sight, a surrender in Afghanistan that turned us into a global laughingstock. Sen. Hassan has been behind Joe Biden every single step of the way.  There is not a shred of independence in her political constitution.

In doing so, Hassan has broken the promise she made to Granite State voters during her 2016 campaign. Back then, she declared, “I will never fail to stand up to leaders in my own party as I have.”

If only those words had been more than campaign rhetoric. Hassan knew what she was doing when she said them. She is well aware New Hampshire’s electorate is nowhere near as left-wing as her voting record in office. To win statewide as a Democrat you must cloak your true liberal worldview until after the votes are cast, and then hope that flashy campaign ads will help voters forget by the next election.

Last week Hassan turned heads when she came out in favor of eliminating the Senate filibuster, long a priority of her party’s restless left flank. But no one should have been surprised. After all, in her heart of hearts, Sen. Hassan is a left-wing ideologue. But above all else, she is a politician who will say or do anything to get re-elected.

That is not – nor has it ever been – my style. I am not a polished politician; I am a public servant. I spent 33 years in the military, rising to the rank of brigadier general. I served 10 tours in Afghanistan. I love this country and it saddens me our state is represented by someone who lacks political courage. These times call for it and unfortunately, Sen. Hassan has failed us as a leader.

It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to recognize Joe Biden is not only out to lunch, but he’s wildly out of step with New Hampshire. Next year there is a reckoning brewing for anyone who has aided and abetted Biden’s many failures. The political tab is coming due, and Sen. Hassan is in big trouble.

Maggie Hassan is a political insider and career politician. To send her packing, Republicans need a non-establishment outsider. I’m hopeful New Hampshire voters will offer me the opportunity to be that change vessel because the status quo and the Biden-Hassan agenda isn’t working for any of us.

Sen. Maggie Hassan has reversed her position on the legislative filibuster, joining progressives like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren in abandoning a Senate rule she adamantly defended as recently as 2017. In 2020, Hassan joined Democrats in invoking the filibuster rule to block GOP legislation more than 300 times.

Now she says it’s a “threat to our democracy.”

Hassan announced her new position from the floor of the U.S. Senate Thursday night, dismissing the 104-year-old Senate procedure an “arcane” rule “being used as an excuse not to act.”

“This cannot stand,” Hassan said. “We must change the rules, to allow a simple majority of this body, as our Founders intended, to pass laws that will protect the right to vote and protect American democracy.”

In a dark and ominous speech, Hassan laid out a conspiracy-fueled vision of American democracy on the verge of collapse.

“If the partisans who are attacking our democracy have their way, our Tuesday Election Day in early November will be different,” Hassan warned. “We’ll wake up, cast our vote, drop our kids at school, go to work. We’ll tune back in at the end of the day to see the election results – only to learn that the vote tally is being ignored, that our votes don’t matter much. We’ll learn that our legislatures are going to throw out the results and pick their own winner.

“We’ll see an election day that is a charade – just like in countries where democracy doesn’t exist.”

In fact, last year’s election set a record for the highest voter turnout in 120 years, Two years earlier, the 2018 midterms had the highest turnout since 1914.

Hassan’s announcement appears to be part of what Capitol Hill reporters are calling a Democratic “pivot” away from the failing Build Back Better bill — which has been tabled until at least March 2022 — and to backing one of the voting law proposals progressives have been pushing for months. Hassan didn’t mention which voting plan she wants to pass once the filibuster rule is removed, but congressional Democratic leaders are talking about the “Right to Vote Act,” a more modest version of the H.R. 1 “For the People Act.”

Under the Right to Vote Act, states like New Hampshire would no longer be able to decide how to conduct their elections. Instead, the federal government would mandate early voting and no-excuse absentee ballots, and it would impose federal rules on voter ID requirements that would override state laws. The bill would also spend millions of public dollars funding political campaigns.

“Because that effort here in Congress is being blocked by a minority which is abusing its power, I believe the time has come to change the Senate rules to allow a straight up or down majority vote on this fundamental issue of democracy,” Hassan said Thursday.

Hassan’s comment about “a minority which is abusing its power” is apparently a reference to the 50 GOP U.S. Senators using the 60-vote threshold under the filibuster rule to keep legislation from moving forward. And yet, as a member of the Democratic minority from 2017-2019, Hassan frequently joined in filibusters to block Republican legislation.

As Marc Theissen at The Washington Post reported:

“Democrats used the filibuster to block funding for construction of Trump’s border wall in 2019… They used it in September and October [2020] to stop Republicans from passing further coronavirus relief before the November election. They used it to halt Sen. Tim Scott’s (R-S.C.) police reform legislation so Republicans could not claim credit for forging a bipartisan response to the concerns of racial justice protesters. They used it to block legislation to force ‘sanctuary cities’ to cooperate with federal officials, and to stop a prohibition on taxpayer funding of abortion, bans on abortions once the unborn child is capable of feeling pain, and protections for the lives of babies born alive after botched abortions.”

All told, Hassan and her fellow Democrats used the filibuster 320 times in 2020 alone.

As recently as 2017, Hassan was so committed to protecting the filibuster that she joined Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and 28 other Democrats who signed a bipartisan letter telling then-Majority Leader Mitch McConnell that preserving the rule was vital to protecting the Senate’s ability to do its job.

Hassan’s embrace of the radical rule change is out of step with months of messaging that she’s a “bipartisan” moderate. It’s also out of step with New Hampshire voters, according to a poll taken earlier this year.

In a March 2021 Granite State Panel conducted by the UNH Survey Center, just 30 percent of respondents said they support eliminating the filibuster. Among New Hampshire independents, that number is just 17 percent. (Another 15 percent of all voters say they’d support changing the rule to a “talking filibuster.”)

New Hampshire Republicans see it as a sign of desperation. “Apparently she believes she has a base problem,” tweeted GOP strategist Mike Biundo.

NHGOP Executive Director Joe Sweeney tweeted “Maggie Hassan officially comes clean and wants 50 U.S. Senators and the Vice President to be able to take over all election laws and procedures in New Hampshire or across the country.”

Hassan’s poll numbers continue to sag. A new Trafalgar Group poll found Hassan with a modest 6-point lead over fringe GOP candidate retired Gen. Don Bolduc. And polls consistently show her approval rating in the low 40s at best.

Hassan’s high-profile reversal may have also inspired the first shot fired in next year’s Senate race. Londonderry Town Manager Kevin Smith, who is widely expected to announce his candidacy early next year, responded to Hassan’s decision with a one-word tweet:

“No.”

New Hampshire Democrats already facing an energized GOP-leaning electorate next year suffered a tough, one-two fiscal punch Friday from new reports on inflation and federal spending.

Friday morning the Labor Department reported the consumer-price index jumped to its highest rate in 39 years, rising to 6.8 percent in November. It’s the sixth consecutive month inflation was higher than 5 percent. This is a blow to Democrats like Sen. Maggie Hassan and Rep. Chris Pappas who back trillions in new federal spending and likely face serious challenges in the 2022 midterms.

Polls show most Americans believe federal spending is making inflation worse.

Hours later, a new Congressional Budget Office analysis of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better spending plan found the bill would add $2.8 trillion more to the national debt than originally projected. Despite claims by Rep. Annie Kuster that the CBO found the BBB spending plan is “fully paid for,” the agency has always said the proposal will add between $160 billion and $367 billion to the deficit.

The new $2.8 trillion figure is more realistic, economists say, because it assumes expensive spending programs like the Child Tax Credit will continue for the entire 10 years of the plan. The not-quite “fully paid for” plan is based on the dubious assumption the CTC will end after just one year.

And, as Ben Casselman of The New York Times reported, “Inflation is wiping out wage gains. Real average hourly earnings fell in November on both a month-to-month and year-to-year basis.”

All four members of New Hampshire’s federal delegation back the Biden spending plan — Kuster and Pappas have already voted for about $7 trillion in new spending this year alone. And all four declined to comment on the new inflation numbers when contacted by NHJournal.

Republicans, unsurprisingly, were more willing to respond.

“With a skyrocketing energy crisis, supply chain issues, and rampant inflation at record highs, Democrats in Washington must understand that their bad policy decisions and unchecked spending are hurting average American families,” said Gov. Chris Sununu.

“Joe Biden and the Democrats’ Build Back Broke agenda created historically high inflation, making Americans pay more for nearly everything this holiday season,” Republican National Committee (RNC) Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said in a statement. “With skyrocketing prices at a 39-year high, a supply chain crisis, trillions in reckless spending, and tax hikes on families, Biden has lost the trust and confidence of the American people to get the economy working for them.

“Americans can thank Biden and the Democrats for the most expensive holiday season on record,” McDaniel added.

Americans aren’t waiting until Christmas to assign blame. A CNBC poll also released Friday found Biden’s approval rating is down to 41 percent approve/50 percent disapprove. On handling the economy, Biden is down to a dismal 37 percent approve while 56 percent disapprove.

More problematic for Granite State Democrats is the “generic ballot” result. Asked if they would prefer a Democrat or Republican in Congress, Americans chose Republican by a +10 margin.

“Inflation is out of control, Congress is making it worse, and the only people who haven’t figured that out work in the White House,” National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) spokesman T.W. Arrighi told NHJournal. “Democrats are causing prices on everyday goods, like gas and groceries, to skyrocket, and it’s hitting American families where it hurts. It’s not the media’s fault, it’s not transitory and it’s not a high-class problem. It’s a real-world problem for hard-working American families and now it’s a political problem for Democrats, whose entire agenda is built on inflation-inducing government spending.”

Every Democrat in the House of Representatives except Maine’s Jared Golden voted for the Build Back Better bill last month, and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) needs even more unity to get it through the U.S. Senate. He wrote a letter to members like Hassan and Sen. Jeanne Shaheen earlier this week telling them to expect long nights as he pushes to get the Biden spending bill passed by Christmas.