Bob Smith: Genuine, Principled, Decent … and exactly the wrong guy to be challenging Jeanne Shaheen!

Former US Senator Bob Smith is one of the nicest, most honest and decent guys I've ever worked for in politics.  He's about as unpretentious as anyone with his resume could be (3 terms in the US House and 2 terms in the US Senate). No matter what anyone thinks of Bob Smith's politics he has always said what he means, said it from the heart and worked hard to serve his constituents here in NH.  A former Wolfeboro school teacher and small business owner, Smith was that very rare and quintessential everyman who went to Washington, much like the other Mr. Smith (Jimmy Stewart) portrayed so well on the big screen.

Of course, like the rest of us, Senator Smith would likely be able to cite his own career missteps chapter and verse: his brief Presidential run, his very public switch from Republican to Independent, and then back again. He has a history of very strong opposition to abortion rights, gay rights (certainly gay marriage) and of course some famous concerns about NASA's use of monkeys in space and the treatment of circus elephants and his attempts to protect the young Cuban refugee Elian Gonzalez, who by this time might be a card-carrying member of  AARP. And then there was that questionable endorsement of John Kerry (which Smith has in fact admitted was a mistake). Nobody’s perfect.

But Bob Smith was also a fierce advocate for our veterans, having himself served in Vietnam.  He was a consistent supporter of lowering taxes, and cutting the size of the ever-growing federal bureaucracy. He took plenty of flak for some of his positions, and that was fine with him. It’s a shame he could not simply let his record and his history of service to New Hampshire serve as his legacy.

Unfortunately Senator Smith has chosen not to leave well enough alone, as he announced this week that he will be a candidate for US Senate challenging Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and joining a small and so-far unimpressive cadre of GOP candidates, each of whom has not a snowball's chance in hell of ever getting to Washington.  The current field of Smith, radio talk show host Karen Testerman and former State Senator Jim Rubens represent the most pathetic attempt to unseat the well-established Shaheen that the GOP could have possibly conjured up!  Unlike Smith, these other would-be "challengers" have little or nothing to lose.  Smith on the other hand is inviting nothing but trouble.  

At 72 he may still have the stamina to run a statewide race, but does Bob Smith have any idea of how a contemporary campaign works?  His biggest problem…money.  He will need to raise around 10 million to even begin to compete against Shaheen’s war chest, which is growing by the day. Smith announced this week that he already has $50k in pledges, which puts him only $9,950,000 off the pace! No doubt Smith will be a hit with neo-cons and Tea Party types who will be attracted to his smaller government, anti-tax, pro-second amendment positions, but what the Senator may fail to understand is that running in today's New Hampshire is very different from running in the state in 1996, when he narrowly beat former democratic congressman Dick Swett by just 3%.  The race was so close that a number of networks called the race for Swett early, only to retract their proclamations moments later due to what they later cited as faulty exit polling.  On air ABC's venerable Sam Donaldson said that "he would have to eat some crow" in his prediction that Smith was clearly doomed during the network's election night coverage.  (Kudos to Donaldson for showing up in Washington following Smith's swearing-in with a toy stuffed crow, which he good-naturedly presented to the senator).

The other problem for Senator Smith this time around is that building a coalition to win a general election here in New Hampshire is no small task for any Republican.  Our goal as a party must be to expand our appeal and to invite new voters into our party – not drive them away.  Ronald Reagan's great line that: "The fellow who agrees with me 80% of the time is not my enemy" is a cardinal rule the GOP must adopt yesterday if we ever expect to win in elective politics again.  But when politicians begin to attempt to legislate morality, limit personal freedoms, and alienate those who might disagree on some things, they run the risk of never being able to win the right to govern.

Bob Smith's positions are well-known and long-held. His voting record in the Senate along with his personal proclamations over the years have cemented his credentials as a far right of center conservative, notably on the issue of abortion. But Roe v Wade was decided long ago.  As Republicans, we should be for fewer abortions, but at the end of the day if we fight to keep the government out of our wallets and businesses, how can we also argue that the government is welcome in the most personal and intimate decisions people could make?   This is the worst kind of hypocrisy and it is anything but conservative.  Most people have made up their minds regarding issues of social, moral and personal freedom.  America has moved on. So too by the way has Pope Francis who has very publicly questioned even the church’s fixation on the judgment of our fellow men and women based on the issues of abortion and gay rights.

Bob Smith is no doubt a decent and honorable man.  Truth be told, after working on several of his races as a media consultant, I chose to leave his employ to help my friend and next door neighbor (at the time) John E. Sununu in his Senatorial campaign which effectively denied Smith a primary victory and ended Smith's political career (or so we thought).

Although I still like Bob Smith personally, he is not the candidate of today's GOP.  He is not the candidate who can unite Tea Party conservatives, social moderates, libertarians, women, young voters or even seniors.  Bob Smith was the right conservative candidate when he was in the Senate, but his relevance and his ability to take it to Shaheen in a general election is not going to be even a close fight.  For the good of the party, let us hope that the field is not yet final.  Let us also hope that Senator Bob Smith will begin this campaign in earnest and realize quickly that the world has changed since he left politics, and so too has NH. And maybe the Senator will come to his senses and abandon this folly before the snow melts.