Martin Seeks GOP Nomination to Face Shaheen

While there are 10 candidates running for the Republican nomination in New Hampshire for U.S. Senate for the right to face off against Democratic incumbent U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, one says he’s the only one who can go to Washington, D.C., and clean things up.

That candidate is Andy Martin.

If you don’t know Martin, an attorney and author, it’s not from lack of trying on his part.

Martin has run a number of campaigns around the country during the last 30-plus years including Senate races in Illinois and Florida, a House race in Connecticut, and three presidential runs, once as a Democrat in 1988 and twice as a Republican, in 2000 and 2012. In 2008, he came in second in the Republican primary for U.S. Senate with 34 percent of the vote, according to Wikipedia.

Martin is also considered by political observers to be the prime source of speculation that then-U.S. Sen. Barack Obama was a Muslim. His book – “Obama: The Man Behind the Mask” – is a 400-plus page collection of columns and investigatory notes about the then-obscure state Senator from Illinois, as well as the nasty politics in Chicago. The work, started in 2004, spawned “the birther movement” of conservatives challenging the president’s eligibility to serve.

The allegations about Obama were later discredited after the president’s campaign released a copy of his certificate of live birth from Hawaii.

The book and his online writings are part of what Martin calls a five decade lifespan of consumer advocacy and exposure of corruption, which also includes anti-trust litigation, lawsuits, and legislation in Illinois and elsewhere.

“I’ve been a hard fighter,” he said. “My efforts to block Obama ended up on the front page of the New York Times … unless you know how the system works and can take it apart, you can’t change it … you can’t fix it.”

Outside of the Statehouse on June 17, Martin spoke about his campaign before meeting with the Gun Owners of New Hampshire in Concord, where he planned to pass out copies of his book and ask for the group’s endorsement. He said that he would stress that the problem with guns and violence is about “self-discipline and self-control.” The illegal gun owners, he said, were the problem, not the ones supporting the 2nd Amendment.

“We have to go and do urban proselytizing,” he said. “We have to tell people, ‘You need to build responsibility … you need to build discipline.’ Because people have guns all over New Hampshire. Vermont? They don’t even have any gun laws to speak of. But they aren’t out shooting each other every day, out robbing the gas station or the deli.”

He also praised the organization for taking all of the candidates in the race seriously.

For this Senate race, Martin has peppered the press with information about his effort in an effort to get, at least, mentions in articles about the race. He has also proposed legal action against UNH Survey Center for inclusion in polls, calling them a public entity, and threatened organizers of forums to be included in debates. Martin called himself “the breakaway candidate” in the race.

Martin is also raising money for advertising to take on former state Sen. Jim Rubens, former U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, and former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, all nice gentlemen, he noted, but candidates who weren’t ready to do the hard work it will take to beat Shaheen. A missing persons report, he joked, needed to be filed for Brown, either in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, because voters don’t know where he is.

“I’m known for doing the hard work and the easy jobs,” he said. “Obviously I’m not the leading candidate now. But I’m probably the one who can give Jeanne Shaheen the toughest race.” 

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