Will New Hampshire Be Red or Blue?
Republican Senator Judd Gregg (LAW’72,’75) on how the state will swing
Last week, New Hampshire Senator Judd Gregg (LAW’72,’75) visited his alma mater to talk about the country’s economic woes. Gregg, the senior Republican on the Congressional Budget Committee and the lead Senate negotiator of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout package, was instrumental in its passage earlier this month. Now, with the presidential election eight days away, current polls show the Democratic nominee, Senator Barack Obama, with a commanding lead, but the Republican candidate, Senator John McCain, has been successful in the Granite State, winning key primary victories in 2000 and 2008. BU Today spoke with Gregg about the factors that could make or break his candidate this year.
Why is your state swinging toward Obama?
I don’t think it is. I think people who take the polls in New Hampshire are deluding themselves in the sense that New Hampshire polls are historically very wrong. In fact, if you recall, Obama was supposed to win the primary against Hillary — he was supposed to win easily — and she won. I think McCain is going to do very well for a couple of reasons: first, he’s a maverick, with a sort of independent streak. Second, he’s fiscally right on target in New Hampshire with his tax policies. And third, he’s been there so much everybody knows him, and they like him. He’s always done well there, so I fully expect John to win the election in New Hampshire.
What issues are of particular interest to voters in New Hampshire?
I don’t think there is anything unique. I think this is an election where people will be voting on the same issues across the country. I think the primary issue is experience — the fact that John McCain is a legitimate American hero who has an extraordinary amount of experience, especially in how to keep us safe as a country. The different approaches towards tax policy and spending, I think, are important in New Hampshire because conservatives do very well usually, and those are probably the two primary issues. Senator Obama has run a very, very good campaign, is really a phenomenon, and deserves credit for where he has gotten, but relative to the New Hampshire election, I think John still holds. He’s the type of person they like.
Can you comment on McCain’s overall campaign strategy and on the choice of Sarah Palin as his running mate?
Well, John’s a unique guy — he very much does whatever he wants to do if he thinks he’s right. You’re not going to see John McCain take the safe, easy approach, and you’re not going to see the popular approach that the people on the talk shows tell you you should do. He always has and always will do things that are really unique and different because that’s just his personality. I think the Palin choice is a classic example of that — he obviously decided that he wanted somebody who was outside of the Washington norm, and the talking-heads acceptable group, and the New York Times opinion of what a person should be who is vice president, so he chose somebody who is very unique and has a very refreshing approach to the campaign.
Are you satisfied in general with the direction of the Republican party?
Well, it’s going to be a tough year. A lot of things have gone not that well for us — some of them were self-inflicted. We spent too much money as a party when we were in power. But we haven’t gotten much credit for the success the president has had in keeping this country safe — I mean in seven years, we haven’t been attacked, and no one talks about it, but it’s a pretty major, positive event. Then, of course, we’ve got this economic meltdown — which wasn’t really the fault of this administration, in my opinion. If you want to look at the primary place to blame, you have to look at the Fed keeping credit too easy for too long, and you have this explosive bubble in real estate that burst and took everything with it. But there’s no question this is going to be a difficult election because the American people are frustrated, concerned, and some are quite angry. So it makes it a challenge for a party that is viewed as the incumbent party — even though the Democrats control Congress.
How would things change if the Democrats were in control of the White House as well as Congress?
It depends how big a filibuster-proof margin they got in the Senate. I think you would see this country move left very, very quickly and in a very aggressive way in a lot of arenas, which would probably be extremely unhealthy — including massive increases in taxes and really massive interference in the marketplace by people who think that government knows how to run a market better than the private sector.
Edward A. Brown can be reached at ebrown@bu.edu.
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