Campaign veteran returns home to New Hampshire to fight for Ayotte

A seasoned New Hampshire Republican operative is returning to the Granite State to help former-Attorney General Kelly Ayotte in her quest to fill the senate seat being vacated by the retiring Judd Gregg.

Kelly Ayotte

Longtime Deerfield resident Neva Foley comes home to join the Ayotte campaign as Operations Director this week, NowHampshire.com has learned. According to sources she will have broad responsibilities on the Ayotte campaign.

Foley served as a Field Representative for the Bush 2004 campaign in New Hampshire and then proceeded to serve as the Republican National Committee’s Deputy Regional Political Director for the Northeast. Foley also served as the National Associate Political Director for the McCain campaign in 2008 before heading back to the RNC to work in the Political Education department and then as the Chief of Staff for the co-chair. She most recently served as the Associate Political Director of the NRSC.

Foley is a graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas in Dover, NH. Her grandparents immigrated to New Hampshire from the Emerald Isle in the late-nineteenth century.

Foley is a respected political operative with strong roots in the Granite state.

“Neva will do a good job for Kelly. She knows all the key players in the field and they respect her,” said one high ranking New Hampshire Republican official who asked to remain nameless because he is officially neutral in the senate race.

The race to replace Gregg is shaping up to be one of the most exciting in the country. Rep. Paul Hodes (NH-02) is the only Democrat competing for the seat. Businessman and GOP Committeeman Sean Mahoney and 1996 Republican gubernatorial nominee Ovide Lamontagne join Ayotte in the Republican field.