The rift opened up weeks ago after Binnie received a poll showing he was trailing far behind his main opponent Kelly Ayotte and the campaign unleashed a barrage of negative ads, calls, and mail. A subsequent poll showed that barrage had backfired and damaged Binnie’s own image and crippled his chances at winning the primary. This poll prompted a revolt of several of Binnie’s top NH supporters, and they convinced Binnie to pull his negative ads, against the advice of Binnie’s paid staff. Binnie supporters blamed the staff for the inartful, over-the-top negative ads and there were calls for heads to roll over it. Binnie’s staff, in turn, has tried to exclude these supprters from the decision-making process.

Binnie’s well-known temper has been on display as well, with several eruptions being reported this past week. Binnie is in full CEO mode, taking control of his own campaign, barking out orders, not listening to anyone but trusting his gut. He is privately telling people that he did not want to go negative but was talked into it by his staff. He now realizes it was a mistake and his going with his gut. He reportedly called Fosters after the paper had chastised his campaign for its negativity. Binnie told them that he was counting on their endorsement that he heard their message loud and clear, and that he would run a positive campaign for the rest of the primary. In spite of this mea culpa, Fosters endorsed Jim Bender, and Binnie is said to be devastated at the rejection.

Binnie also tried to make amends with the Union Leader; his staff has told people that Binnie trekked to the paper with his tail between his legs apologizing and asking for forgiveness. Binnie reportedly acknowledged that taking out the full page ad in the Union leader and challenging the paper directly was a mistake and expressed remorse for having done so. The ad was written by Gerry Nicholls with input from Binnie and was regarded by nearly everyone as a colossal blunder, but this mea culpa too was proffered too late, as the Union Leader endorsed Ovide Lamontagne

(As an aside, Now! Hampshire has also learned that Jim Bender was all but convinced that he was going to get the endorsement, and exploded at his staff when he did not get it.)

By all accounts, Binnie has indeed realized that his negative ads have damaged his candidacy and faults his campaign for the blunder. He longs for a “do over”, getting back to his early success on the trail, and his frustration often bubbles to the surface as he lashes out and his temper explodes.

Binnie didn’t make any bold moves this week, and it is unclear whether this was by design as the campaign ran positive ads and tried to right itself or if it was the result of paralysis and indecision. Heading into Labor Day weekend the campaign is quiet.

Instead, Guinta said his wife calls him a “new Republican,” presumably one who is much more liberal than the mainstream variety.

At the time Guinta was already an avid supporter of abortion rights and had cast votes in the New Hampshire legislature that critics labeled as anti-gun rights and pro-gay marriage. Guinta also voted for then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s budget, which increased spending by double digits. Later, Guinta would team up with the Sierra Club to pressure the federal government to pass cap-and-trade legislation.

Guinta now holds positions at odds with all of these past opinions.

The New Hampshire Union Leader reported the following on January 28, 2002 as part of that paper’s “Forty Under Forty” feature:

Guinta voted against sales and income taxes when they came up in the Legislature. Yet, he said he is not a conservative; his wife calls him a “new Republican,” he said.

Lately, he has taken steps to avoid partisanship. After winning the race for alderman, Guinta opted not to run for re-election for vice chairman of the city Republican Party.

It has become an article of faith amongst all of the campaigns that negativity has become the third rail of GOP politics this cycle. When Binnie went negative on Ayotte, his ads blew up in his face and seriously damaged his campaign. Since then, the supporters of every campaign have made it clear that they want their candidates to be positive and the campaigns are wary of incurring the wrath of the voters. They also feel that with such a potential backlash, negative ads won’t be very effective as voters will just discount them, and they will do more damage to the person running them.

Binnie’s run of positive ads may have started to improve his image and begin to repair some of the damage he did to himself, but he still has a long way to go. Will he stay positive for the rest of the campaign? Some of his opponents are worried that he might actually be serious about a positive campaign, and if so, that he could actually be in a position to win this. However, if Binnie were to go negative again, any work he did to repair his image would be quickly undone and he would find himself slipping even further back.

The New Hampshire Union Leader’s John DiStaso has the scoop:

MAHONEY UP IN POLL. Mahoney leads the primary field in the most recent poll of the 1st District Republicans.

The conservative Americans for Prosperity hired pollster Cross Target, headed by former state GOP executive director Steve DeMaura. The pollster on Tuesday asked 369 likely Republican primary voters for their preferences.

According to AFP executive director Corey Lewandowski, Mahoney led with 32.6 percent, Guinta was backed by 25.9 percent, Rich Ashooh drew 9.9 percent and Bob Bestani drew 5.1 percent with 26.5 percent undecided.

Government spending was picked as the top issue facing the nation by 35.4 percent, with jobs at 22.4 percent and the national debt at 12.3 percent.

Sources say that Binnie has very high unfavorables; in one poll his favs and unfavs were nearly equal; in another, his unfavs were actually higher than his favs and were approaching 50%. The negative ad blitz he unleashed on his opponent Kelly Ayotte was viewed by many observers as unskilled and over-the-top, and it appears that it has greatly impacted his image. Polls show that the vast majority of NH voters view Binnie as a negative campaigner. As Now! Hampshire previously reported, the Binnie campaign’s own internal polling shows the same thing, which prompted Binnie to suddenly pull his negative ads late last week after he received poll results last Wednesday.

Binnie has run nothing but positive ads this week in an attempt to improve his image and has claimed his several forums that he is eschewing negative campaigning. Whether or not Binnie is sincere or is will return to his slash and burn tactics remains to be seen.

Guinta voted for numerous tax increases as a State Rep.

For example, though Guinta now claims he supports job creation, he actually voted to increase the state’s Business Profits Tax from 8% to 8.5% and the Business Enterprise Tax from .5% to .75%.

Guinta also voted to increase taxes on health insurance premiums, nuclear power generation, and electricity use.

The later tax increase on energy use seems to agree with Guinta’s previous position on cap-and-trade legislation. As NowHampshire.com and others have reported in the past, Guinta teamed up with the Sierra Club as Mayor of Manchester to lobby Congress to pass cap-and-trade under the “Cool Cities Initiative.”

Guinta served only one term in the New Hampshire House, though Nashua Telegraph reporter Kevin Landrigan caught Guinta attempting to enhance his resume a bit by adding an extra term on his campaign bio. Team Guinta called the resume enhancement a “typo.” Taxpayers may feel considerable relief over such typos.

Sources tell Now! Hampshire that the Ayotte camp has numbers that show that Binnie’s ads drove his own negatives up. Now that Binnie has announced that he will only go positive, Ayotte put up this ad in an attempt to beat him to it; since voters are sick and tired of the negative, Ayotte will benefit from a round of positive. And if Binnie decides to step up his negative attacks instead, it will continue to blow up in his face, since Ayotte’s touts her public service and the military service of her husband. How does Binnie run negatives against an Iraq War veteran?

More importantly, the shot at Binnie’s money and ads will sting. Everyone knows how that almost sunk Craig Benson back in ’02, and Binnie seems to be repeating his mistakes. The Ayotte campaign reportedly has numbers showing that Binnie’s wealth, especially when used to buy negative ads, is one of the highest negatives they tested against him. Given that voters are especially turned off right now due to Binnie’s negative blitz, the Ayotte camp feels this is an especially potent hit. And Binnie has never done a good job of explaining all of the charity work etc he has used his money for, although he has tried to get that out more in the press lately. But unless he puts money behind it on Boston and WMUR, it will not burn into the voters’ consciousnesses.

It will be interesting to see what Binnie does in response to Ayotte’s move, but the consensus of most political insiders is that he should run some positive spots and he should take on directly the charge that he is a rich guy trying to buy this election.

But Guinta’s own voting record might lead voters to wonder about his own commitment to party principles.

It is commonly understood that Frank Guinta has only considered himself a conservative since he announced his campaign for Congress. Prior to that Guinta didn’t call himself a conservative – he said as much in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Instead, he claimed to be a “new Republican.” (New Hampshire Union Leader, “Frank C. Guinta’s Favorite Pastime is Politics, Jan. 22, 2002.)

Apparently “new Republicans” vote for big-spending Democratic budgets as Guinta did when he supported then-Gov. Jeanne Shaheen’s FY 2001 – 2002 budget, which increased state spending by double digits. Guinta also voted for Democratic tax increases when he was in the House. He backed higher taxes on local businesses and insurance premiums.

Guinta’s record on social issues isn’t much better. In fact, from a conservative perspective, it’s even worse. NowHampshire.com has already reported on the fact that Guinta supported abortion rights and wanted the Granite State to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states.

What’s more, Guinta’s liberal position on cap-and-trade is well documented. As Mayor, Guinta partnered with the Sierra Club to pressure Washington to pass cap-and-trade-style legislation.

It appears that someone other than Frank Guinta should serve as the yard stick for who does and who does not represent Republican principles.

Guinta was a pro-abortion state rep. despite campaign rhetoric

Giunta rarely talks about his actual record on the issue, however. Perhaps that’s because Frank Guinta’s record on abortion, and other cultural issues, reveal that he has spent his career as a rigid social liberal who is out of step with conservatives in his party. In fact, one source tells NowHampshire.com that until this year, Guinta never even bothered to fill out a New Hampshire Right to Life candidate survey.

Far from being a pro-life state legislator, Guinta’s brief stint in the New Hampshire House shows he strongly supports a woman’s right to choose an abortion in virtually all cases.

Guinta served in the New Hampshire House in 2001 and 2002. He won re-election, but resigned his seat to work for Rep. Jeb Bradley. During that time Guinta voted against a measure that would have required parental consent for a minor to obtain an abortion (HB 1380, 2002). He also opposed stronger protections for unborn babies to be written into the state’s negligent homicide statute HB 319, 2002).

Guinta opposed a civil rights bill for health care providers, which would have preserved a doctor’s right to conscience on the issue of abortion (HB 1209, 2001).

Guinta even opposed a bill to stop the sale of aborted fetal body parts (HB 602, 2001).

Abortion isn’t the only social issue on which Guinta was an unreconstructed liberal, though. For example, he voted to block a bill that would have allowed parents a say in whether their children were subject to sex education in classrooms (HB 1346, 2002).

And despite his anti-gay marriage rhetoric on the campaign stump, Guinta once voted to recognize same sex marriages performed in other states (HB 454, 2001).

Guinta has never offered a public explanation for his election-year conversion on social issues.

By now everybody has heard how Binnie got a poll back on Wednesday that showed that his negative barrage of ads, mail and calls blew up in his face. He barely dented his opponent Kelly Ayotte and yet drove up his own negatives threw the roof. After he got the poll, Binnie lashed out at his consultants and pulled down his negative ads. Realizing the move backfired and he damaged himself, he is now pledging to go positive.

Ever since he got the poll back, Binnie has been whining about how unfair the whole thing is. To hear Binnie tell it, somehow a guy who unleashed millions of dollars of negative attacks is the real victim, and that sentiment is on full display in the WKXL interview.

Binnie starts by making the incredulous claim that his company moving jobs to Mexico was a case of mistaken identity. He claims that it was a company with a similar name, even though the Union Leader has his company’s annual report, signed by Binnie himself, that specifically mentions the relocation of its California plant to Mexico.

And that’s when he starts whining. He says he cannot believe what “they” are doing to his record and that it is “breathtakingly painful” and “so frustrating”.

He goes on to say that “I can’t believe what these insiders, these Washington insiders did to me,” and “I raise my hand and say, ‘I can’t believe they did this to me.” He says that in campaigns you get vilified, that “political experts” are very good at doing it.

Binnie has probably forgotten that he has hired none other than Arthur Finklestein, one of the greatest smear campaign artists of all time. He also has Brian Lanza and a Canadian by the name of Gerry Nichols, who refers to himself on his blog as one of the top five political minds in Canada. Binnie also paid $200,000 to Gary Maloney, an opposition research specialist.

Binnie also whines that “nobody is doing this to the other candidates”, but I guess for some reason he is forgot about the multi-million dollar barrage of ads, calls and mail he unleashed on his opponent Kelly Ayotte.

The WKXL interviewer, however, had not. He asked Binnie if he distorted Ayotte’s record in his ads.
Binnie responds by trying to justify his negative attacks by saying that the “Ayotte campaign did this to me” and that he had filed FEC complaints to prove this. Binnie is referring to his claim that Ayotte had coordinated with Cornerstone Action, of which there is no proof whatsoever. Binnie says this “outside group said vicious, vicious things about me”.

Cornerstone, of course, is a well-known NH grassroots organization. And the vicious things they said about him include that he is pro-gay marriage and pro-choice, which he is, that he said he was open to the TARP bailout and the VAT tax, which he did, and that he opposes the Arizona law cracking down on illegal aliens, which he does. None of these things are in dispute; moreover, there are YouTube clips of Binnie saying all of these things.

Binnie further tries to justify his attacks on Ayotte by saying that five former chairs of the NH GOP wrote an op-ed attacking him. The op-ed was about how Binnie gave money to liberal Democrats like Jeanne Shaheen and Martha Fuller Clark, which he did. And how an op-ed justifies millions in TV ads is lost on everyone but Binnie.

Still, Binnie whines that “nobody in my party came to my defense” and that he “turned the other cheek” but finally said “enough is enough” and decided to “contrast backgrounds”. Binnie said it is “unfortunate from the voters’ standpoint because they don’t want to see that” and “I know they don’t” and even “I didn’t want to do it” but he had no choice.

Binnie says his ads were about the FRM Ponzi scheme which occurred due to the “incompetence of Kelly’s office”. Of course, everyone but Binnie knows that the AG’s office didn’t have jurisdiction.
Binnie also says that with Bob Clegg, he was talking about his personal experience with Ayotte. And along with the FRM victims, his ads “used their own words”. Binnie goes on to say that “I didn’t make this up, like they did.”

Of course, if telling the truth and using people’s own words isn’t negative, then ads using clips of Binnie’s own words certainly can’t be a “viscous, viscous” attack.

But now, Binnie says, he has seen the light. “I am going to go positive, my stories, my ads,” he says. “I understand now that voters are fed up with negative ads. I understand that.”
The operative word being “now”, as in “I got my poll back, see that my negative ads blew up in my face, and so now I will be positive.”

Binnie goes on to say, “Do I think that my ads were illustrative of her career – absolutely. Do I think that voters are fed up with hearing it – absolutely. That’s why we have to turn it around and be positive. I hear them, I hear Fosters.”

Binnie is referring to the Fosters editorial that chastised him for the negative ads. Word is that he was counting on that endorsement and called the paper to try and make amends.
But Binnie still can’t but help to try and justify what he did, saying, I hope the voters understand that I tried to turn the other cheek, that I took it from all sides, that I didn’t go negative first.”
But then he can’t help himself, he concludes by saying, “Telling the truth is not negative.”

All in all, it is obvious from this interview that Binnie realizes that his ads blew up in his face and he is beside himself. He cannot believe that people think he is he bad guy and it is driving him crazy. So he tries to explain how he is really the victim and how that justified what he did, and now he is desperate to wear the white hat again, and so he will run a positive campaign.

Binnie clearly does not have the stomach for politics and has proven that he has a glass jaw. He over reacted and went over the top, and now is sullen and sulking.
Given this interview, it sounds like Binnie might make some erratic moves in the final two weeks.