University of New Hampshire | Week2Page3Segment2-Primary Videos

Welcome back. We're going to continue our discussion of the political structure of New Hampshire. And it's a small irony of American political history that a state like New Hampshire, which wields so much influence over the choice of the next president, has always kept its own state executives relatively powerless compared to the governors of the other 49 states. That deep suspicion, which hails back to the state's earliest days, is ingrained in the State's Constitution and political culture.

For example, New Hampshire's governor is elected every two years. The only other state with a two-year term for governor is its neighboring state, Vermont. While incumbent governors typically are locks to win a second two- year term, Republican Craig Benson failed to do so in 2004. And current democratic governor, Maggie Hassan, had a relatively close call in her reelection bid just last year.

And once a newly elected governor sits down in the corner office in the state house in Concord, the frustrations of election do not end. The governor's power of appointment, for instance, is quite limited. For one, she does not begin with a clean slate. Terms of executive department heads do not run concurrently with the governor's term. Therefore, a new governor may be stuck with holdovers from the previous administration, and even the opposing party because the governor does not have the power to unilaterally fire them.

To make matters worse, the governor also lacks power to unilaterally hire department heads once she has the opportunity to do so. That's because of another 18th century device to restrict executive power known as the Executive Council. The Council is certainly the most unique feature of New Hampshire's government. Five counselors are elected from districts and act as a corporate board of sorts, to which the governor is accountable.

For example, the Executive Council possesses the vote to approve the governor's top political appointments, from the leaders of state agencies, such as an attorney general or a commissioner of education, all the way down to members of voluntary commissions.

Currently, the governor is a Democrat. But she would not be able to fire one of her commissioners, even if he was a Republican who fundamentally disagreed with her policies, unless she had the votes on the Executive Council to approve the replacement. Without the votes, the current commissioner continues to serve.

The Executive Council also has great control over state spending. All contracts the state enters into of $10,000 or more are voted on by the Executive Council. And counselors take their jobs quite seriously and they will frequently question the prudence of spending state money, even on small contracts.

New Hampshire governors typically serve only two or three terms. When John Lynch ran for a fourth consecutive term, that was considered a remarkable event in New Hampshire's political history. Running every two years is a tiring thing. The pay isn't great-- only about $105,000, and the Executive Council has oversight of his or her actions. In recent years, Democrats have regularly held the corner office, winning all but one election for governor since 1996. Democrat Maggie Hassan is currently serving her second term as governor.

When it comes to the presidential primary, senators, representatives, counselors, and the governor are sought for endorsements to a greater or lesser extent. The governor is the most highly sought after, both because of that figure status and the likelihood that he has a well functioning political organization to put at the presidential candidate's disposal, given that he's had to run for reelection so often.

But not all governors endorse a presidential candidate. The best known governors to back candidates are Sherman Adams and John Sununu, who both became chiefs of staff. First to Eisenhower and Sununu to George

H. W. Bush. Recent governors who have thrown their political support behind a candidate include Jeanne Shaheen who backed Al Gore in 2000 and Steve Merill, who endorsed Bob Dole in 1996.

But not all governors endorse candidates. For example, John Lynch, even though he served four terms, did not endorse a candidate during the 2008 democratic primary. But his wife was a supporter of Hillary Clinton. Executive counselors are also in demand as they have large districts and typically interact frequently with state legislators and local elected officials. For example, Ray Burton, who was the executive counselor from New Hampshire's first district, was a highly sought after endorsement during his 19 terms, representing New Hampshire's north country.

State senators are also important. They have larger districts and they're typically better known than state representatives. Senators who hold or have held leadership positions are especially highly prized endorsements. Representatives, though, as they say, are a dime a dozen. There are 400 of them and their endorsements are not as eagerly sought. They're typically not so well known, represent tiny districts, unless they are in leadership positions, have quite small political organizations to tap into.

It's the Speakers of the House and the minority leaders who are the exception to this rule. For example, Mitt

Romney kicked off his 2012 campaign at the farm of a former Speaker of the House, Doug Scamman.

Endorsements by representatives are important when they come in bunches. As there are 400 of them, getting the endorsements of a handful is fairly easy to do, but when a candidate's endorsed by 50 or more representatives, they show broader, Andy.

So I guess the question is how much should candidates seek endorsements of local and state officials here in

New Hampshire?

Well, I think endorsements, as other political science research has shown, is quite important, but not every endorsement is the same. For example, the governor's good. They have a political base to tap into, but oftentimes they don't have as strong of an endorsement ability as do some local officials. For example, on the Republican side, it's the county sheriffs that are really the most sought after endorsements. They have great interaction with other law enforcement folks around their county who vote Republican.

And so, I guess an endorsement can be just a name on a list or it could be someone who's going to go out and actively work and build strong word of mouth among fellow political activists, which hopefully, eventually, trickles down to the voters.

Right. One of the kind of endorsements that is helpful, especially for a candidate that's not well known, is getting an endorsement from a well known governor or senator or someone like this, because it shows to those voters who don't know this candidate, that he must be OK, for example, if former senator Judd Gregg supported him. It's not that they're looking for the political machine here. They're looking for, basically, the imprimatur of a well known candidate.

Thanks for watching and we'll see you next time.