Michael Graham: Morse Stays On Offense Against Ayotte in WMUR Debate

He may be trailing in the polls, but Chuck Morse wasn’t showing any signs of slowing down in Tuesday night’s WMUR gubernatorial debate, continuing his attacks on GOP primary opponent Kelly Ayotte.

Ayotte answered with attacks of her own, a sign both candidates were already familiar with the accusations and attacks that were being made.

The question is how many GOP primary voters were hearing them for the first time Tuesday night, and will the criticisms of Ayotte’s record on immigration and Trump be enough to move their votes from the frontrunner?

Morse used nearly every question in the first half hour to throw a political punch at Ayotte, starting with how the candidates would address New Hampshire’s housing shortage.

“When President Trump came out today and talked about the fact that our housing prices here have risen the highest in the nation, that’s because of things like Kelly sitting on the board of Blackstone,” Morse said. “These companies come in, they drive up the cost of housing, and they make it harder for people to be able to afford things.”

Ayotte fired back: “Chuck sounds like a Democrat, blaming the private sector when we have a housing crisis. When it comes to supply, we need to build housing of all forms,” Ayotte said.

And so it went.

Asked about the opioid crisis and its impact in New Hampshire, Morse hit Ayotte for the so-called “Gang of Eight” immigration reform bill in 2013, which most Republicans view as an amnesty bill. “If we had Kelly’s way, she voted for amnesty for 11 million illegal immigrants to come into our country.”

“Chuck Morris actually killed the sanctuary city bill that would have banned sanctuary cities for illegal immigrants throughout our state,” Ayotte responded.

When a moderator asked what the candidates would do to tone down the partisan anger in the state and bring people together from across the political aisle, Morse said he “unified” Republicans in their support for Donald Trump.

“She couldn’t support Donald Trump [in 2016] and we lost a U.S. Senate seat for 12 years.”

Ayotte’s response: “That’s rich coming from someone who has never won a race outside of his hometown. He just lost a Senate race last time. He’s running for governor now, but he couldn’t win an executive council race.”

Perhaps the most heated exchange came when Morse attempted to blame Ayotte for the scandal at the Sununu Youth Development Center, a charge he also made during the NHJournal debate last week.

“Kelly talks about her accomplishments in law enforcement,” Morse said. “Where the hell was she when she was attorney general, when the Sununu Center was having problems with kids being raped and molested, because those reports that came out said it was during her watch, so she either knew it or she ignored it.”

Ayotte called the charge “one of the most blatant lies that Chuck Morris has told.

“In fact, we were at a forum together on June 21 in Chester and — please, I urge your viewers to go and listen to him in his own words. He knows this is not true, that I didn’t know anything about that. At ChuckMorseLies.com, you can hear him in his own words.”

On policy issues, however, the two were closely aligned. They both support the state’s current abortion law and do not support changing it. Both are happy with the cuts in business tax rates and happy to see the interest and dividends income tax phased out at the end of the year. And both defended the Education Freedom Accounts program.

One stark difference was their response to the question, did Vice President Mike Pence do the right thing on Jan. 6, 2021? That was the day Pence, as required by the U.S. Constitution, oversaw the opening and counting of the certified election results from the states.

“We need to make sure that our laws are enforced. And he wanted to follow the law, and so he did that,” Ayotte said. Asked if that was a “yes,” Ayotte replied, “I think that following the law and our constitution is important.’

Morse’s answer: “No.”

“I believe the fact is, we ought to first make sure we have the facts, and then we follow the law based on the facts.”

As is its tradition, WMUR included some questions that were intended to be light, but often come across as goofy or just plain odd. (It once asked U.S. Senate candidates to name their “favorite exit off the Kancamangus Highway.)

This year’s winner for worst question: “What is the most difficult kind of driveway to plow?”

So, who was the winner of Tuesday night’s debate? Most of the GOP sources who spoke to NHJournal said Morse gave the best performance, but it probably wasn’t enough to change the trajectory of a race that polls show Ayotte is winning handily.

“It was one of the best nights of Chuck Morse’s political career, one he has dreamed of — a gubernatorial debate stage on WMUR — for years. He was strong, on message, and sharp on the attack. And yet Kelly Ayotte, as shaky as she was, will still win by double digits on Tuesday.”

Morse supporter Glenn Gidley of Salem said, “Republican voters are looking for a proven conservative who delivers results, not a corporate sellout more focused on her image than the issues facing New Hampshire families. Chuck Morse dominated the debate by exposing Kelly Ayotte as the fake conservative she is, and voters will send her right back to the boardroom on September 10th.”

But GOP strategist Matthew Bartlett, an Ayotte supporter, saw the debate very differently.

“A week away from the primary, Kelly continues to make her argument for why New Hampshire’s future is bright with continued common sense conservatism. Chuck’s entire campaign is based on chasing Kelly, and at this point, it is not a question of who wins – but how badly she beats him.”