Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) is in a very tough re-election spot. She's running neck-and-neck with her Democratic challenger, the popular Gov. Maggie Hassan. But she's also in a primary and thus in a bit of a vise.
Ayotte’s position requires a bit of a balancing act: On the one hand she opposes hearings for Garland, but on the other she’s among a small group of Republican senators willing to meet with the judge, prompting her critics to say she’s trying to have it both ways.
Among her critics is Jim Rubens, a fellow Republican and former state senator who’s challenging her in the Republican primary. Rubens questions Ayotte’s conservative credentials.
“The problem is she’s gone completely off the rails on the big issues,” he said last weekend on WMUR. “She stabbed the base. She stabbed our party’s principles in the back.”
Andy Smith, of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, explains her predicament: "If she's forced to run to the political right to stave off a primary challenge, that could make it more difficult for her in the general election, where you have to be more in the political center." The primary isn't until September, so at the moment, she's running to the right, and running against President Obama, for whatever that will do for her. She introduced legislation this week to keep the Guantánamo Bay prison camp open indefinitely. It would permanently ban bringing detainees into the United States and block the White House from releasing detainees to other countries through September 2017. Just to be more of an asshole about it, she's put a hold on one of Obama's nominees—Jennifer O'Connor to be the Pentagon's general counsel.
Ayotte's doing her damnedest to prove that she's a real, Obama-hating Republican. At least until September 13, primary day. That gives Maggie Hassan plenty of time to point out Ayotte's true colors, and very little time for Ayotte to make an about-face for the general.
Please donate $3 today to help turn the Senate blue. The future of the Supreme Court depends on it.