Just months after she told Gov. John Lynch that if she was reappointed as New Hampshire attorney general, she would finish her four-year term, Kelly Ayotte resigned today to consider running against Paul Hodes for Judd Gregg's to-be-open Senate seat. She joins a number of potential candidates in the Republican primary, but is widely seen as the Republicans' best chance.
Ayotte told the Union Leader that it had been her "intent to continue serving":
As for telling the governor she planned to serve her four-year term when he reappointed her in March, Ayotte said: "I would say that at the time of my reappointment no one could have predicted the political future. The political landscape has changed drastically since then. Clearly the intent was to continue serving, but I think in fairness no one could have predicted the changes that have occurred on the political landscape."
"The political landscape has changed drastically" since March? The political landscape in Kelly Ayotte's mind may have changed drastically in the last couple of months, but the one in New Hampshire has not.
Aside from John E. Sununu's announcement last Thursday that he wouldn't run, there have been no significant developments in this race. And a flurry of trial balloons for an Ayotte candidacy had been sent up well before that announcement. In fact, according to the Union Leader Ayotte had told Lynch she was considering resigning last week -- either before Sununu's announcement or so quickly after it as to indicate premeditation.
Ayotte isn't just going back on some personal promise, though. She's walking away from a huge budget crisis in New Hampshire -- and one brought on in part by an opinion she issued saying the state had a right to use $110 million it now turns out it may not have had the right to use. Oops! That's in litigation now -- just the time for the state to lack an attorney general.
As NH Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley said in a statement today:
We're seeing a national trend where Republicans have abandoned their responsibilities to their constituents in favor of political gain. From Alaska to New Hampshire, Republicans just can't seem to honor their commitment to the public. Not unlike Sarah Palin, Kelly Ayotte has broken her promise to the people she represents and put politics before public service.