THE WISDOM FUND: News & Views
Released January 30, 2004
Lightning Bolt Media
Press Contact: Eric W. Green (603) 334-6996

NH Primary Not the Expected Landslide for Bush

Bush receives 53,000 votes, other candidates 13,000

by Eric W. Green

JEFFERSON, NH - Results of the January 27 Republican New Hampshire primary - virtually ignored or even denied by national media such as Fox News and C-SPAN - show that President George W. Bush faces a significant obstacle to his re-election in November, according to political analyst Peter H. Estabrooks.

Despite what Estabrooks characterizes as "an ongoing lack of national or local press coverage of the actual results or their implications," a voter turnout analysis released by New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardiner indicates clearly that Bush fell far short of the "85 per cent" landslide victory purported by political pundits. On election eve, national columnist and "Capital Gang" pundit Bob Novak predicted that Bush would receive "99 per cent" of the GOP vote.

"There are roughly 278,000 registered Republicans in New Hampshire," says Estabrooks, who has independently tracked NH primary results since 1992, when insurgent Republican Pat Buchanan challenged then-President George H.W. Bush on his "no new taxes" lie and garnered 37% of the Republican vote, badly shaking the re-election effort of the current President's father, who lost to Bill Clinton that November.

"Given that this President Bush received just 53,000 votes, versus 13,000 votes that went to other candidates - including a field of unknown Republican challengers, Democrats both known and unknown, and write-in votes for Republican friends and neighbors of disgruntled Republicans across the state - that means that roughly a quarter of the total vote went against Bush," observes Estabrooks. "The mainstream media has so far covered up that reality."

In addition, he notes, the last-minute appearances in New Hampshire by "Republican big guns" including Governor Craig Benson, Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, and U.S. Senator John McCain, failed to rally eleventh hour turnout by rank and file Republicans to support President Bush.

Adding insult to injury, there were even anti-Bush protests yesterday in Merrimack when Bush finally came to New Hampshire. Angry voters who came out included union workers, veterans, bikers and college students.

"All of the facts suggest a powerful message that general election candidate Bush faces a serious problem in New Hampshire, and probably across the rest of the country," says Estabrooks. "The numbers speak of a strong message equivalent delivered four years ago by John McCain, when he upset Bush in the 2000 New Hampshire Republican primary. Put simply, this President is in big political trouble."

Two of Bush's under-publicized "dark horse" opponents in New Hampshire - former Berlin Mayor Richard Bosa, and Miami Beach "Bush-Nazi journalist" John Buchanan - agree with Estabrooks.

"Considering that my entire campaign was silenced by the Republican National Committee and the New Hampshire GOP, and that and their Fortune 500 corporate patrons made sure I got no press coverage, despite campaigning in more than 183 cities and towns across the state, I feel that I won a moral victory by getting my 841 votes," says ex-Mayor Bosa, a veteran of the Vietnam war and international businessman who now resides in Portsmouth.

"For my part," says Bosa's counterpart Buchanan - who became, last September, the first newspaper reporter in U.S. history to see the "Bush-Nazi files" at The National Archives and Library of Congress and published a series of articles in The New Hampshire Gazette in October and November - "I came up here to prove, as 'the truth candidate' representing 'we the people' against the Bush-Cheney regime and their corporate conglomerate media backers that America still belongs to us and not to them. I agree with Mr. Estabrooks that the low Republican turnout and the fact that a quarter of those voters went against Bush because his policies have devastated the state of New Hampshire and the nation represents a virtual indictment of this President. Like Mayor Bosa and much of the President's Republican base, I intend to see him held accountable at the ballot box in November."

Buchanan also alleges that he has been the victim of a "dirty tricks" campaign by the Republican National Committee and New Hampshire GOP. On January 22, NH state chair Jayne Millerick filed a false police report with Concord Police alleging "harassment" by Buchanan, who claims he was "intimidated and thrown out of the GOP headquarters in Concord by "two thugs" at the direction of Millerick. He also says he has a half-dozen witnesses to the incident, including a TV news crew and a newspaper reporter from Buffalo, NY. "I intend to prosecute Ms. Millerick and Karl Rove to the full extent of the law, for doing to me what they did to John McCain in New York state in 2000, for which Senator McCain won a landmark lawsuit which my attorneys will use as precedent for my lawsuit alleging criminal subversion of the electoral process as if we were in Nazi Germany in 1933."

Adds respected New Hampshire talk radio host and commentator Don Rondo, 74, and a lifelong, loyal Republican: "To say Bush is in trouble is, in my opinion, an understatement," he says. "This is the first election in my lifetime where a President is not only a cause of concern to voters, but is actually despised.

"Under this President," Rondo says, New Hampshire has lost more than 21,900 jobs, including a quarter of our manufacturing jobs. We have 7,000 homeless veterans, and our public drinking water is being auctioned off for privatization and profit in places like France and Germany. The American Revolution began here when we caused the overthrow of another tyrant named King George. I'd say this one's days are numbered, too."

Even Clear Channel talk host Dan Pierce noted on the air after the election that Bush has led to an unprecedented "division" in America and one that led directly to "threats and vile insults" against Pierce for his pro-Bush comments on C-SPAN.

"It's time for the American people and Republican voters to get real," says Estabrooks. "But most of all, the President has to get real."



[According to The Concord Monitor, January 27, 2004, the New Hampshire Primary vote count is: George W. Bush 53749 votes, Other 9178 votes. This count omits the roughly 4000 write-in votes for the other candidiates according to Mayor Bosa and Republican candidate John Buchanan.]

back button