Brothers can you spare a quote?
Not only is Richard Brothers running against N.H. Sen. Carl Johnson for the GOP nomination in District 2, he’s apparently working just as hard against at least two other Republicans at the same time.
Brothers, an adviser on health care to Governor Benson, has been on the offensive, calling the Republican Senate leadership “openly hostile” to the governor, questioned leadership’s truthfulness and even their party affiliation.
In a series of jaw-dropping interviews with the Laconia Citizen, Brothers – a man of many, as opposed to few, words, offered these observations:
• “The governor would like to cut government waste, but the Senate is openly hostile to him. He’s uncomfortable with the current leadership.”
• “This state is headed for tremendous deficits, over $300 million next year. If the same team remains in the Senate, it will have a disastrous effect.”
• “I’m not speaking for the governor, but everyone knows the animosity between the governor and the Senate has been legendary in the past year and a half.”
• ”(Carl) Johnson is a nice guy, but it’s sad he’s willing to do anything to hang on to a pres pro tem license plate.”
• (On Senate leadership): “The difference between me and them is that I’m not afraid to tell the truth, and it scares the hell out of (Senate President Tom) Eaton, (Majority Leader Robert) Clegg and Johnson.”
• (Again on Senate leadership): “They’re talking out of both sides of their mouth.”
• ”(Eaton) has said publicly on numerous occasions that he’s not going to vote for the governor and hopes Benson is defeated in November. He’s been overheard by many people making those statements.”
Brothers also called “an outright lie” a claim by Clegg a controversial opinion issued earlier in the year by former Attorney General Peter Heed forced the most recent changes in the state’s education-funding law. And Clegg’s observation that the previous funding formula would have resulted in less money for District 2 towns, said Brothers, was “an absolute lie.”
So what does Brothers’ employer, the governor, have to say about all this? He told the Citizen, “I’m staying out of the primary races because it’s Republicans running against Republicans. How do you pick one over the other?”
