The special friendship between Gov. John Lynch and the State Employees' Association appeared to be on life support last week.

While Lynch was meeting with lawmakers, urging them to pass the budget, union President Gary Smith pledged on Tuesday to wage an "accountability campaign" for those who voted for a budget that will require laying off between 200 and 1,000 state workers.

On Wednesday, the budget passed and Lynch vowed to work with SEA leaders and to do his best to avert as many layoffs as possible.

Union leaders widely expressed disappointment with the Democratic leadership they'd worked to elect.

"Unfortunately, our elected leaders have ripped a page out of the Republican manual of running state government," said SEA Vice President Diana Lacey.

Meanwhile, there's still no SEA contract yet in place to start July 1, and it remains unclear how many state workers will be laid off.

Lacey called layoffs "probably the worst thing that can happen right now." She said state offices are "already understaffed."

It's also bad for Lynch, Lacey said. "It's politically unpalatable for the governor. As soon as a major corporation does a mass layoff, he's there at the doorstep."

Sununu getting in?

John E. Sununu will decide within "a week or so" whether to run once more for Senate, according to a Portsmouth Herald paraphrase of his father, Republican Party Chairman John H. Sununu.

The elder Sununu also predicted that his son would clear the Republican field of Attorney General Kelly Ayotte or anyone else looking at the race for the seat soon to be vacated by Judd Gregg. Second District Rep. Paul Hodes is the only Democrat in the race right now.

"I think, if my son runs, there will not be a primary," John H. Sununu said, according to the Herald.

Gregg affirmed that everyone in the GOP is waiting to hear John E. Sununu's call.

"He's obviously the person who should have the first shot at the seat," Gregg said in an interview.

Gregg on Ayotte

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