The first super PAC in the race for New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District has formed, and it’s backing Republican businessman Rich Ashooh.
The creation of Granite Voices PAC, which was announced Thursday, strengthens Ashooh’s ability to challenge incumbent Republican U.S. Rep. Frank Guinta by giving donors an avenue through which they can give unlimited sums of money to boost Ashooh.
Matt Mowers, a former executive director of the state GOP and a consultant for the PAC, said potential donors have already pledged more than $100,000.
Ashooh, the former director of strategy and planning at BAE Systems and interim director of the University of New Hampshire School of Law’s Rudman Center, announced his candidacy at the beginning of April. He raised $100,000 in two weeks, according to a post on his campaign’s Facebook page.
That amount of cash on hand already put him in line with his Republican rivals, according to their most recent reports to the Federal Elections Commission on March 31. Guinta reported $76,207 on hand and Pam Tucker, a four-term state representative from Greenland, reported $87,853 at the time.
The Democrats reported far more cash on hand to the FEC. Former congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter reported $253,932 and Shawn O’Connor, a businessman, reported $722,098, mostly from a self-funded loan.
Granite Voices PAC wrote in a press release that it intends to spread Ashooh’s message of “restoring trust in government, fiscal responsibility, and a strong national defense.”
Mowers said the super PAC will give Ashooh a leg up on his competitors.
The congressional district, which includes the Seacoast, Manchester area and Lakes Region, has frequently changed hands between Democrats and Republicans. Shea-Porter won in 2006 and 2012 and Guinta won in 2010 and 2014.
Ashooh lost in the Republican primary to Guinta in 2010, as one of three candidates who were separated by a matter of 3,000 votes.
In the course of that 2010 election, Guinta illegally accepted a $355,000 campaign donation from his parents, the FEC found. To comply with an order from the FEC, he repaid that sum last month. Guinta said the money was his because he contributed to and managed a “family pot” of money.
Since the details of the FEC’s investigation became public last June, Guinta’s unpopularity has gradually risen, according to the WMUR Granite State Poll conducted by UNH.
In a survey administered this month, 46 percent of 1st District respondents said they would definitely vote for a candidate other than Guinta, including 23 percent of Republicans. With 25 percent of respondents reporting a favorable view on Guinta, and 47 percent unfavorable, his net favorability was negative 22.
In the same survey, most people said they didn’t know enough about Ashooh to make a judgment. Nine percent saw him favorably and 5 percent unfavorably.
Mowers said the PAC will invest in voter targeting and data analytics to guide advertising online, through mail, and on TV and radio to spread the word about Ashooh.
“With public trust in Congress plummeting, Rich Ashooh is the antidote for everything that is wrong with Washington, D.C.,” Mowers wrote in a press release. “Rich has truly lived the American dream and his experience as both a businessman and a community leader, not a professional politician, make him the best prepared to restore trust and conservative values to Congress. He will help create American jobs, protect America’s security, and finally rein in excessive spending caused by the professional political class.”
(Nick Reid can be reached at 369-3325, nreid@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @NickBReid.)