Governor

Gov. John Lynch (D-Hopkinton) says that New Hampshire is on track to have a balanced budget at the ending of this fiscal year.

Lynch said the state has taken "appropriate steps" to deal with the budget crisis.

Gov. John Lynch endorsing U.S. Sen. Barack Obama: Politicker PhotoUNITY -- After remaining neutral for two years in the presidential primary process, Gov. John Lynch (D-Hopkinton) officially endorsed Barack Obama's presidential campaign today on the same stage where Hillary Clinton and Obama were to appear.

"Please join Susan and me as we work tirelessly to elect Barack Obama the next president of the United States," Lynch said.

Lynch's wife, Susan Lynch, endorsed Hillary Clinton during the New Hampshire primary.

It really doesn’t matter much what John Sununu or Jeanne Shaheen put up for numbers as long as neither is embarrassingly low. Both candidates will have plenty of money to run an effective campaign. As long as Shaheen has been able to turn her momentum into cash, this race won’t be very interesting as far as fundraising goes.

1st Congressional District

State Sen. Joe Kenney: Campaign photoCommenting on the upcoming event with U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) and U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), state Sen. Joe Kenney (R-Wakefield) said he feels "bad" for the town of Unity and added that the Democratic presidential candidates must quickly unify.

"I feel bad for the people of Unity; hopefully they don't call it disunity after the event. All kidding aside, I think they have to unify quickly to catch-up to John McCain."

After the Milken Institute released its 2008 State Technology and Science Index, Gov. John Lynch (D-Hopkinton) issued a press release trumpeting New Hampshire's ranking of ninth place nationwide for being friendly to high technology industry. The state ranked 12th in last year's index.

Lynch used the occasion to recap the variety of tech friendly initiatives that he enacted during the previous term, including the Research and Development Tax Credit - passed last year - and reinstating the job training program, which has spent $800,000 since last winter training 1,300 employees.

The latest ARG poll released yesterday shows Republicans John McCain and John Sununu have a long way to go if they hope to carry the state. Barack Obama leads McCain 51%-39% and Sununu trailing Jeanne Shaheen 54%-40%. News is even worse for Joe Kenney who trails Governor John Lynch 65%-21%.

While it is still early, these numbers do not bode well for the Republican ticket in November.

New Hampshire Public Radio's The Exchange program devoted the whole hour yesterday to discussion of New Hampshire's elections from state Senate to the U.S. Senate.

On the panel were UNH's Andy Smith, professor Dean Spiliotes, NHPR's Dan Gorenstein and PolitickerNH.com's James Pindell.

You can listen to the program here.

Concord--State Sen. Joe Kenney (R-Wakefield) officially filed for governor with the Secretary of State today.

So here we are, the morning of June 4th and Barack Obama by almost all counts is the Democratic nominee. Yet Governor John Lynch, a superdelegate at the Democratic Convention in Denver later this summer, has still not endorsed a candidate.

As of yesterday morning Party Chairman Ray Buckley and Governor Lynch were the last two NH superdelegates yet to endorse. It made sense for Buckley not to take sides; he needed to be available to hear a broken party if the Hillary Clinton/Barack Obama split became even uglier. But, even Buckley saw the writing on the wall and got behind Obama.

This weekend the conservative blog GraniteGrok floated the idea of Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta getting back into the race.  According to those who have talked to the Guinta over the last 24 hours he is not saying no…. yet.

Those who have talked to Guinta say he is expressing continued frustration about the state of the State.  Guinta believes the deficit and lack of spending restraint by Governor John Lynch make it a great time for a creditable candidate to get in.