The Reviews Are In: NH Pundits Mock Kevin Smith's Campaign Launch

Just two days after Smith’s official launch on Saturday, pundits are already openly mocking Smith’s campaign and his convoluted message to voters.

NH Today’s Chris Ryan — one of the state’s leading political journalists — said this morning that Smith’s slogan about “local New Hampshire values is redundant,” that “you don’t want a slogan that’s pushing people out,” and that his slogan sounds like “going back to the past." Ryan also added that the slogan is “bad,” “too much,” and “not a great slogan.” Co-host Justin McIsaac added that Smith’s “bumper sticker will be the size of a car.”

As if this wasn't bad enough for Smith, on the Pulse of NH with Jack Heath, Anna Brown from Citizens Count said that there is “not a huge differentiation” between Smith and Morse. It doesn’t bode well for Smith if guests on New Hampshire’s leading conservative radio program can’t even differentiate between him and another candidate just two days after his launch.

The bad reviews are just the latest sign of trouble for Smith’s fledgling campaign. The day before his launch event, Londonderry residents filed an ethics complaint against him for “politicking for the US Senate on taxpayer time.” And leading New Hampshire political outlets continue to highlight his extreme, anti-choice record, with WMUR today reporting on Smith “having fully thrown himself into the conservative culture wars of the early 2000s, fighting against same-sex marriage and abortion at the State House in his earlier career at Cornerstone Action.”

Smith’s rough launch is just the latest hurdle for Republicans in New Hampshire’s US Senate race. The Concord Monitor’s Paul Steinhauser has noted “that most New Hampshire voters know next to nothing about the three Republicans running to challenge Hassan in November’s midterm elections,” and Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College said, “the eventual Republican nominee has a lot of work to do to build up recognition as a credible alternative to the experienced Hassan.”

Ryan was even more succinct: “no one knows who the hell these people are.”