Remembering John DiStaso; NH’s FITN status

everybody. I’m w nur political Director Adam Sexton. Welcome to Politics plus where we wrap up the week’s events and talk about what’s happened in the world of politics, bringing indian Spiliadis, s Nhu civic scholar, longtime observer and commentator and analyst of new Hampshire politics. Dean, thanks for joining us. Hi, Adam, it’s good to be with you. So starting off in *** bit of *** somber note here, Dean, obviously we’re still all mourning the loss of john Distaso who passed away last week of complications from pancreatic cancer. Just an amazing career that he had and was still going strong, was hoping to get back in some capacity or another one. He was taken from us. But what are your thoughts just on what john meant to the world of politics here in new Hampshire? Yeah, it’s ***, it’s *** big loss to New Hampshire’s political and journalistic communities. Um, I knew John for almost 30 years. I came here in 1995, uh, in the run up to the 1996 presidential primary. And, and very quickly learned that he was the go to guy for insider information. Uh, not only on the new Hampshire primary, but as somebody coming from out of state, I very quickly learned that the kind of, the granular level of his knowledge of local politics was tremendously helpful to somebody who was new to the state. I mean, I I think his legacy is obviously going to be *** very strong one. Would have liked to have had him around for *** few more presidential primary cycles. But I think his legacy uh, as ***, as *** legend in the, in the political journalism community here is pretty well set. Um, and uh, john, I think went *** long way to giving credence that the idea that local journalists need to be taken just as seriously as national journalists who parachute in here for *** month or *** few weeks in the lead up to the primary. And he really helped establish new Hampshire as *** place where presidential candidates could, could, could come and be questioned seriously and fairly uh, and helped really to kind of give the political environment here the kind of the kind of credence and respect that it needs in order for us to continue to be the first in the nation primary. And his career really rose alongside what I would guess would call kind of the golden age of the new Hampshire primary, that sort of um, you know, eighties into the nineties there, where it really, you know, obviously, you know, jimmy carter had his thing going on in 76 but then the Reagan bush battles and um, you know, all of those things that went down from the bob dole and bush thing in 88 just, he was there for all of that chronicling it, you know, providing that insider perspective and you know, here we are streaming on twitter and facebook and john was so successful at making the transition to digital, but For maybe some of our younger viewers who might be out there, Dean just describe what the granite status column meant, you know, when you were getting here in 95, just what that sort of was in the media environment at that time. Yeah, it was *** fantastic column. It ran on Thursdays I believe for pretty much most, if not all of its run, and we would all wait to to see that column come out in the paper on the and the Union leader on Thursdays in order to kind of get the insider scoop. And uh you know, I probably talked to john hundreds of times in my career, I have lost count. Uh and you know, he would often call me and he had some big news that he was about to break. Uh and and one of the things I liked about john’s reporting so much was there was no hidden agenda. Uh he was clearly *** no drama kind of guy, even under sometimes very tense circumstances with, with political candidates here for the primary. Uh and uh and uh you know, john genuinely wanted to understand uh you know, what the political ramifications of some breaking news might be. Uh he often had ***, he had such *** good understanding of the political mechanics of the state that he typically was already at the, at the correct answer before I even gave him my two cents, but I always sensed that he was really, I’m not pushing any particular agenda really looking to try to figure out the truth of the situation. Uh, whatever it might be old school wanted to get it right, wanted to be first uh thing safe to say we’re missing him *** lot personally here at W. M. Er but the state’s gonna be missing him as well for his journalism, we should not see the likes of him again, but on *** topic that he reported on so extensively and so welding, you know, the first in the nation primary, interesting political article out this week, essentially saying, you know, that there’s some DNC insiders out there, basically identifying new Hampshire as the front runner to not just be first in the nation for the primary, but 1st, 1st, essentially that Iowa might be gone and that right now they’re looking at making putting new Hampshire number one, what are your thoughts on this report and the implications for us here in new Hampshire? Yeah, *** little bit surprising, I must confess if it’s, if it turns out to be accurate, you know, traditionally the criticisms have been, you know, from from from those who want to change the schedule. It’s been ***, you know, *** pox on both the houses of Iowa and new Hampshire, we’ve kind of been lumped together. Um, you know, I I think that the critical argument here for new Hampshire is that the issue is not necessarily having one state go first that solves all the diversity issues that democrats have complained about given new Hampshire’s demographics, but that this pre primary window that we have with the four states that taken in total, it should represent the diversity of the, of the state. And I think of of the state primary process and I think new Hampshire can certainly make that case. I think, I think the state is benefiting from the fact that most of the Ire seems to be directed at the Iowa caucus. I think we’re seeing caucuses slowly. The idea of the caucuses slowly move into extinction, Nevada has turned itself into *** primary in hopes of going going first. Uh, but, you know, Nevada has only been in that pre window since 2008. They’re fairly new to this early game. Uh, you know, New Hampshire has got it, uh, you know, got it set, understands how to do this, well, how to do it, how to do it effectively. Uh, we have various, you know, state laws that help protect that status, so it’s not going to be an easy thing to dislodge new Hampshire, but I think new Hampshire can make *** very affirmative case, not simply *** defensive case to keep that position, right? And nonetheless, you know, the inertia of tradition is sitting there as well. You know, this idea that you don’t want to reinvent the wheel too much, even though that’s probably something they might be doing to *** certain extent. It was interesting, uh, NH DP Chairman Ray buckley and DNC committeewoman Joanne doodle, we’re on close up last week on sunday and you know, I asked, you know, there was *** lot of sunshine coming out of that, you know, the democrats are basically saying, hey, don’t worry, we’ve got this even though it is *** different process now. But you know, one thing that I really took away from that interview was that, um, I asked about is the special relationship still intact because, you know, as you noted, new Hampshire and Iowa have often been *** team in working on these things and the answer is not yes, it wasn’t, no, but there was no sort of like we’re going to stick together. So it does, the writing does seem to be on the wall for Iowa, I want to touch off of one thing and ask you one thing you mentioned their state law, to what extent do you think that this sort of pre wired aspect of the new Hampshire primary that, that it is in statute that new Hampshire must be *** week before any similar contest. How much do you think that gives the DNC pause for them to say, Gosh, you know, we don’t want to create *** super awkward situation here. Yeah, I think it’s *** significant consideration. We’ve used it very effectively in the past. I remember, I think it was 2000 and eight, there were, there were one or two primaries in there going back *** little ways where we moved up to early january. I think that I think that the *** primary was maybe in the first week of january sometime right after New Year’s. And I remember Bill Gardner was threatening to have it between thanksgiving and christmas of the previous year if if necessary. So uh you know, I think the national party threats to sanction uh individual states by withholding delegates that works for some states, but we don’t have that many delegates in comparison to larger states. I don’t think that would be *** big, you know, big deterrence for new Hampshire to move up. So I think that’s that’s an important part of this. It adds and *** significant additional complication for for the D. N. C. And I just want to say that the interview did. I’ve referenced that several times because it was very interesting to hear that the that that special relationship is maybe not so set in stone as we thought it was right, If it’s on facebook, it’s currently it’s complicated, right? Um one last question for you here, Dean, you know, the idea that that special relationship might be gone is one thing. Um the state law is completely another, but this whole concept of, you know, being able to be first in the nation, New Hampshire doesn’t want to give this up that do you think other states like Nevada are really going to go down that path of trying to do this and then ultimately, you know, President biden sits there *** level, I guess, of popularity right now might be comparable, you know, johnson in 68 new Hampshire sort of impetus for all of this with the McCarthy campaign and, and how that sort of put us on the map. Do you think that *** this fight will play into, um, the aspect of biden’s relative unpopularity right now, and that perhaps the president wouldn’t want *** state where *** challenger could get *** leg up on him in *** primary? Yeah, you know, that’s ***, that’s *** very good question. Adam. You know, President biden has so much on his plate right now, Probably the last thing he wants to have to figure out is, uh, is, you know, you know, assuming he runs for reelection, which he has said he intends to do, what, what should the future schedule look like? You know, I think he wants to continue to make the case that he has, even though he didn’t do all that well in the primary here. Uh, you know, that he still has *** really good relationship with, with new Hampshire and with Nevada, for that, that matter, I don’t think he wants to pit any of these states against each other. I mean, there may be some way to give Nevada enhanced status while still having new Hampshire go first. The combination of new Hampshire followed directly by Nevada. That would be *** pretty powerful combination, you know, *** week apart. I mean that covers pretty much all of your bases, demographically and geographically. Alright. Dean Spiliadis, S Nhu Civic Scholar. We always appreciate your insight. Thanks for joining us here on politics. Play sure thing. My President Adams. Alright. And thanks to all of you out there in cyberspace for watching.

News 9+ Politics: Remembering John DiStaso; NH is front-runner to retain FITN primary

Updated: 1:20 PM EDT Apr 29, 2022

VIDEO: Adam Sexton and SNHU’s Dean Spiliotes are remembering the dean of the NH political press corps, John DiStaso, who died last week. Plus, they discuss whether New Hampshire is the front-runner to retain the first-in-the-nation primary.

VIDEO: Adam Sexton and SNHU’s Dean Spiliotes are remembering the dean of the NH political press corps, John DiStaso, who died last week. Plus, they discuss whether New Hampshire is the front-runner to retain the first-in-the-nation primary.