Will Ted Gatsas or Joe Kelly Levasseur Jump Into the Mayor Race?
JKL Claimed After Last Election Gatsas wanted his old job back — OPINION
MANCHESTER, NH — Now that former Mayor Ray Wieczorek has endorsed Victoria Sullivan rather than his former chief of staff Richard H. Girard, the big names remaining in the Republican endorsement pool — other than Governor Chris Sununu — are Executive Councilor Ted Gatsas and Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur.
There were rumors at the end of 2020 that Governor Sununu was pressuring Gatsas to run, again, against incumbent Joyce Craig. Congressional candidate Matt Mayberry, who lost the 2020 GOP nomination for Congress in the First District, was enthusiastic about a Gatsas candidacy.
At the time, Ted Gatsas told the New Hampshire Journal that he didn’t intend to run for mayor, preferring to focus on serving on the Executive Council.
The former four-term mayor of Manchester endorsed Victoria Sullivan during her 2019 campaign. Gatsas’ failure to do so this year might reflect ambivalence, as he and Sullivan’s fellow Republican mayoral contender Rich Girard have been close, politically, in the past.
In the opinion of this reporter, Rich Girard functioned virtually as Ted Gatsas’s minister of communications when still hosted his Girard at Large radio program. Then-Mayor Gatsas was a regular guest on GAL.
Then again, Joe Levasseur might be right: Ted Gatsas might want his old job back.
Weak vs. Strong Candidates
Both Victoria Sullivan and Rich Girard lost their previous mayor races by landslide margins. They are not strong candidates. in my estimation.
A Republican power broker like Governor Chris Sununu might want the GOP to field a stronger candidate.
In the past, Sununu has exploited the issue of homelessness and crime in the Queen City, such as when Ted Gatsas ran against him for the 2016 Republican gubernatorial nomination. He might believe the same issues could be used, effectively, against Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig.
Republican sources say that Governor Sununu believes he has a chance of flipping Manchester red in 2021. A Republican-tilting Manchester would be vital to him should he seek the 2022 Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate.
There is buzz inside the Beltway in Washington, D.C. that former Kelly Ayotte, who hails from Nashua, might jump into the race to take on U.S Senator Maggie Hassan, Democrat.
Hassan, then serving as governor, beat Ayotte, the incumbent, by 1,017 votes, a margin of 0.14%.
Shoring up his support in Manchester could help Sununu defeat Ayotte, should he decide he wants to move on to Washington.
Since Joyce Craig has been touted as a potential Democratic gubernatorial nominee for several years, defeating her or weakening her in the 2021 election would help Sununu remain governor past 2022.
On her part, Kelly Ayotte has endorsed Victoria Sullivan for mayor. Some Democratic Party political players described the endorsement as one of Ayotte’s first significant political acts in a while. It might indicate that she is thinking of returning to the U.S. Senate.
Sources close to the Girard at Large radio program said that Senator Ayotte refused to appear on GAL after the 2014 “Little Mel Sexting Scandal.”
Former Brigadier General Donald Bolduc is one of the few “names” to have endorsed Rich Girard.
Bolduc seeks to replace Maggie Hassan in the U.S. Senate. He came in second in the 2020 Republican Primary for U.S. Senate with a respectable 42.5% of the total vote.
“Everybody Wants to be Mayor”
Another name conspicuously absent from the endorsement lists is that of Alderman at Large Joe Kelly Levasseur, whom a Union Leader columnist covering the 2014 Sexting Scandal called Girard’s “nemesis.”
Levasseur has supported Victoria Sullivan in the past. However, as canny a political forecaster as Levasseur knows that both she and Girard suffered defeats in their previous bids for the office of mayor, their hopes crushed by landslides.
Sullivan has a reputation as a very likable person and has charmed many people —Republican, Democrat, and non-aligned alike — but she has not proven herself to be a vote-getter city-wide. Girard, by contrast, has won three city-wide elections for significant positions — alderman at large and school board member at large, but personally, he is widely disliked.
With two flawed candidates, Joe Kelly Levasseur — who often is the top vote-getter city wide — may be thinking of running himself.
Incidentally, Levasseur was one of the sources of the rumors that Ted Gatsas was thinking of running for mayor against Joyce Craig.
In a conversation with this reporter, held in his old law office in downtown Manchester, Levasseur confided, “Everybody wants to be mayor.”
If Joe Levasseur were to sign up for mayor rather than alderman at large during the filing period, he would immediately vault to the head of the list of contenders for Joyce Craig’s municipal crown. Then again, a filing by Ted Gatsas would trump Levasseur.
The filing period runs from July 12th to July 23rd.
