Frank Guinta via his PROPAGANDA spokesman Michael Biundo

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"Guinta pays up"

State Democrats thought they had a direct hit on Manchester mayor and Republican congressional candidate Frank Guinta in finding he had not paid a city sewer bill of about $442.

Guinta had failed to pay more than $3,300 in real estate and wastewater taxes on his apartment building on Youville Street in Manchester until a Union Leader reporter asked him about the debt.

"The fact that the mayor has $20,000 to bolster his campaign coffers but can't find the cash to pay off his debts to the city is inexcusable," said Victoria Bonney, party spokeswoman.

"When he failed to pay his bills last year, Frank Guinta claimed he didn't know that he owed the money. What is his excuse this time?"

Frank Guinta media consultant Michael Biundo said the bill had already been paid even though Bonney produced for The Sunday Telegraph an earlier Web site link that later got changed Friday showing it had been outstanding.

"It's ironic that Democrats have launched this misleading attack just one day after Carol Shea-Porter had her second sub-par fundraising quarter in a row and just hours after a national story broke on her receiving what amounts to a last-minute payoff from her party leaders in return for her support of a job-killing national energy tax,'' Mike Biundo said. "The mayor paid his bill before the Democrats even thought of making this false charge, so perhaps they should check their facts before trying to distract from their candidates failures to New Hampshire families."

Source: "Barely out the door, Ayotte gets cracking with campaign preparations" (Kevin Landrigan, nashuatelegraph.com - Sunday, July 19, 2009).

NOTE: Kevin Landrigan is a political columnist who may be reached at 603-321-7040 or klandrigan@nashuatelegraph.com.

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Over in the 1st District, there's been a lot of talk about whether Frank Guinta of Manchester is "floundering" (in the words of former Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan, who posted her analysis on bluehampshire). Sullivan's not alone: Congressional Quarterly noted that national Republicans have touted Guinta as one of their top pick-up potentials and concluded that "the numbers fell short of stellar."

The bottom line: The Republican mayor of Manchester raised $90,000, chipped in a $20,000 personal loan, spent just shy of $17,500 and wound up with less than six figures in the bank (abo/ut $93,000, to be precise).

Shea-Porter, the incumbent Democrat, raised $120,000, which, let's be fair, isn't exactly orders of magnitude more than Guinta's haul. And - a real surprise for a candidate with a grassroots-y reputation - most of Shea-Porter's money came from PACs, with just over $50,000 from individuals. (By comparison, in July 2007, two-thirds of Shea-Porter's $150,000 haul came from individuals.)

Guinta spokesman Mike Biundo counterpunched on that front. "He outraised Carol Shea-Porter significantly as it relates to individual donations in basically half the time she had," he said. "This good fundraising showing, combined with an equally good grassroots outpouring, has made the first leg of this campaign a huge success."

Source: cmonitor.com - 7/19/2009.

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