By PAULA TRACY
CONCORD – Gov. Chris Sununu said he likes being a national political pundit, trying to direct Republicans to success, and at some point, he wants to return to the public sector, but he also said he loves his job.
He said Wednesday he would make a decision in the next few weeks about his future in the corner office of the State House.
Sununu had his first meeting with the New Hampshire press since announcing he would not be seeking the Republican nomination for president following the Executive Council meeting.
He said he does not have any hard job offers in hand but did not think it would be difficult to find something else to do if he decides against seeking an unprecedented fifth term in office.
He said the state is doing great by most metrics and that he has gotten a lot of what he wanted to get done accomplished.
The 47-year-old husband and father of three said he would be discussing his future with his family in the coming days.
New Hampshire has no term limits for the position of governor, but Sununu said the voters here don’t want people to serve in it for life or as their career.
“At some point, you’ve got to move on,” he said.
If he does decide to run and wins the Republican primary, he will likely face either Democrat Cinde Warmington of Concord who has announced she will run, Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig who has announced she has an exploratory committee looking at a run, or another Democrat.
Sununu announced on CNN last week that he decided not to run for president, ending months of speculation and many hours at public events and national talk shows.
With Trump polling well and a large field of candidates, he said he would take a pass but continue to keep his voice out there in an effort to direct the Republican party to success in the next Presidential election as they face incumbent Democrat President Joe Biden who is seeking a second term.
Clearly, former President Donald Trump is not Sununu’s choice for a nominee, saying he is not a winner and that it is time for the party to move on.
The federal indictment against Trump related to obstruction of efforts to get him to hand over secret documents are serious.
“I am quite passionate about trying to keep all these other presidential candidates on the Republican side focused on what I believe is the right message.”
He said they are not doing very well following Tuesday’s arrest and arraignment of Trump.
“I think there is a complete, inconsistent message from them as a group. Even individually, they seem to be wavering in their messages. I feel like there is a lot of political consultants whispering in both their ears at once and depending on what time of the day, you get kind of a different message.
“I think there is a huge opportunity to have a clear and consistent Republican message. That’s not happening right now and that allows Trump to stay well ahead in the polls and keep rallying more Republican support behind him as opposed to getting the…average voter to really appreciate that Donald Trump is for Donald Trump and really doesn’t represent the pillars of the Republican party moving forward.”
Sununu said there are not many philosophical ideals that Trump is talking about that match the party.
“It’s all about him. It’s all about relitigating what happened yesterday. It’s about his indictments. It is about him being the victim of political attacks…”
“I refer people to his own statements in 2016 where he said anyone who has held on to documents like this should be disqualified from running. He said that in 2016. So how does he not disqualify himself? So there is just a large amount of hypocrisy that surrounds him and his messaging,” and a missed opportunity for the party.
“By them not hitting him hard, but them not calling the truth and severity of this matter to bear, it allows him to…it looks like they are defending him at times,” he said. “They do realize they are running against him, right?”
While he said Trump has about 35 percent of the base vote of Republicans he said there is probably 15 to 20 percent that support him now but do not necessarily translate to a vote.
Candidates looking to capture that group are missing the boat, Sununu said.
“I don’t think you are going to get them by capitulating to Trump when he is, clearly, all the evidence would indicate, he has done something very, very severely wrong.”
He said there is an opportunity for all the other candidates to distance themselves, to say he does not represent the values of the Republican party but right now they are not doing that.
He said it isn’t about just having the documents that are the nation’s secrets but recklessly flaunting them.
“There have to be consequences,” he said.
He said he has no idea what motivated Trump to retain the documents in defiance of a demand for them.
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Sununu has a degree in civil and environmental engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and served as chief executive officer of Waterville Valley Resort, in addition to having four and a half terms as governor.
He said the state is in great shape right now, it just passed a balanced, budget on a bipartisan basis without any new taxes.
“For me, it is looking at what are the needs of the state, if there are still things I am mission-driven to complete. And there may be a few things there. I didn’t get everything I ever wanted, but we got a lot done obviously in the past six or seven years. And then what opportunities are available going forward,” he said.
“I haven’t really thought a lot about it too much,” he said. “I’ve been focused on the presidential stuff and you know, I’ll talk to the family and kind of weigh things out over the next few weeks and make a decision, too.”
“I love what I do. I love this job,” he said. “but I’d like to get in the private sector, at some point, honestly.”
He noted with 1.9 percent unemployment, he could probably find another job.
Asked about becoming a paid political commentator, that may have some interest.
“It’s fine. I like it. Actually, with technology, it is very easy to do now…They make it very easy so it’s not a big deal and lord knows I am never short of words, for the most part,” he said.
“I’m good at answering questions and being the conversationalist on the other side I don’t know if I’d be an interviewer. I don’t know if I would be good at asking the questions,” he said, “I think it is actually great for the state, great for the first-in-the-nation primary and it allows me to go out there and constantly brag nationally about how good the state is doing.”