Last month the NH GOP elected a Jack Kimball, a tea partier who ran for Governor, over the establishment endorsed candidate Juliana Gergeron as GOP chair. It's been less than a month since Kimball has taken over the party and NH GOP donors and elected officials are in an uproar because the state party refused to cancel a fundraiser with fringe anti-semitic Presidential candidate who thinks Obama is a muslim.
On Saturday afternoon State GOP Chairman Jack Kimball and CV GOP Chair J.P. Marzullo issued statements saying Martin had been uninvited to Monday’s local GOP meeting in Deering, NH, where Martin intended to announce his candidacy for president, but only after Martin’s anti-Semitic quotes surfaced in the press. (Martin once pledged to “eradicate Jew Power [sic] in America.”) The event had been listed on that Republican State Committee’s website for weeks.Kimball only cancelled the event after donors contacted elected NH officials and threatened to pull the plug on fundraising for the state party.
But Martin’s outrageous behavior has been on display for years. In addition to his criticism of Jews and his role in spreading Internet rumors that President Barack Obama is secretly a Muslim who was not born in the U.S., Martin financed a radio ad in which he accused now-U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-IL) of being “a de facto pedophile.” He also floated a rumor that Kirk is a homosexual. Martin also sued the Republican National Committee for refusing to grant him access to Voter Vault, the party’s voter database.
NH Journal has obtained e-mails detailing a fast-moving series of events in which fundraisers and donors to the GOP organized behind the scenes to pressure Chairman Jack Kimball to pull the plug on the GOP’s dalliance with Martin. These donors were prepared to call on Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Reps. Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta to urge them to commit not to raise money for the state party unless Martin was uninvited from the event.