Sullivan Feud in New Hampshire

The Nashua Telegraph writes about their differences in who they want for the DNC Chairmanship. Rep. Peter Sullivan is not related to New Hampshire Democratic State Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan. Peter's blog can be found here.

New Hampshire Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan said she is going to remain neutral in the race until the state association of party chairmen confide by telephone conference call toward the end of this month.

Sullivan said the only one of the six active candidates she won’t support is Simon Rosenberg, a centrist Democrat who helped form the New Democratic Network.

Rosenberg is the only candidate who has a plan for changing the primary calendar, which would take away New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary as well as Iowa’s first caucus.

"I can’t support any candidate who wants to mess with the calendar, because I don’t think that’s an appropriate role for a new chairman," Sullivan said.

Manchester Democratic Rep. Peter Sullivan - no relation of course - feels otherwise.

This Sullivan supported Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman’s presidential campaign, and Rosenberg was a key staffer for the Democratic Leadership Council when Lieberman was its president.

Sullivan said he couldn’t support former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean because he’s too liberal or former Indiana Rep. Tim Roemer because he’s too conservative (anti-abortion). Rosenberg appears to be just right.

"He might be the only man in America who can get both Joe Lieberman and Howard Dean to return his calls," said Sullivan, who posted this message on his new legislative blog.

Kathy Sullivan said the state chairs could play a leading role in selection of the chairman if they decided as a group to anoint someone or tried to whittle the field by declaring a few candidates to be "qualified."

One thing is clear. Heavyweight endorsements aren’t going to be worth all that much. Why? Only eight of the 400 or more who make this choice have a seat in Congress. Only three of them are governors.

"These people represent a real cross-section of the party across the country, which makes this such a wide open contest," she said.

Watch for Peter Sullivan to be a gradually rising star in the Democratic Party. He's got some great things ahead of him in his future. I support letting other states go first in the primaries.