TELL US: Should Havenstein Apologize for ‘Teabagger’ Comment?

A candidate making national headlines for a comment made years ago can sometimes be a good thing, depending on the nature of the comment. In other cases, it can be a disaster. If it’s a disaster and the candidate digs in, it can get even worse.

That is what seems to be happening to Republican gubernatorial candidate Walt Havenstein as he makes his way around the Granite State, speaking with GOP voters about why he is a better candidate than Andrew Hemingway to challenge incumbent Democrat Gov. Maggie Hassan this November.

The controversy started more than a week ago when a video was unearthed of Havenstein speaking to business students in 2010 about the rabid Tea Party movement’s victories in the mid-term elections (NH Journal report link here). While offering praise, Havenstein used the derogatory term, “teabagger,” during his discussion, a term that equates Republican activists to a sex act that most people over the age of 21 who don’t live their lives on YouTube or social media sites had probably never even heard of five years ago. 

The term quickly gained favor with Democrats as a way of slurring Republicans and use of the term is considered a no-no in GOP circles. The unearthing of the video has dogged Havenstein ever since (the video has been removed from YouTube but is available on iTunes, along with the former CEO’s full talk with students).

Hemingway pounced on the comment and requested that his opponent apologize to the many Republican activists in the state who might be offended by the use of the term. The bad political press both locally and nationally has followed.

Earlier this week, Skip Murphy, the co-founder of the NH TEA Party Coalition and an editor at the conservative news/blog site GraniteGrok.com, confronted Havenstein and asked for an apology. Havenstein replied, “No,” to a few boos, and then admitted that it was “a poor choice” of words because he didn’t know what the term meant at the time.

What do you think? Should Havenstein apologize for the comment or should the Tea Party folks lighten up a bit? Leave a note in the comment section of this post. Readers can check out all the Campaign 2014 Patch coverage in our Elections section.