The Concord Monitor:

Gov. Maggie Hassan renewed her pledge yesterday to support a “high-end, highly regulated” casino to help balance the state budget.

There is no other way to pay for promised investments in higher education, health care and state infrastructure, the first-term Democrat said.

and

She said she’s not willing to look for revenue elsewhere.

“I oppose an income or a sales tax. This is what I campaigned on.

“There is no other way” and “not willing to look for” is illogical outside of New Hampshire. But thanks to Mel’s legacy, we take statements like that for granted.

New Hampshire Democrats are not allowed to listen to Mark Fernald (or something) because he had the guts to run in one of the worst GOP demagogued mid-term cycles in the past two decades, but he predicted this predicament.

Maggie Hassan has been honest in saying that [taking the Pledge] is a tactical decision, that New Hampshire is not ready to have a conversation about taxes.  But if she is elected, she will be a Democrat in a Republican box.  On vital issues of taxes and spending, she will have conceded to the Republicans before the legislature is even seated.

New Hampshire Republicans, who haven’t won the governor’s office in five cycles, are now trying to take advantage of this concession.

In an alternate universe they are pushing hard for Governor Lamontagne’s casino plan. But in this one they ginning up a phony meme of “DEMS IN DISARRAY!!!” on the one hand, and on the other imitating their obstructionist national peers with a round of “Whatever it is, I’m against it!”