Gov. Kelly Ayotte went to Washington D.C. this week to participate in her first major national conference since her inauguration last month as New Hampshire’s governor.

Ayotte is among the governors from coast to coast attending the National Governors Association’s annual winter meeting. And she’s also huddling with fellow GOP chief executives for an accompanying Republican Governors Association meeting.

But unlike some of her fellow governors, Ayotte didn’t hit the national media circuit while in the nation’s capital.

The Nashua Republican, a former state attorney general who later served one term representing New Hampshire in the U.S. Senate, has plenty of connections in Washington D.C. And during her six years in the Senate, she was seen as a rising star in the GOP.

Ayotte has so far shunned the national spotlight in her new job.

“I see one role for me and that is every day to wake up and to be the champion for the people of New Hampshire,” Ayotte said last year when asked about weighing in on national issues. “I am so humbled to have the opportunity to serve as governor of the state of New Hampshire.”

She emphasized she planned to look ahead, not back.

“It was privilege to represent New Hampshire in the United States Senate but I’ve been elected governor of the state of New Hampshire,” Ayotte said. “veryday I’m just going to wake up and say ‘what can I do for New Hampshire today.’”

It’s the same message from one of her top advisers.

“Governor Ayotte is focused on one thing and one thing only – delivering for all of New Hampshire,” senior adviser John Corbett told the Monitor this week.

Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College, said Ayotte “doesn’t gain anything by going on national news.”

“Instead of calling Anderson Cooper, she’s been calling individual state representatives and working her budget through,” Levesque noted. And he argued that “it’s still early in the game but her focus on New Hampshire has succeeded.”

Ayotte stayed neutral last year in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation Republican presidential primary, but she endorsed now-President Donald Trump in early March, right after he clinched the 2024 GOP nomination.

Trump has delivered an avalanche of activity during his first month in office, as he works to upend and re-imagine the federal government and workforce.

Ayotte has followed the Trump playbook in some regards by creating a Commission on Government Efficiency (COGE) in her first executive order to streamline government and cut spending, similar to the federal Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) led by Elon Musk.

Yet, when Trump attempted last month to freeze federal aid programs, which directly impacted New Hampshire and the nation’s other states, Ayotte weighed in. She offered some cautious criticism, saying that she supported the move by the Trump administration but warned about the potential disruption to services.

“While I support a commonsense review of federal spending to ensure it is in the taxpayers’ best interest, we cannot allow interruptions to critical services for those who depend on them,” Ayotte said. “My office has been in communication with the White House to ensure that our citizens are not negatively impacted by any unintended impacts and that critical services continue without interruption.”

Levesque said Ayotte is wise to steer clear of federal fights.

“It’s only a distraction for [Ayotte] to get involved in national issues,” he said. “Why does she need to weigh on whether what Trump is doing is right or wrong.”

Ayotte’s predecessor in the corner office, former Gov. Chris Sununu, maintained a large national profile in recent years, and was a regular guest on the cable news networks and the Sunday political talk shows.

Sununu, who started to grab national attention due to his efforts during the COVID pandemic, became a politician further in media demand as he mulled a 2024 White House run and later played a kingmaker’s role in New Hampshire’s Republican presidential primary.

But the former governor wasn’t always a media star. Sununu mostly kept his focus on New Hampshire upon taking office in 2017, after winning the first of four straight gubernatorial elections and starting his eight-year tenure as Granite State governor.

Buckley facing backlash

Longtime New Hampshire Democratic Party chair Ray Buckley says he is “actively addressing” concerns expressed in a memo from top county party officials who urged the state party to increase transparency and deliver better election results.

The memo, which was sent earlier this month, comes in the wake of last November’s dismal showing for Democrats, as the Republicans kept control of the governor’s office, dramatically increased their control of the state House of Representatives, won a supermajority in the state Senate, and maintained their 4-1 control of the Executive Council.

The memo, titled “Observations, Concerns, and Recommendations to Improve NHDP Performance,” was signed by the Democratic Party chairs or co-chairs of nine of the state’s 10 counties (Merrimack was the only county not to sign onto the memo). Nashua Committee Chair Derek Thibeault also put his signature on the memo.

The memo points to what it highlights as “five consecutive failures to elect a Democratic governor and the disastrous results of the 2024 state election.” And it urges that “it is imperative that we strengthen our state party and achieve results well ahead of the redistricting cycle in 2030.”

Buckley, who has been the state party chair for nearly 18 years, said he’s open to all ideas. 

“The NHDP officers met earlier this month with the group that submitted the memo, and the officers outlined the recommendations that have already been implemented and the others we are actively addressing. We welcome conversations with any person or group who has ideas on how to elect more Democrats in New Hampshire,” Buckley wrote in a statement, in response to reporting on the memo.

The memo also spotlighted the need for more transparency by the state party.

The memo noted that Buckley’s salary, as well as those of other state party employees, have not been made available.

 “Leadership salaries should be disclosed. Example: Why would someone entertain the idea of running for chair if there is no knowledge of compensation (salary and benefits)?” the memo argues.

It also complained of different standards for the state party compared to more local committees. 

“Standards for record-keeping and disclosure for the NHDP Executive and other committees appear more lax than the standards for county and town committees. Minutes from the Executive, Rules, and Finance Committees meetings are not made available to members of the Executive or State Committees,” the memo stated.

The memo was sent ahead of next month’s state party elections for chair and other leadership posts. Buckley is seeking re-election in the March 15 state party contests.

One of the people signing the memo – Rockingham County Democratic Committee chair Mat Stover, is one of the candidates challenging Buckley for the chair in next month’s state party elections.

Jonathan Kiper of Newmarket, who ran unsuccessfully for the 2024 Democratic gubernatorial nomination, is also seeking the party chairmanship.

Both are considered longshots against Buckley.

Buckley’s team noted that they’ve announced 106 public endorsements from the New Hampshire Democratic Party state committee, which is the body voting in the chair election. They noted that the list of endorsements includes former U.S. Reps. Annie Kuster, Paul Hodes, and Carol Shea-Porter; former four-term Gov. John Lynch; former Manchester Mayor and 2024 gubernatorial nominee Joyce Craig, and former executive councilor and 2024 gubernatorial candidate Cinde Warmington.