? josh: this sunday on "closeup," after a week of wmur can say debates, we have the roundtable. and neil levesque. welcome to close-up. i am josh mcelveen. the granite state debate series wrapped up friday night after a long week. a lot of candidates but import stuff. i am joined by the reporter roundtable. john distaso's, josh rogers. let's start with the first debate. that was the republican

forth. especially with jeanie forrester talking about opioids. >> honestly, i am surprised he would want -- you would not want to use all of the tools available as governor to end this crisis. >> we have used every tool in manchester -- >> i do nothing so. >> when we talk about what we will do with what are you going to do? >> well, senator, i know you're more special than that. >> we chronic pain for years and have been treated well with opiates. if we can make sure individuals and doctors are informed, so there is responsible use of the drugs, i do not agree have a problem. >> i do support immigration, but i believe we need to make sure those immigrants are properly vetted before they come into the state. >> when i went to the governor's counsel when you were there and asked for moratorium against

in 2011 had nothing to do with that 10,000 syrian refugees president obama was purporting to bring in. josh: we all came into this debate expecting them to mix it up. john, what was your biggest agholor? john: -- your biggest take away? john: jeanie forrester was definitely the most aggressive. she needed to be. ground to make up. but she did this kind of controversial issue, started this issue that lasted through the week about using the national guard on the borders. that sparked some people kind of scoffing at her. my other takeaway was chris sununu, who played roberto -- rope-a-dope. no one israeli sure if he is the front runner. josh: that is the thoughts.

each other. >> they did a little, but i thought it was good of chris sununu. not a particularly overwhelming performance, but when gases is being -- gatsas isbeing put on the defense, it is good for chris sununu. this story played out for four days. lo saying manchester is not a city under siege. for forrester, it is a good thing. and earned media. when you're the candidate with one quarter the amount of money ted gatsas has, for jeanie forrester, that is good for politics. josh: they talk a lot about policy but did not get to talk

core republicans who are popular with the rotarians. but it was mainly forrester and gases. edelblut card out very hard positions. we talked about guns and people who are mentally ill. he a very pure positions. that will win votes among staunch conservatives. how well that transits beyond that -- kevin: internally, from other republicans doing pulling this week, they were telling me that edelblut is the candidate on the move. ada blew still went third place in polls, but he was moving. that is one of the reasons why at the beginning of the week, gatsas when so negative against sununu. gatsas intuitively understands he will not win the primary on his own vote.

he is too conservative. but he can take it from sununu. that is why it went nuclear. josh: we went back to back monday night. the democratic candidates for governor. we are talking about three guys that people have not really met yet. they really do their best to introduce themselves. >> i am the press of choice for governor. the only one who voted for bernie this spring. the only one 100% death penalty. >> i have been endorsed by majority of all democratic lawmakers. and most of bernie sanders and hillary clinton supporters. >> iphone 4 families. that is the kind of leadership i will bring. josh: this no name id for all of them, i guess the conventional thought is connolly is the front runner.

steve marchand did well pay you could sense a lot of his answers were for hearst with her size diction and -- with precise diction. he is a smart, tactical politician. that is his background. some of the business things he has done. and mark connolly, he did well as well. there is not a some differences on how much revenue they will raise, but those are more stylistic difference. josh: and steve marchand, the legalization of marijuana. he can navigate before you could ask him. john: that is one of his big issues in terms of raising revenue. the thing i thought was that marchand had a good debate.

the organization and the ability to get out the vote from his days as a strategist and news not a candidate. we are in a low turnout primary. he feels confident he can get his vote out. kevin: for colin, he has hope that the secretary of state is right. if the turnout is that is the winner. but if it is as low as 60,000, it is a very liberal base in that party. they want legalization of marijuana pay they want a mandatory seatbelt and helmet law. they want more money spent and more taxes raised. they are not getting those answers from van ostern or conno lly or marchand. john: steve marchand said that

said it several times during the debate. even though in the past, he has been called a no labels problem solver, a moderate democrat. now he is saying he is the most progressive democrat. i think tapping into the bernie sanders movement here, which is still in existence, was smart. josh r.: and he did not have the unanswered resources of connolly as well. josh: surprised at the number that the secretary of state put out. the election cycle unlike any other so far for the next night, we have the senate debate between jim rubens and kelly ayotte. we expected jim rubens to be aggressive out of the bat. he was. here's a little bit of it. >> you give hostage payments to the largest sponsor of terrorists to the world and they took three more terrorist --

negotiations we have seen in many years. she has an f from conservative review. she is like annie kuster. >> let me go back to my time as attorney general. first as -- first under a republican governor, then three times under a democratic governor. this is part of my the wrong deal. -- with the iran deal. always your takeaway? john: she did her best to ignore jim rubens. she mentioned his name maybe once or twice. jim rubens was on the attack. i think she was a little rehearsed, shall we say -- to be nice about it. not to say she had a bad night. it will be interesting to see

rubens will get. josh: a huge underdog. john: before kelly ayotte, i do not see this debate hurt her except that she could have been more spontaneous and some of her answers. josh: not assuming anything, but when people watched this debate, what were they thinking about how this was going to play for kelly ayotte against maggie hassan in the general? kevin: i think that is what kelly ayotteus give. she will never be a supreme -- a superb debater. but she mentioned passion more than two dozen times -- you mentioned hassan more than two dozen times during the debate. i think those are viewers wanted to cp we are talking about one of the most expensive senate races in new hampshire history. one of the closest senate races. i think both kelly ayotte or

happened tuesday. josh: $55 million and counting on outside money. what was your take away from the debate moving forward? josh r.: we heard some of the things kelly ayotte was going to say. she is bipartisan, it is an hurt dna -- which i expect we will hear more of. she did not answer questions terribly directly about her record when she got elected versus her focus on our -- on bipartisanship, but we heard her case on how she is one of the more bipartisan senators. there is a lot of yolking of maggie hassan and hillary clinton. and they will tie kelly ayotte and donald trump. we have a good feud weeks of that. [laughter] john: i think kelly's advantage

the greatest debater either. i will be itching to see in a general election, assuming kelly wins, if there will be any spontaneity to be brought out of either of them. josh: maybe another way to describe it would be very disciplined and careful on the part of both of them. focused is another word. one race that has flown under the radar is that jim lawrence and jack flanagan in the republican primary. they had a pretty interesting debate. they sparred over different issues, including gun violence. >> my opponent has shown a tendency to say something, to talk tough talk when it comes to supporting the second amendment, but unfortunately, when it comes to support those issues, he has

i am actually introducing legislation. josh: this is a race that could be the closest race of all. what is your takeaway? kevin: what is interesting is both these guys think they will win tuesday. they were both playing pa tty-cake with one another. there was very little contrast. it was part of what was great about this debate. a lot of the talk about obamacare and gun violence. i thought bot to the occasion. they have to pay because donald trump -- if they win the second congressional district, they will be the first republican since 1968. the profile of this district. josh: on friday night, frank guinta's and rich ashooh -- he has the clout of the fcc scandal

trying to introduce himself the people. >> every major republican call for his resignation. clearly, things have changed. trust and integrity matter. if frank were to admit that he broke the law, admit he lied about it, and apologize to the voters, i would consider supporting him. >> at the beginning of the debate, i said he would try to impugn my character, and he the bottom line is, whoever wins this primary, i will be endorsing and supporting. the cousin have carol shea-porter as a next member of congress reporting the first congressional district. i am a team player. clearly, he is not willing to make that and/or smit. josh: that was answering the question of when you support the other if they win. what was your thoughts? josh r.: both did well given

campaign for being insufficiently aggressive. and frank guinta, he is certainly very brazen in addressing the campaign finance scandal. i think he believes voters are not particularly interested in that. he was confronted with video clips of past statements that were found to be untruthful. he did not really address that. antiestablishment figure we will see how that goes. john: he blames the media, in a way, and his opponent. and yet, i agree with josh that he seems to have convinced himself that it is not an issue and he has nothing to explain. which is surprising, in some ways. i think his whole campaign has been exceeding expectations.

underwater. josh: you say exceeding expectations -- john: i think people thought rich ashooh would walk away with this. josh: that brings me to my next point. a lot of people were wondering if rich ashooh would not meet expectations. making public trust the issue. did he do enough of that? kevin: i think he did well in this debate. i think he looked congressional. he did stumble on one point. that is frank guinta said "i cannotd disagrees with me." and there are issues where they disagree. this is about throwing an incumbent out of office. you have to have a reason. is a six year old campaign-finance scandal enough? john: in the relatively low turnout primary, the second moment question is really big in this payware frank guinta really

ashooh. josh: we will see. you know what, again, this is the election cycle. we cannot predict anything. it will be interesting what we will talk about next. gentlemen, thanks for joining us. when we come back, we'll be joined by neil levesque from the

josh: welcome back. we just saw some highlights from the wmur granite stater bait series. let's get into how the voters may feel about the primary election. talking about that is neil levesque from the institute of politics. i have not had a chance to talk let's go big picture. the thought is everyone is so focused on the top of the ticket that no one is paying attention to these races it is that perception or reality? neil: it is inescapable about the fact that this top of the two big -- top of the ticket races sucking the oxygen out of everything else. every night, you're turning on tv and seeing the presidential race, but you are not following the rest of the ticket. that is why the debates this

about the top of the ticket. does that inadvertently bring attention back around? neil: sure. but one of the reasons they are doing that is for the first time, we have to be candidates there are more unpopular than popular. which means we will elect a president who is more popular -- more unpopular amongst the american people. that is an amazing thing. not just for november starts to govern. it will be a tough road for whoever wins. josh: i know your answer will be no, because no one has ever seen an election cycling this. but as you watch it unfold, surprises keep coming. whether it is the conventions -- neil: every day, it seems we have a new headline or surprise. i think a lot of voters are demoralized. i think they do not like to see

to be pay where candidates -- they crave for the way it used to be payware candidates were respectable. where issues came out. issues are not coming to the forefront nowadays. it is just name-calling. it is difficult to see how we will have a president who is able to govern. it is a tough situation. josh: we talked about energy and how are voters feeling before the primary occurred. rancor, whether donald trump or the e-mails with hillary clinton, there is also the need for comfort food and to get back to the way things were. do you think there is an evolution to this frustration? neil: hillary clinton just announced she will shift to a more positive campaign. what she is trying to do is lower the unfavorable numbers and capture some of the people who, at this point, may go to

ticket. there is a lot of people who will not vote for someone for president at this point. i think she is trying to capitalize on that. josh: state level, which race do you think has the most ability to insulate itself from the top of the ticket? kelly ayotte or top of the -- kelly ayotte or maggie hassan? whoever comes out in the 1st cd against carol shea-porter? neil: i think there is th gubernatorial is very different. i wonder at the top of the ticket, what effect it has on the senate race. there is so much money, as you mentioned earlier. $55 million so far. we still have over a month and have to go. so how many people will go to the polls and say they will not vote for someone for president but will vote for someone for u.s. senate. that is a tricky thing. pollsters will have a hard time finding that out.

bill gardner's projections change anything? neil: there are two band days left in the race. he made the prediction with four days left. if you are a campaign manager, you have planned out this weekend already. josh: we have less than a minute to go, but you saw the debates, right? neil: i saw them all. josh: but if there was one that change the direction of the race, which one? neil: i think steve marchand really impressed me as a candidate. him coming out and embracing bernie sanders immediately and talking about legalization of marijuana may shift them vote his way. i think that was a big surprise. josh: all three of the candidates in the democratic curatorial race have name i did. he put it out there. good to see you. good discussion.

oil wells in new hampshire? you'd think so the way kelly ayotte voted. she voted to give big oil more than $20 billion in tax breaks. they gave kelly ayotte campaign contributions. corporate special interests are spending millions supporting her campaign... like the koch brothers. kelly ayotte: paid for by big oil; voting for big oil. not working for us. dscc is responsible for

josh: a quick programming note. make sure you stay tuned right after our show for "matter of fact" with new host soloed at -- soledad o'brien. she will speak with revisited of michael mccaul and with baltimore ben watson. stepping away from politics, it is september 11. on this 15th anniversary, a

town in the finland, canada. it will stop by a new hampshire town. more on why they will never forget. >> a convoy of motorcycle riding firefighters escorted a piece of the world trade center up 95 on its way to canada, in time to mark the 15th anniversary of 9/11. >> lives doing their job. we either knew someone who was working or the civilians in the towers that day. or they work the pile or covert shifts -- or covered shifts to let them with the piles. >> new hampshire firefighters during those from new york and massachusetts with little notice. >> it is a brotherhood. >> this is a personal journey

>> when we saw the plane hit the tower, we responded to ground zero. >> he delivers pieces of world trade center steel as tokens of gratitude. this one to a town in newfoundland, who took him thousands of passengers when flights were grounded. >> they house them, washed their close for them. bought close for them. dropped everything. >> marking one of so many expressions of goodness and humanity to darkness. the escort picking up fire borders -- firefighters in maine and on to canada. >> to show support. we have never forgotten peewee will never forget. >> in sieber, jennifer crompton, wmur news 9. josh: and if you're old enough to remember, you certainly do remember that tuesday morning 15 years ago. for so many, the enduring image is the firefighters and police officers, expertly trying to save the lives of others. this is how we will leave this

we will be back next week. do not forget to vote tuesday. have a great sunday and go patriots. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ng debt free, while wall street and oil companies get billions in tax breaks. and whose side is kelly ayotte on? she voted to cut funding for pell grants and against letting students refinance their loans at lower rates. all while voting for tax breaks for the special interests like oil companies that give millions to help her campaign. kelly ayotte: working for the special interests, not on our side. senate majority pac is responsible