Partly cloudy this morning, then becoming cloudy during the afternoon. High 62F. Winds S at 10 to 20 mph..

Cloudy early, becoming mostly clear after midnight. Low around 45F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph.

Gov. Chris Sununu is getting it from all sides, which usually means he’s doing something right. In this case, it was his promise to veto a redistricting plan for New Hampshire’s two congressional districts. As drawn, the map might have made Elbridge Gerry (of Gerrymandering fame) green with envy.

That plan was fine with some Republicans, who apparently don’t see just how partisan their map looks or, in Sununu’s colorful phrase, “smells.”

With good candidates and good issues, Republicans have a shot at winning in both districts this November. Instead, some of them seem bent on sending a message that we can only win in the First District, and only if we tell seacoast voters that they should visit Cheshire County more often, because that’s where we are placing them.

One reason for the level of partisanship in these times is because of so many “safe” seats in Congress. They are either deep red or deep blue and their incumbents see no room to compromise and are in fact scared to do so. New Hampshire is neither. With a large independent bloc, candidates have to actually convince real voters, not just big-money PACs.

Sununu will get credit for his position from a lot of voters but not from politicians. Democrats should have hailed him for trying to be fair with his map but that wasn’t about to happen. Instead, U.S. Rep. Chris Pappas was immediately out with a fundraising letter noting that the GOP map was so extreme that “even Gov. Sununu” rejected it. We expected nothing less.

Last week was not a banner one for New Hampshire’s Democratic Party. Its Latino Caucus leadership quit in disgust over the actions of two members of its congressional delegation. Meanwhile, national party leaders put a big bull’s-eye right on the back of New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary.

The search for a new school superintendent for Manchester continues to appear to be a rush job, which is exactly the wrong approach. The school board ought to slow down and get this right.

Our Monday story on New Hampshire National Guard personnel receiving Purple Hearts was another recent reminder of how much the Guard is part of New Hampshire and how wide and deep is its mission.

Holy Week seems as good a time as any to comment on the legislative proposal to open state liquor stores — on Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Thumbs down, say we.

Matt Mowers insists he did nothing illegal when he voted twice as Republicans selected a presidential nominee in 2016. Which is not to say he did nothing really, really dumb.

Say the name of Tom Griffith to a Granite Stater and he or she is likely to think: solid, reliable, reassuring, reserved, and responsible.

Two New Hampshire men who continue to contribute much to public understanding of America are filmmaker Ken Burns and writer Dayton Duncan. Their latest work, a two-part series on Benjamin Franklin, has just aired on PBS. It is one of their best efforts.

April 9th is the 80th anniversary of the largest surrender of U.S. troops in history at Bataan in 1942. During the death march that followed, unknowable thousands perished among the estimated 75,000 American and Filipino servicemen taken prisoner by the Japanese.

Further on the matter of Gov. Chris Sununu’s remarks regarding Donald Trump at an elegant Washington dinner last weekend. (And, no, we won’t even touch the subsequent COVID-19 outbreak.)

Chris Sununu would like all of us (press, people, politicos) to “lighten up” and understand that he was only joking about Donald Trump in a Washington appearance the other night.

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