Pat Buchanan: Tea Party GOP Chairman in NH May Be Harbinger of 2012

New Hampshire Republicans’ pick of a tea party-style candidate as GOP chairman could foretell the winner of the state’s presidential primary. Speaking on MSNBC’s “Hardball with Chris Matthews,” Pat Buchanan said Monday that the choice of Jack Kimball could be a positive sign for former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin or a conservative alternative.

“Is this good news, the fact that the Republican Party in New Hampshire is now a tea party organization?” Matthews said. “Is it good for Palin?"

Analyst Pat Buchanan

Buchanan responded: “It’s good for Palin.”

“The populist conservative is always strong in New Hampshire if you can clear the rest of the field, which we failed to do,” said Buchanan, an MSNBC political analyst and 1996 GOP presidential candidate. He won the New Hampshire primary that year, inching past former Sen. Bob Dole, R-Kan. “I beat him [Dole] by one point, but Forbes was in there.”

Kimball, a former gubernatorial candidate, beat businesswoman Juliana Bergeron, a county leader who had the backing of state party leaders, Saturday for a two-year term to lead New Hampshire’s GOP.

Buchanan said the recent front-runner in a New Hampshire poll, former Massachusetts governor and 2008 presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has a chance to win in the Granite State if he moves beyond “the Republican establishment.”

“He has got a fighting chance in New Hampshire, because I think this time The [Manchester] Union Leader is more friendly,” Buchanan said. “They cut him last time. He almost won it. And secondly, he’s been working that state.”