How do you become a former Republican senator from New Hampshire? It’s a nonstarter for Vermont residents, but Granite State voters might want to give it serious consideration.
After all, judging from the corporate career path of former U.S. Sens. Judd Gregg, John E. Sununu and, now, Kelly Ayotte, life after the Senate can be pretty cushy.
Ayotte — the former New Hampshire attorney general who in November narrowly lost her Senate seat to Democrat Maggie Hassan after one term in Washington — was named to the News Corp. board of directors as of April 1.
News Corp. Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch said in a news release on Monday that the 48-year-old Ayotte “brings with her invaluable leadership and strategic planning skills, as well as in-depth knowledge in the areas of public policy, government and law.”
Left unsaid in the release is that Ayotte, like other News Corp. board members, is likely to haul in at least $251,000 in compensation for service on the board, which the Union Leader noted on Wednesday. In the fiscal year ending in June 2016, News Corp. directors earned $100,000 in an annual cash retainer, $145,000 in an “annual deferred stock unit retainer,” and $6,000 for service on the nominating and corporate governance committee on which she will sit, according to a News Corp. filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
“It’s an honor to join the board, and I’m looking forward to working with Rupert Murdoch and his talented team at News Corp.,” Ayotte said in the news release. “By providing high-quality news, books, digital real estate services and more to people around the world, News Corp. plays such an important role in keeping people informed and engaged while focusing on delivering long-term value for investors.”
Translation: Ayotte likes Fox News. But will she weigh in substantively on the growing sexual harassment scandals at Fox News, especially the $13 million that Fox News megastar Bill O’Reilly and the company are reported to have paid to settle claims against him by five women over the years?
Ayotte also has been helping to shepherd Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch through the Senate, which seems somewhat pointless, since Republicans were sure to vote for him anyway and she would have had zero standing with Democrats, given her opposition to Merrick Garland’s nomination by President Barack Obama.
But in taking the corporate board post, she’s tracking what Gregg and Sununu did before her.
The 70-year-old Gregg — who served as chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, and also chaired the Senate Budget Committee — opted not to seek re-election in 2010.
He was, briefly, in 2013 the president of the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents moneyed interests like securities firms and banks in Washington, and has been on a board of international advisors at Goldman Sachs. Gregg also is on the board of directors at Honeywell International, the multinational conglomerate. Gregg was paid $290,000 in compensation from Honeywell in fiscal year 2015, according to SEC records.
Meanwhile, Sununu, who also served only one term in the U.S. Senate before losing to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen in 2008, has been on a couple of corporate boards that track with his background in finance and engineering. The 52-year-old Sununu graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and then earned an MBA from Harvard.
He sits on the board of directors of medical-device maker Boston Scientific, where he recieved $288,000 in compensation in 2016. And he was on the board of Time Warner Cable (now owned by Charter Communications), where he received $272,000 in compensation in 2014.
Sununu, the older brother of Gov. Chris Sununu, is now an adjunct senior policy advisor at Akin Gump, a major law and lobbying firm in Washington.
It’s probably all just coincidence that these former New Hampshire senators land these corporate board seats, just as it’s coincidence that Ayotte replaced Elaine Chao, the former secretary of labor in the George W. Bush administration, on the News Corp. board.
Chao has just become the secretary of transportation in the Trump administration. She served on several corporate boards after Bush left office, including Dole Food Co., Wells Fargo and Ingersoll Rand. And, of course, she just happens to be the wife of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican.
Off and Running
Former Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand is again running for governor.
“After watching Donald Trump’s chaotic, unhinged brand of ‘leadership,’ we need to show what competent, optimistic, aspirational leadership can do,” Marchand said in an email to potential supporters on Monday.
Marchand finished a distant second to Colin Van Ostern in a three-way Democratic primary last September, but said he got a late start in that race.
John Gregg can be reached at jgregg@vnews.com or 603-727-3217.