Not particularly surprising – it’s been speculated on for some time – but today Ovide Lamontagne made it official: he’ll be running to replace retreating Governor John Lynch (D).

This morning, at the annual Bedford GOP breakfast at the Manchester Country Club, Lamontagne, with his wife, Bettie, at his side, announced his intent to once again run for governor in front of hundreds of local Republicans, including [Senator Kelly] Ayotte.

“I certainly got to know Ovide, we had many debates during our primary, and I have respect for him and think he’ll be a strong candidate for governor,” said Ayotte. “With Gov. (John) Lynch retiring, this is an opportunity to go forward and preserve the New Hampshire advantage. Ovide is a lifelong resident of this state. He cares deeply about the people of New Hampshire.”

As you probably recall, Ovide ran for the Republican NH Senate nomination in 2010; as you probably also recall, his graceful concession and refusal to bitter-end the primary results was in stark contrast to quite a few ungracious candidates. At the time I noted that this kind of party loyalty should be taken into account when the 2014 Senate race against Shaheen rolled around; but I suppose that if Ovide Lamontagne would rather be Governor of New Hampshire then that’s all right, too. He’s certainly an early favorite, with good relationships with both the GOP establishment and the Tea Party activists; equally certainly, we have primaries for a reason.

I’ll end by noting, by the way, that if Charlie Crist had followed Ovide Lamontagne’s good example then maybe he’d be enjoying the same good words and sentiments for a 2012 Florida Senate bid from Senator Rubio that Lamontagne is currently enjoying from Senator Ayotte. Odd how often doing the right thing also ends up being the smart thing, isn’t it?

Moe Lane (crosspost)

PS: Man needs to get his website up, by the way.