Nancy Merrill Jumps Into '08 Race For McCain While NH State Rep Bettencourt Gets Clobbered By A Piano

New Hampshire's committeewoman in the national Republican Party, Nancy Merrill, is stepping down from her GOP post and joining NH Team McCain as campaign co-chair.

Former Executive Councilor Peter Spaulding is McCain's other campaign co-chair.

It's a nice pick-up for McCain.

In other endorsement news, NH State Rep D.J. Bettencourt, a former McCain supporter now with Romney, has learned (the hard way) that it's best not to leave a email trail when you attempt to shake-down McCain's presidential campaign.

The AP's Phil Elliott breaks the story.

Jon Martin brings the SNARK - "drops a piano".

GreenMountainPolitics1 guesses that Bettencourt's public shake-down gone bad has probably poisoned his endorsement "value" for the next 600 NH election cycles.

Give or take a cycle.