N.H.: Youngest member of the Senate having a rough time.

As has been mentioned in class, one of the Senate seats that is up for grabs is the N.H. seat currently held by John E. Sununu. He is being challenged by Jeanne Shaheen, who he also ran against, and defeated, in 2002. However, given the current somewhat anti-GOP climate, Sununu has been struggling in the polls, with double digit deficits mentioned in some of the articles I've been reading. However, RealClearPolitics puts Shaheen's lead at around 6 at the moment, with polls ranging from +1 - +6.

As most Democrats seem to be doing, Shaheen is hitting hard on the economy and health care, and also tying her opponent with President Bush. Her campaign website currently has an ad about health care:

http://jeanneshaheen.org/splash/stop_complaining

The focus of this ad is a clip of Sununu saying to "stop complaining about health care costs". Another ad focuses on the economic crisis and mentions that Senator Sununu has voted with President Bush to raise the national debt and oppose regulation.

Interestingly, because these are the same two candidates from the last election, both candidates seem to be willing to bring up old issues. Sununu has an ad with a clip from one of Shaheen's press conferences in the 2002 saying that she would stand with President Bush on disarming Iraq as well as his taxcuts:

http://www.teamsununu.org/Multimedia/details.aspx?id=34

Along with this, Sununu has been attempting to distance himself from President Bush, as has been the theme for most Republicans at the moment. He has also attempted to cut into the traditionally more Democratic issue of energy by supporting offshore drilling, which Shaheen has opposed. Additionally, he's supported McCain's ticket heavily, holding a rally featuring Palin last weekend. McCain won New Hampshire in the primary and has campaigned heavily in the state.

The article below brings up an interesting point, that New Hampshire ended 'straight ticket voting' which basically allowed voters to pull a lever to vote along party lines. With Obama leading pretty heavily in NH (9 pts or so) that would have been bad news for Sununu had the practice continued into this race.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/22/us/politics/22sununu.html?pagewanted=2&ref=politics

Lots of pundits seem to have given up on this seat, but the polls at the moment aren't too far away and Sununu has been trying to reframe the energy debate and ease his links with President Bush. Given the contentious nature of this race (a televised debate was held on October 20th and it was very combative, with the candidates talking over one another), it will be interesting to see how it plays out.