Quiet primary makes NH Senate rematch official
CONCORD, N.H. --Republican Sen. John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen dove back into their rematch Tuesday, coming up for air just long enough to defeat little-known challengers in their respective primaries.
Sununu easily defeated former state Rep. Tom Alciere, a circuit board inspector from Hudson, and Shaheen beat Ray Stebbins, a Massachusetts lawyer who moved to Nashua four months ago. Libertarian Ken Blevens of Bow also will be on the November ballot.
Sununu and Shaheen had focused on each other from the beginning and kept at it Tuesday.
"If folks want to continue the status quo, then they want to support John Sununu, because he has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time," Shaheen said in a phone interview. "He has supported the policies that have gotten us to where we are today."
Sununu stood by his record.
"Everyone understands that Washington is broken, but even in that environment, I've been able to write and pass legislation that's important to New Hampshire," he said, also by phone.
Sununu, then a congressman, beat Shaheen, then the governor, by 4 percentage points in 2002. But Sununu now is considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Senate incumbents, in large part because the state has shifted hard toward Democrats in recent years. Shaheen hopes to capitalize on that by linking Sununu to the unpopular president.
She said the November election represents a choice between a "new direction" or sticking with policies that have led to rising gas and food prices, falling home prices and an economy that has left middle class families behind.
Sununu said he has bucked Bush and his party when necessary, including by crafting the compromise to allow the renewal of the Patriot Act after he raised concerns about civil liberties. And he points to legislation that bans Internet access taxes and protects New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest as proof of his "determination to vote with New Hampshire 100 percent of the time."
Jerry Boucher, a 58-year-old software engineer from Manchester, agreed.
"I think he is kind of independent, votes his mind and is energetic," Boucher said.
National Democrats made Sununu a top target early on, most recently airing a commercial featuring pictures of him alongside Bush. The National Republican Senatorial Committee, meanwhile, produced a spot saying Shaheen would "fit right in" in "big-spending Washington."
Early polls gave Shaheen a considerable lead, but the latest surveys suggest the race has tightened. And while both candidates have been successful fundraisers, Shaheen has been spending at a faster rate, leaving Sununu with more than twice as much money on hand heading into the general election.
Alex Adams, 44, a computer consultant from Manchester, voted for Shaheen to get Republicans out and "sanity back in Washington." Lynn Hamilton, 57, a postal worker from Manchester, also voted for Shaheen.
"I thought she was a very capable person and I liked her a lot. It's not so much the woman thing, I thought she was a great governor," Hamilton said.
But some voted for Stebbins instead of Shaheen because they didn't like her as governor and, in one case, because her husband, Bill Shaheen, insulted Barack Obama during the Democratic presidential primary. Bill Shaheen stepped down as Hillary Clinton's national co-chairman after Clinton denounced his comments.
"It was so disappointing," said Tom Morgan, 55, an urban planner from Portsmouth. "He dragged the campaign down to that level. You don't want to reward that kind of behavior."
The candidates' most vocal debate so far has been over energy policy, with Sununu advocating "a balanced approach" that includes conservation, incentives for renewable energy and new offshore oil drilling.
"I co-sponsored legislation extending tax credits for alternative energy like wind, solar and wood burning systems, but I also understand that if we want to keep energy prices down for the long term, we need to produce more energy here at home," Sununu said Tuesday. "If we follow Jeanne Shaheen's recommendation of saying no to offshore drilling, no to oil shale, no to nuclear power, we're going to resign ourselves to permanently higher energy prices."
Shaheen opposes lifting the ban on new offshore drilling and argues that Congress could immediately help bring down prices by cracking down on speculation on the price of oil and closing loopholes that allow traders to manipulate oil markets. Longer term, she said the country should focus on investing in alternative and renewable energy sources and tax incentives for those who make buildings more energy efficient.
She said despite his recent claims, Sununu has repeatedly voted against ending subsidies for oil companies and investing that money in alternative and renewable energy.
"You can't have it both ways," she said. "He's got a voting record he can't run away from."
Sununu, 43, of Waterville Valley, is the son of former governor and White House chief of staff John H. Sununu. A mechanical engineer, he served three terms in the U.S. House before being elected to the Senate. He and his wife, Kitty, have a son and two daughters.
Shaheen, 61, of Madbury, served in the state Senate before being elected New Hampshire's first female governor and serving three terms. After losing to Sununu, she served as a national chairwoman of Sen. John Kerry's presidential campaign and was director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard. She and her husband have three daughters.
With 88 percent of precincts reporting, Sununu had 55,096 votes, 89 percent, to Alciere's 6,506, 11 percent, in the GOP primary. Shaheen had 39,954 votes, 89 percent, to Stebbins' 4,995 votes, 11 percent.
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