New Hampshire Democrats lining up to defeat Sununu
WASHINGTON -- Just days after Democrats announced that New Hampshire's Republican Senator John E. Sununu would be among their top three targets in 2008, two Granite State Democrats said they are preparing to enter the race for his seat.
Katrina Swett, a Democratic congressional candidate in 2002 with deep family ties to the party establishment, told the Globe that she has been quietly lining up support for a Senate run and plans to visit Washington next week to meet with Democratic leaders.
"I am 98 percent in," said Swett in a telephone interview from her residence in Bow . Setting up a campaign committee "is likely to happen in the very near future, " she added.
Swett is the daughter of long-serving California Representative Tom Lantos and the wife of former New Hampshire Representative Dick Swett . She lost her challenge in 2002 to former Representative Charles Bass by a 57-to-41 margin, despite outspending him.
She would join Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand, a 33-year-old moderate Democrat who said he also is making calls and interviewing potential staff members.
"I am in. It is my intention to run for the Senate," said Marchand. Marchand said he plans to file papers with the Federal Elections Commission by the end of the month.
On Monday, New York Senator Charles Schumer , who heads up the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee , named Sununu as one of three Republicans he hopes to defeat in 2008, noting the Granite State's increasingly Democratic voting patterns.
Sununu, a former two-term congressman and the son of former governor John H. Sununu, was first elected in 2002, a strong Republican year. He defeated then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen by a 51-to-47 margin in a race where a Libertarian and a write-in candidate also took votes.
Since then, New Hampshire has veered increasingly toward the Democrats. In 2004, it was the only state President Bush carried in 2000 to go for Democratic nominee John F. Kerry , and a Democrat replaced a Republican governor. Last November, New Hampshire Democrats had their best showing in state history.
