NEW HAMPSHIRE
GOP hold on state falters further
Democrats take control of Senate
By Ralph Jimenez, Globe Staff, 11/05/98
CONCORD, N.H. - For nearly two decades, New Hampshire was one of the most Republican states in the nation. In many years, it sent no Democrat to Congress and placed no Democrats in statewide positions higher than minority leader.
The state's status as a Republican redoubt foundered in 1996 when Jeanne Shaheen became not only the state's first female governor but the first Democrat to hold the office in 16 years.
On Tuesday, GOP ground shook again when Shaheen dealt rival Jay Lucas the worst defeat of any Republican gubernatorial nominee this century; it shook even further when Democrats took control of the state Senate, for the first time since 1912, by a 13-11 ratio.
''I think this says a lot about the political skill of Governor Jeanne Shaheen,'' said Tom Rath, a Republican strategist and former state attorney general. ''I've never been shy in expressing my admiration for that skill, but this was a really impressive demonstration of it.''
Shaheen, who defeated Lucas with 66 percent of the vote as opposed to her opponent's 31 percent, campaigned aggressively for Democratic candidates in the last weeks of the campaign.
The governor's efforts made the difference in several close Senate races, including an acrimonious contest in central New Hampshire between former House Democratic leader Rick Trombly and Republican incumbent Amy Patenaude.
With one week to go before the election, the Union Leader of Manchester linked Trombly with a gay social group.
Though Republicans held control of the 400 -member House, the change in the Senate raised hopes that the state will be able to resolve its school-funding crisis. The state Supreme Court has set an April 1 deadline to replace an unconstitutional system that relies almost totally on local property taxes to fund education.
Democrats and Republicans alike, however, warn that a Democratic-controlled Senate does not mean that the solution to the crisis will be a statewide sales, income, or property tax. Shaheen has repeatedly said she would veto any such effort.
''My sense of it is that this does not mean that we are about to see a major change in the state's tax structure,'' said Edgar Helms, former state Democratic Party chairman.
The Claremont school funding suit, filed by a coalition of poor towns, is in its eighth year.
This story ran on page B07 of the Boston Globe on 11/05/98.
© Copyright 1998 Globe Newspaper Company.
