Word: sununu
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Given the tainted GOP brand nationally-and in New Hampshire, where four state party officials have been convicted of hiring a firm to jam Democratic phone lines during the 2002 election-Sununu has tried to present himself as, well, a maverick. In the Senate, he has gone out of his way to stake out some independent ground-opposing reauthorization of the Patriot Act, supporting land conservation issues, and being the first Republican Senator to call for the resignation of former attorney general Alberto Gonzales. During the last televised debate in the Senate race, both candidates were asked to identify issues...
...when Sununu and Shaheen first faced-off, Republicans were the ones with a built-in advantage. The country still showed signs of post-9/11 shock, war in Iraq was still months away, and Bush's approval ratings were impressively high. In New Hampshire, the GOP held a 11-point registration advantage over Democrats. Republicans were relieved, but not surprised, when the three-term congressman Sununu won the Senate seat by 4% over Shaheen...
Both McCain and Sununu have also been hurt by New Hampshire's changing electorate. As voters from the Boston suburbs have moved north over the border into New Hampshire, the state has become younger, more liberal, and less rural. According to a recent University of New Hampshire study, New Hampshire has one of the most mobile populations in the country-45% of residents were born in the state, compared to 67% nationally. That means that nearly a third of eligible voters this year are new since 2000. And while longtime New Hampshire voters are split almost evenly between Republicans...
...wonder then that Shaheen doesn't miss a chance to remind voters that Sununu has voted with Bush more than 80% of the time during his six years in the Senate. In their debates, she rarely says his name without also mentioning Bush. One of her television ads features a clip of Bush saying, "John Sununu was with me from the beginning." Visit her campaign website and you'll find six of 10 ads that feature images of or references to the president...
...race winds down, Sununu has responded to such attacks with an unorthodox move-trying to tie his Democratic opponent to Bush. Sununu's campaign has released an ad pointing out that Shaheen initially supported the war in Iraq as well as Bush's tax cuts, and using footage of her repeatedly saying "I'll stand with President Bush" in 2002. It's a long-shot effort from a politician whose rise has been halted by an unpopular president. "If the question is who is closer to Bush," says a top Shaheen strategist, "that's an easy one. He loses...