Sunday, October 31, 2010

New Hampshire's Political House

Divided. 
 

Globe features the Democrat that is going to beat the establishment Repuglican who started talking Tea Party. 

Less emphasis on the antiwar(?) Democrat Carol Shea-Porter and her upcoming loss or the Republican retention of the Senate seat. 

 Hey, what else would you expect from a paper that told you Marty Coakley was going to win by double-digits on election day?

"New battleground, old friends in N.H.; US House race reflects voter shift" by Christopher Rowland, Globe Staff  |  October 25, 2010

CONCORD, N.H. — Charlie Bass and Ann McLane Kuster once were old family friends, children of allied political clans that formed part of New Hampshire’s moderate Republican bedrock. But this year Bass and Kuster are waging partisan war for a prized congressional seat.

Defying national trends that favor the GOP, Kuster, now a Democrat, had climbed to a 7-point lead in the most recent poll. The open Second Congressional District race remains volatile, with outside interests pouring money in and a blizzard of negative ads intensifying in the campaign’s closing days.

The harsh contest has implications beyond its back story of old family ties and new rivalries. It is about who will win the political center in a crucial swing state, a topic much on the minds of top Democrats and Republicans across New England as increasing numbers of voters feel alienated from both parties. 

HELLO, dear and beloved readers!

Over the last two decades, two polarizing trends have transformed politics and marginalized moderate Republicans in the Granite State: the Democratic Party has strengthened, and conservatives have become the dominant force in the GOP.

Bass had been one of those moderates....     

Then independent and Democratic voters tossed Bass from office in the war-weary, anti-incumbent atmosphere of 2006.  

Now it is the WAR-WEARY, ANTI-ESTABLISHMENT atmosphere of 2010!!

 Now, in his comeback bid, Bass, 58, has gambled on a rightward turn, seeking to firm up his conservative credentials with an embrace of the Tea Party movement. He signed an antitax pledge circulated by Americans for Prosperity, a deep-pocketed group that is bankrolling Tea Party organizing efforts around the country....  

I never knock anyone for that. Overtaxed Americans are being robbed so all their money can go for wars, Wall Street, and Israel.  

Bass’s strategy does not appear to be working. The latest WMUR Granite State Poll showed him falling behind Kuster for the first time in the race, with 36 percent support compared to her 43 percent. The poll carried another ominous sign for Bass: His standing declined sharply among independents.

“Charlie Bass is less popular now than he ever has been,’’ said Andrew Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, which conducted the poll for WMUR.

His drop in the polls may have to do with his shift on the ideological spectrum, he added. “Any time you do that, it makes the candidate look disingenuous.’’ 

Hey, THEY ALL ARE!

***************

Bass, however, a well-known commodity in New Hampshire, has turned off voters with his “extreme makeover,’’ said Garrison Nelson, a University of Vermont political science professor....

Kuster, 54, is running for elective office for the first time.  

Just like Porter four years ago.

She is campaigning as a staunch enemy of deficit spending but sticks to Democratic doctrine on other issues, supporting the health care overhaul law and cap-and-trade environmental legislation....

The campaign is one of several key races in New Hampshire, in which Democrats and Republicans may end up dividing the spoils. The GOP’s candidate to replace a retiring Gregg in the Senate, Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, has built a solid lead over Representative Paul Hodes, who defeated Bass for the congressional seat in 2006.

In the state’s other House race, Frank Guinta, a Republican and former Manchester mayor, is ahead of incumbent Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.  

RelatedMeet Your Antiwar New England Liberals


Yes, how VERY, VERY DISAPPOINTING! 

Also see: Pelosi Protested at Shea-Porter Promo
 
First Female Speaker Failed 

And how. Gonna cost Shea-Porter her seat! 

 But in addition to Kuster’s encouraging poll numbers, Democrats have cause for hope in the state’s governor, John Lynch, who has a double-digit advantage over his Republican challenger, John Stephen.   

Yeah, keep clinging to the life-preserving pieces of corn in the toilet bowl turd of AmeriKan politics.

Once a reliable GOP stronghold, New Hampshire now has far greater numbers of independents and nearly equal numbers of registered Democrats and Republicans....   

All cleaned up and time to move on to the next state.

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