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CONCORD - Gov. John Lynch nominated George Bald today for a new four-year term as state Commissioner of Resource and Economic Development.
Shaheen to run for Senate
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By JOHN DISTASO
Senior Political Reporter
Friday, Sep. 14, 2007
Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen confirmed this morning that she will run for the U.S. Senate in 2008.
Her decision was first reported on UnionLeader.com last night and in the New Hampshire Union Leader this morning.
Shaheen issued a statement from the Harvard Institute of Politics, where she has served as director since 2005 and from which she has resigned. She will discuss her plans at her home in Madbury on Sunday afternoon.
“I have stepped have down from my position at the Kennedy School of Government because we have major problems facing this country,” she said in the statement, “and there is an urgent need for real change in Washington.
“We have proven in New Hampshire that we can work together to get things done. I want to take that common sense approach to Washington and help this country move in the right direction,” Shaheen said.
The Democratic former three-term chief executive is seeking the seat held by Republican John E. Sununu, who defeated her in a bitter 2002 contest.
Shaheen, 60, has held the Harvard post since April 2005.
Three other Democrats had already announced their candidacies for the Senate seat.
One of the three, Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand, will withdraw tomorrow, UnionLeader.com has learned. He will make the announcement at a news conference at the Portsmouth Public Library. Marchand will thus follow through on a promise he made in January, when he became a candidate.
A “rising star” in Democratic politics, Marchand, 33, is expected to speak glowingly of Shaheen, but will not yet formally endorse her candidacy. That is expected to occur later.
Former astronaut Jay Buckey reaffirmed this morning he is in the race to stay.
Katrina Swett issued a statement that left her plans unclear. She called Shaheen "another powerful and respected voice demanding change in the direction that John Sununu and the Bush Administration are leading our nation."
She added, "I entered this race to make a positive change in the direction of our country and I remain committed to ensuring John Sununu’s defeat November 2008.”
Her campaign manager, Bob Quinn, refused to say this afternoon whether she would a remain a candidate and whether she was considering withdrawing. Swett, who has raised $1.2 million, last week sent a direct mail piece to 22,000 Democratic households criticizing Sununu and promoting her bid.
Sununu, meanwhile, told UnionLeader.com today that he was not surprised by Shaheen's decision because “her party’s leaders have been encouraging her to run for months.”
Sununu said he “will be prepared with a very strong, town-to-town, person-to-person campaign no matter who the Democratic nominee is.”
Sununu, asked how he felt about being labeled “vulnerable” by the media and the Democrats, said, "In New Hampshire, you always have to assume that no election can be taken for granted. In 2002, I won a primary against an incumbent U.S. senator (Bob Smith) and won a general election against an incumbent governor. That’s about as difficult a campaign environment as can be imagined.
“No one can predict the political climate 15 months in advance,” he said. “My focus will be on continuing to provide the kind of leadership I have been providing on the issues that matter for New Hampshire.” He cited his support for small businesses, environment, civil liberties and “personal freedom.”
Former state Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan, who launched a “Draft Shaheen” organization in June, said, “I’m just so excited. She will be the best candidate for the state. She has such a proven record of accomplishment from her six years as governor.”
Boston political strategist and media consultant Doug Hattaway, Shaheen’s former press secretary in the governor’s office, said he and other former staffers and friends have been helping Shaheen launch her campaign. He named former Shaheen administration staffers Judy Reardon and Karen Hicks, as well as veteran political consultant Maura Keefe.
Hattaway said Shaheen “has heard from a lot of people around New Hampshire urging her to run. She feels strongly about the serious need for change in Washington and is ready to get started putting together a campaign.”
The Shaheen decision -- long-awaited by the political community in New Hampshire and Washington -- ensures the New Hampshire political scene will continue to churn well after the presidential candidates leave after the primary in January.
SHAHEEN
Shaheen, who served as governor from 1997 to 2003, lost to Sununu 51 percent to 47 percent five years ago after polls had shown her with a narrow lead heading into the final weekend of the campaign.
President George W. Bush's popularity helped propel Sununu's win in 2002. Next year, Bush may be Sununu's albatross.
The freshman senator is now viewed as one of the most vulnerable incumbents up for reelection next year, largely due to his continued support for Bush's position on the Iraq war. An anti-war group, funded largely by organized labor, has been holding protests outside his offices and news conferences criticizing him on the war. It aired television ads last spring accusing him of rubber-stamping Bush and refusing to answer reporters' questions about his position.
All of this, as well as Shaheen's own changed position on the war, will surely to come into play if Shaheen meets Sununu in next year's general election campaign. But the immediate question is:
What will the currently announced Democratic candidates for Sununu's seat do now that Shaheen -- the proverbial 800-pound gorilla -- is in the race?
Veteran activist Katrina Swett, Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand and physician/professor/former astronaut Jay Buckey, a political newcomer, have been candidates since the spring and summer and have been organizing and campaigning full-time.
Marchand said in January that if Shaheen were to enter the race, he would withdraw and support her. But recently, Marchand has been hedging, saying a month ago that he has been excited by the level of support he has received and, regarding his promise to withdraw, saying, "Nothing has changed at this time" -- stressing the last three words.
Swett also has continued to ramp up her campaign. She has raised $1.2 million and last week sent out direct mail pieces to 22,000 Democratic households. She has not been specific on what she would do if Shaheen entered the race, saying recently that she expected Shaheen to decide not to run.
►DraftShaheen.com
►Jay Buckey's web site
►Steve Marchand's web site
►Katrina Swett's web site
►Sen. Sununu's campaign web site
►Be the first to get political news from the first primary state. Sign up for our headlines and news alerts.
Buckey has said he will run regardless of what Shaheen does.
A July poll by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center showed Sununu vulnerable to defeat by Swett and Marchand, but mostly by Shaheen.
In a trial heat, 54 percent of 524 Granite Staters interviewed favored her and 38 percent favored Sununu. The poll found Sununu defeating Swett, 43 to 39 percent; Marchand, 42 to 38 percent; and Buckey, 44 to 28 percent.
The same poll showed 60 percent of those surveyed viewed Shaheen favorably and 24 percent unfavorably, while Sununu was viewed favorably by 43 percent and unfavorably by 35 percent.
Survey Center director Andrew Smith says the state electorate has changed since 2002. Registered independents have increasingly viewed themselves as Democratic voters since mid- to late 2003, he said.
He said research he is currently conducting shows that 40 to 45 percent of undeclared voters are, "in their minds," Democratic voters, while 20 to 25 percent view themselves as Republicans. Last year, Democrats, riding anti-Bush and anti-war sentiments, won both U.S. House seats and took control of the Legislature.
The state's top Democrat, Gov. John Lynch, after being re-elected with 74 percent of the vote, said he would not run for the U.S. Senate and is expected to seek a third term.
National party leaders, including Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee Chair Chuck Schumer and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to recruit Shaheen in the spring. A recent DSCC e-mail to supporters highlighted Shaheen.
Shaheen has been involved in politics for about 30 years. She made a name for herself in 1980 when she engineered President Jimmy Carter's New Hampshire primary victory over a hard-charging Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy. In the 1984 primary campaign, Shaheen was a key part of a team that helped then-Sen. Gary Hart upset then-Vice President Walter Mondale.
In 1990, she won the first of three terms in the state Senate, and in 1996, she became the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire and the first Democrat to hold the office since Hugh Gallen in the early 1980s.
Shaheen, portraying herself as a moderate Democrat, in 1996 pledged to veto a sales or income tax. With popular incumbent Republican Steve Merrill retiring from public life, Shaheen easily defeated Republican former state school board chair Ovide Lamontagne. Two years later, she collected two-thirds of the vote in trouncing Republican Jay Lucas.
Her advocacy of a sales tax became a major issue when she took on Sununu in 2002. Sununu, who had defeated incumbent Republican Sen. Bob Smith in a primary, warned that Shaheen would bring what he viewed as her liberal spending ways to Washington.
State Republican Chair Fergus Cullen said that while he respects Shaheen, “she was a weak and ineffective governor.” He noted that she proposed a sales tax as governor and “failed to solve the education funding issue.” He said that state spending “ratcheted up by double digits” during her administration.
“As governor, Jeanne Shaheen was long on blue ribbon commissions and short on solutions,” said Cullen.
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YOUR COMMENTS
Just what we need. Another tax-and-spend Democrat.
Yeah, that's the right direction, alright. Shaheen is so on top of things that she'll probably go fight about issues that don't even exist, because some Dem agenda person told her it was "what NH voters want".
- Adam F., Merrimack
I find it amusing and disturbing that the costs of running a State is completely ignored by our conservative friends here. No one here has provided any plans to pay for State Services AND lower taxes... funny huh?
What has Sununu done for our State? What has he done to contain costs in the Federal Budget in his time in the U.S. Senate? What has he done to maintain the checks and balances between the Branches of the U.S. Government?
I believe that Sununu hasn't done his job. It IS time for a change.
BTW: 1 US Dollar is now EQUAL to 1 Canadian Dollar... good for people w/ money.... those poor/underemployed/uninsured people should go get 2 more min. wage jobs though... right?? Go Jeanne!
- Matt, Francestown
Oh no, we are still trying to recover from Shaheen's last spree with power in NH, start writing folks and hope the democratic wave does not let her back in. Her radical feminist support of family breakup and removal of fit parents from their children is one of her biggest accomplishments :(
- Jeff, E Hampstead
With her announcement she made her first mistake. She declared her candidacy from Massachusetts, not NH. A sign of things to come?
- Rich, Manchester
Yes, vote Republican! B/c they cut our taxes & don't tell us how to live our lives. B/c I pulled myself up by my own bootstraps without the help of any other person or institution, so why should I give back? Sorry my myopic little friends but reality bites - to the tune of a multi-trillion dollar deficit, 3,779 Americans dead, few civil liberties, privitized recklessness, greed and unaccountability, all still being paid for by...us. The more that's cut, the more we pay. Do the math. And wake up from the 'Dream' while you're at it.
- Adam, Merrimack
If she gets in boy are we in trouble!
- Sean, Milford
Speaking of spending, we spend $10,000,000,000 a month on Iraq.
- Tim, Milford
And who can forget Governor Shaheen's refusal to take down the Merrimack tolls when promised because it would be too expensive. Err....Governor? Couldn't we just stop collecting the money and physically leave them up? Clearly another tax and spend liberal looking to go to Washington the same way Shea-Porter went--riding the coat tails of Bush hatred.
- Jay PS, Manchester
"No Broadbased Taxes!....wait, I mean no NEW Broadbased taxes!" Thanks Jeanne. Can I send you my property tax bill? Thanks to Craig Benson NH is fiscally sound. Dems have YET to produce a balanced budget. Lunacy. Move south.
- Mike, Concord
Shaheen's "mantle of inevitability" comes purely from name recognition. National Dems are already portraying her as the best candidate. We don't need the person who will be the best candidate, we need the person who will be the best senator. I'm tired of electing officials to Washington who have been in politics all their lives and know how to get elected, but don't have any good ideas and don't know how to effectively lead once they get to office.
I, myself, am supporting Jay Buckey. He has the kind of real-world experience as an engineer, doctor, astronaut, and Major in the air force reserve that NH can be proud of in a leader. Most importantly, his ideas make sense. This country needs people like Dr. Buckey in the Senate.
- Benjamin Bollinger, Temple
Hello Ed From Londonderry, The republicans CUT taxes and revenues jumped and prosperity jumped, the problem I have with the Republicans is that they cowed to the Dumocrats and increased spending too much.
- Marc, Candia
Under Shaheen, the NH Business Profits Tax and Business Enterprise Tax went so high that it forced many NH businesses to move south. Haven't folks figured out she's to blame for our loss of jobs up here? I surely don't want her representing me in Washington.
- Dan, Merrimack
How amusing to hear Republicans complain about taxes and spending. How about borrow and spend? The Democrats are going to take over in Washington just as they have in NH and Jeanne Shaheen will be among the newly elected. She will be an outstanding US Senator.
- ed, londonderry
Right, as if Bush and Cheney's (and Sununu's) never-ending Iraq War isn't eating up our tax dollars!
- Bob, Manchester
Since Jeanne is a 'scamnesty' supporter for the millions upon millions of illegal alien invaders who are sneaking into our home, stealing American's identities, stealing American taxpayers' jobs, stealing American taxpayers' services, driving up the cost of our schools, driving up the cost of our medical services, marching in our streets with their 'homeland' flags, arrogantly demanding rights to which they have no right, trashing our neighborhoods, etc ad nauseum, it will be a lovely day in H*ll when I vote for her.
So go ahead, Jeanne, run to represent these illegal alien invaders and see how quickly we show you the door - just be careful not to let it hit you on the way out.
- Pamela, Washington, NH
This woman is very cozy with the Clintons.No thank you
Under Shaheen my property taxes went sky high with the education mess and which is still ongoing.
Sorry the state was run well for one hundred years under republican control and i see it has gone way down since it is under democrate control.It is becoming another Massachusetts and that is for the worse.
- nacy ryan, kensington, nh
Shaheen will beat Sununu pretty easily. He is out of step with the state.
And in response to Craig in Manchester, the majority of people moving up from Massachusetts are actually voting Republican. It's the NH natives and people moving from other states that are turning the state blue.
- Elgin Booth, Londonderry
She'll run on the same platform as all the Democrats do. The republicans stink, Bush casued everthing that is wrong, vote for me! When pressed as to what they will do differently, the same Bush stinks rhetoric will come through. They do not stand for anything except more free stuff for those that do not work (registered as Democrats most of them), more socialistic programs that do not work(so let's throw more money at them), and higher & higher spending (with corresponding tax increases).
Here's a question: If you repeal the "Bush" tax cuts, are you not INCREASING taxes? A Democrat will say NO. I hope the voters know better.
- Mark, Raymond
Funny about the whole 'watch your wallet' lines the GOP has been using for 30 years.
What about a childrens' wallets that George W. Bush has picked to the tune of 9 trillion dollars?
GOP Bushies would rather build schools in Iraq and shortchange schools in America.
We are even giving US tax dollars to "Sunni sheiks", formerly known as "dead enders" and "Saddamists" who have killed hundreds of Americans in Iraq. Then again, the GOP still loves Ollie North who gave money, cakes and missiles to the Iranian Mullahs.
Your tax dollars at work.
Besides, talking about tired names, the son of a former Governor who was a Bush 1 cabinet member isn't my idea of "fresh".
-Greg
- Greg, Milford
She's going to win. She probably would have won back in 2002 if the phone jamming hadn't taken place. I actually read somewhere that NH's newcomers from Massachusetts tend to vote more for conservative candidates. It's actually the NH natives that have changed the political landscape from red to blue. Shaheen's going to win.
- Ed, Manchester
I'm not a Demorat...er Democrat...but it seems to me that it's time for somebody new to run. Why are the Dems digging up this has-been? Don't they have any new talent to run against Sununu?
Let's face it, Shaheen is a loser and her time is long past. It's time for the Dems to come up with somebody new, without her baggage and perhaps...just perhaps with a tad bit of common sense.
- Bob Hoskins, New Boston
We get an influx of Massachusetts liberals fleeing the mess made down there, the state turns blue, and look what comes crawling out of the wood work. Now we get to enjoy her only campaign tactic: Relentlessly smearing the opposition with radio ads all funded by those with special interests that go against what makes this state (or at least USED to make it) the greatest in the union.
- Craig, Manchester
The real question will be if the voters are hoodwinked and lied to like this last election so we will have yet another voice in Washignton that does not reflect the majority in this state?
Lets see her husband is the NH chair for the Clinton so do you think she will have support and money from the same crooks?
Count on it.
Look at the states highway department now and ask yourself who was in charge in Concord the past 8 out of 10 years and I hope you see what could happen on a national level.
Before you align Sununu with Bush I suggest you look at how he has voted.
he did not vote fot the immigration policy, he is the one calling for a differnet startegy in Washington and there should be no doubt of his support for our troops.
Don't be fooled again would be my motto.
Maybe the Who will let us use that?
- Bill, Brewster
In an odd coincidence, I was thinking about Shaheen as governor today. Didn't she campaign to lower electric bills in NH? How has yours been?
Mine is nothing short of ridiculous. Oh the actual cost of the electricity is not so awful - but it gets more than doubled with a lot of costs of doing business.
Structure costs etc.
Reminds of how the gubmint was going to fix the high cost of hospital stays and it changed from 'all included' per night in the 60's to separate charges for everything. Like $18 for an aspirin because the lights are on in the hospital...
Shaheen has always been incompetent and always will be because she believes gubmint can fix things. Idiot.
- Dennis Hamel, Henniker
I've voted for Shaheen in the past, and I'll vote for any of the nominees against Sununu, but I have to say I was excited for another new face for the Democrats in NH, especially Jay Buckey - given time and fundraising, he or Marchand could give Sununu a tough fight. It's sort of like those comic strips that go on in perpetuity so that no other cartoonists have a chance to make it into the newspapers - Jeanne, give one of these other candidates a chance (not that the others can't beat Shaheen, but she certainly has more of that mantle of inevitability about her).
- Josh F, Hanover
Jeanne Shaheen mostly made a name for herself engineering Jimmy Carter's 1976 primary campaign to an unexpected victory, not 1980. That primary was between Kennedy and Carter and by then her political skill was already recognized from the 1976 race.
- Bob Jean, Northwood
Watch your wallets NH, the liberals are coming!! The liberals are coming!!!
- Mark, Candia
I think emabarrassingly dense is a good term Louise, but big organized left leaning groups and other major Democrats will give her the money and exposure needed. Look for Sen. John Kerry to help out. Another piece of work.
Good article on her history too, she goes back to the Carter days. No comment required right there. New Hampshire is not what it used to be.
- Kevin W, Lowell Ma
I'm a Dem, but Shaheen is so embarrassingly dense! I recall her silly comment on the Portsmouth Navy Yard, to the effect that she felt it is in NH; "After all it is the PORTSMOUTH Naval Shipyard!" It's just a name Jean - yeesch I shudder to have to listen to this woman.
- Louise Berman, Portsmouth
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