MANCHESTER – The candidates clamor for change, but the battle for the 1st Congressional District is another repeat of 2006. This time, the economy replaces war as the dominant voter concern.

Little-known Democrat Carol Shea-Porter upset Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley two years ago. The former two-term congressman aims to return the favor.

BRADLEY

The rematch is saturated by charges, traded daily on the campaign trail, that each candidate is somehow beholden to the leaders of their political parties. Democrats cast Bradley as a foot soldier for President Bush. Republicans portray Shea-Porter as in lock-step with unions and that "San Francisco liberal," House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

►Click here to visit Carol Shea-Porter's campaign Web site.
►Click here to visit Jeb Bradley's campaign Web site.
►Lynch and Kenney debate tonight at 7 p.m.

Shea-Porter, whom Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean could not name in the aftermath of her 2006 victory, now enjoys the power of incumbency.

Both candidates have greater name recognition, plenty of campaign cash, and considerable financial support in the form of TV and radio ads from outside organizations. Polls show a close race.

SHEA-PORTER

"It's a district either candidate can win," said Andrew E. Smith, executive director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center in Durham.

Forces outside their control are at play. One UNH poll graph depicting President Bush's approval rating in New Hampshire looks like the plunging stock market. The economy, regardless of the candidates' declarations of support for the middle class, may be the deciding factor.

"There's a real history and tendency for voters to punish the party in power when the economy is bad," Smith said.

Economic crisis has coursed through each congressional debate. Shea-Porter, who opposed the $700 billion bailout package, called it the hardest vote she's taken in her two years in office.

While the economy needs a life line, that financial fix should not be turned over to or benefit some of the Wall Street executives responsible for the trouble in the first place, according to Shea-Porter.

"We could've done better for the American taxpayer," she said.

A former small businessman, Bradley also opposed the $700 billion bailout package. He said Congress must deliver energy reform to help the struggling economy, cut federal spending, and extend tax cuts to create jobs.

New Hampshire, Bradley underscored in their most recent debate, needs tax relief, not tax increases. He says that's a fundamental difference between himself and Shea-Porter.

"You voted numerous times to raise taxes on the middle class, on working Americans," he said. "You have brought tax raising to a new high, you and your Democratic colleagues in Congress."

Shea-Porter, 55, lives in Rochester with her husband, Gene Porter. They have two children. She went to UNH, from where she also received a master's degree in public administration. She has worked as a social work administrator and a community college history instructor.

Shea-Porter decided to run for Congress after volunteering in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina. She said the size of that federal government failure gave her a looking glass into the needs of New Hampshire families.

In 2006, she became the first woman elected to a national office in New Hampshire history. A former military spouse, she said a highlight of the term was serving on the House Armed Services Committee, where she said she worked for a new GI Bill of Rights and veterans' health care.

Bradley, 56, is a former 12-year state representative. He lives in Wolfeboro with his wife, Barbara. They have four children. He graduated from Tufts University, where he studied history and sociology.

He was elected in 2002 and re-elected in 2004. Bradley said he is running again to work for limited government, low taxes, personal responsibility, and individual freedom €" what he has called "Live Free Or Die Values."

Shea-Porter, the anti-war candidate of 2006, is hawkish when it comes to fighting the war in Afghanistan, but she still castigates the Bush administration for the war in Iraq.

She wants to withdraw troops from Iraq while military commanders oversee a carefully, phased redeployment of some soldiers to Afghanistan. In a recent debate, she said even top commanders are not using the word "win" when it comes to Iraq.

Bradley in Congress voted to fund the war in Iraq. On his Web site, Bradley says Democrats in Congress "most ominously displayed a lack of realism when confronting the threat of terrorism to our nation."

Shea-Porter won endorsements from the National Veterans of Foreign Wars Political Action Committee and the Metal Trades Council at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard.

Bradley supporters say the VFW PAC endorsement does not reflect the will of the New Hampshire chapter of the VFW, which named Bradley its citizen of the year.

Though the economy is on voters' minds, the candidates continue to debate support for veterans and the troops.

Paul O'Connor, president of the shipyard union behind Shea-Porter, said "Bradley hasn't done anything for us."

Gold Star mother Natalie Healy of Exeter, whose Navy Seal son Dan died in Afghanistan, has accused Shea-Porter in Bradley campaign ads of voting against funding for combat troops.

The PAC and union support for Shea-Porter, Bradley argues, comes with a price. He noted labor organizations, including Teamsters, teachers' unions, and Service Employees International Union, are one of her campaign's biggest donors.

"Carol Shea-Porter has a record of voting with big labor bosses 96 percent of the time," he said. "She's in lock step with unions."

Corporations and business groups are major contributors to Bradley's campaign. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has endorsed him.

In what has become a natural rhythm of the campaign trail, Shea-Porter fires away at Bradley's voting record, accusing him of siding with President Bush 85 percent of the time.

Robert Kingsbury, the Libertarian candidate in the race, says Bradley and Shea-Porter are part of the problem. "Electing a better Congress is the solution to all our nation's ills," he says. He calls the federal bailout, and the takeover of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, a "great swindling of the taxpayers."

Kingsbury, 82, served as a rifleman for Gen. George Patton. He is a former marketing superviser for BF Goodrich and a regional sales manager from Laconia. He sits on the board of directors for the Coalition of New Hampshire Taxpayers and the Gun Owners of New Hampshire.