Rep. Jeb Bradley says “it was scary” when his military flight from Baghdad to Kuwait City was fired on with a shoulder-launched missile, forcing the crew into evasive action.

The incident occurred in January. But only now, three months later, has it been made public that the C-130 carrying Bradley, five other congressmen and four military officials came under enemy fire as it flew “lights out” following a visit to U.S. troops in Iraq.

The San Francisco Chronicle reported last Saturday that Bradley and others had confirmed the incident. It said the Russian-made SA-18 missile was deflected by the plane’s countermeasures.

Bradley said yesterday he kept the incident quiet because he wanted any news from his visit to focus on the troops. “The story was about them, not us,” he said.

Bradley said that shortly after takeoff from Baghdad, “the crew started taking evasive measures. They started swerving and diving the plane and sent off flares that distracted the missile.”

Bradley said that other than the flares, he saw no explosion.

The crew, he said, “was exceptional and was an example of the fantastic caliber of men and women who are fighting to defend our liberties in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.”

“It was scary,” he said. “But I just trusted in their competence.”

GOAL MET

While primary opponent Gary Dodds recovers from his well-publicized lost-in-the-woods ordeal last week in Dover, Democratic 1st District U.S. House candidate Jim Craig has been raising money.

The state House Democratic leader is expected to announce today that he has met his first-quarter fundraising goal of $150,000. Campaign finance reports are due at the Federal Election Commission by Saturday.

Craig has been a candidate for only a month.

More than 80 percent of Craig’s contributions come from New Hampshire donors, and most of that comes from individuals.

Craig is taking political action committee money. His report will show support from organized labor. He said yesterday he was “proud to receive a broad range of support.”

ANOTHER ROBERGE CHALLENGER

State Senate “dean” Sheila Roberge, R-Bedford, learned this week she may have two Republican primary opponents.

Now comes a Democrat.

Attorney Michael Atkins of Lyndeborough is seriously considering a run in District 9. Atkins practices law in Nashua, is general counsel to the Nashua Pride, co-chairs the Nashua Child Advocacy Group and is co-chair of the Democratic State Committee’s platform committee.

WHO CALLED WHOM WHEN?

For about three years, New Hampshire Democratic Party leaders tried to get to the bottom of the infamous GOP phone-jamming scandal.

Now, suddenly, the national Democrats are noticing.

DNC Chairman Howard Dean got into the act this week with a letter to RNC chief Ken Melhman. Dean expressed concern over what he called the GOP effort to “suppress the vote” in New Hampshire on Election Day 2002 by jamming Democratic get-out-the-vote lines.

He says the people of New Hampshire deserve an apology.

This, mind you, is from the same Howard Dean who is intent on pushing the New Hampshire primary further down the 2008 primary/caucus food chain.

Let’s just say the irony was not lost on some local party members, some of whom are biting their tongues while appreciating the help from Washington.

Ironies aside, the sudden pressure from Dean and the DNC has prompted results.

After the RNC stonewalled this newspaper on the issue for three years, Mehlman has now been forced to address the issue.

He was shaken loose by news stories following this column’s March 23 report that former RNC official James Tobin made scores of calls to the White House political affairs office in the weeks leading up to, and following, the phone-jamming operation.

Mehlman said late Tuesday that as the White House political director at the time, “my staff and I regularly communicated with competitive congressional campaigns and Republican Party organizations.”

The New Hampshire ‘02 race between John E. Sununu and Jeanne Shaheen “was one of the most competitive,” Mehlman said.

He said his deputy, Alicia Davis, “frequently communicated” with the state GOP, the RNC and “others,” but “none of my conversations, nor the conversations of my staff, involved discussion of the phone-jamming incident.”

The DNC, not surprisingly, is not satisfied.

“Mehlman still won’t say whether anyone in the White House political department or at the RNC was aware of, or played a role in, devising, authorizing, implementing or concealing a criminal phone jamming scheme that disenfranchised countless New Hampshire voters,” DNC communications director Karen Finney said yesterday.

She accused Mehlman of “stonewalling.”

WHAT WAS SAID?

Local Democratic leaders are now awaiting a ruling from Superior Court Judge Philip Mangones on their request to begin probing why the calls to the White House were made. They want to probe the GOP through the discovery process in their civil suit against the state and national Republican parties.

State Democratic chair Kathy Sullivan said that there may be “nothing inherently significant” about Tobin and other GOP operatives calling the White House.

But since a crime was committed, “We’ve got to find out what the content of the calls are. Too many Republican officials have said things that turned out not to be accurate in this case.”

ALREADY INVESTIGATED

Robert Kelner, an RNC lawyer in the phone-jamming civil suit, added an interesting twist after Tuesday’s superior court hearing.

Kelner told WMUR that the federal Justice Department has long known about the calls to the White House, investigated the calls and “did not bring any charges.”

“How did he know that?” Sullivan asked.

The Justice Department has never commented publicly about its investigation. A White House spokesman said this week, “As policy, we don’t discuss ongoing legal proceedings within the courts.”

“So, is the White House or the Department of Justice willing to speak to Mr. Kelner and no one else?” Sullivan asked. “I don’t know how else he would know that.”

PRIMARY UPDATE

The DNC’s rules committee will meet again next Thursday on the early primary/caucus issue, this time in New Orleans.

According to both Sullivan and the rules committee’s own work plan, the panel is expected to hear testimony from Democratic officials in states hoping to get primaries or caucuses either before or immediately after the New Hampshire primary.

But no decision on the number or identity of states to hold caucuses before New Hampshire is expected until the rules committee’s summer meeting, tentatively scheduled for mid- to late-June.

EARLY SUPPORT

John McCain has old friends in New Hampshire. That’s not new.

But he did pick up some new backers while visiting last weekend. They include state Sen. Jack Barnes, R-Raymond, who supported George W. Bush in 2000; former Attorney General Gregory Smith, an independent who backed Democrat Joe Lieberman for President in 2004; Greg Tewksbury, executive vice president of the Savings Bank of Walpole; Rep. Christopher Irish, R-Claremont; Lebanon City Councilor James Dean; Dave Cioffi, a former owner of the Dartmouth Bookstore; and former Rep. Charlie Sova, R-Orange.

KERRY, EDWARDS (AND ROY?)

John Kerry and John Edwards will return to the state next week.

Edwards will speak at the IBEW union headquarters in Concord next Thursday. The fund-raiser will benefit the Committee to Elect House Democrats.

Kerry will return on April 23 for a fund-raiser for the Senate Democratic Caucus at the home of Alderman Mark Roy in Manchester.

Democrats in and beyond Manchester find it interesting that Roy is hosting a Senate event.

Roy defeated David Wihby in 2003 to become the first-ever Democratic alderman from the city’s Ward 1. Some are wondering if he is now thinking ahead to a possible Senate challenge to Ted Gatsas.

COBURN’S MADE IT

Republican candidate for governor Jim Coburn is really for real now.

The state Democratic Party leveled its first attack on Coburn yesterday after he opened his Concord campaign office.

Its first anti-Coburn press release attempts to link him to former Gov. Craig Benson.

“Voters are not going to stand for Jim Coburn’s extreme right-wing voting record, or his desire to return the state to the days when loose ethics governed the executive branch, a woman’s right to choose was under attack, and insurance companies could discriminate against sick workers,” said Democratic chair Sullivan.

Congratulations, Jim. You’ve made it.

QUICK TAKES:

Republican Newt Gingrich, former House Speaker, concludes a visit to New Hampshire today with a speech at Franklin Pierce College in Rindge and an appearance at a Victory NH issues forum in New Castle.

Potential ‘08 hopeful Mark Warner, the former Virginia governor, and Sen. Russell Feingold of Wisconsin are scheduled to speak at the state Democratic Party convention on June 3 at St. Anselm College.

John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News.