SENDING A MESSAGE. Last week, we wrote that turnout would be low and anything could happen.

And in the 1st District Democratic congressional primary this week, anything definitely did.

Carol Shea-Porter’s upset of favorite Jim Craig said a few things:

• Shea-Porter, pretty much under the radar, had her act together, at least in the “ground game.” It was at least organized enough to win a low-turnout primary.

“We did it the old-fashioned way with a message and with shoe leather,” she said yesterday. “We asked people, ‘If you agree with this message, please tell 10 friends,’ and they did.”

• Craig is a fine man but he turned out to be in a bit over his head when it came to the big picture. He relied heavily on the Washington-types sent up by the national Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and appeared to forget the New Hampshire way.

He got a good vote (about 3,500) in Manchester. But goodness knows what he was doing in the rest of the district, where he received only about 4,500 additional votes.

The tally with 112 of 113 precincts reporting had Shea-Porter with 54 percent, to 35 percent for Craig.

It’s no surprise Shea-Porter won in her home territory, Strafford County, and the relatively liberal Seacoast.

But winning Londonderry? Derry? Merrimack? Candia? And losing Hooksett only 157 to 100?

Wow.

The northern part of the district seemed wide open for both candidates. Shea-Porter blew Craig away. For example:

• Wolfeboro, 209 to 39.

• Tamworth, 167 to 14.

• Meredith, 81 to 43.

Well, you get the picture..

HAPPY JEB

Jeb Bradley is playing with a poker face, but he woke up yesterday a happy candidate.

His campaign is ready to portray Shea-Porter as an anti-war extremist in the mold of Howard Dean, Ned Lamont and even Bernie Sanders.

“I can assure you I’ve never taken a race for granted,” Bradley said yesterday. “I respect her hard work,” he said, but said they differ on “issues that will define this race” –- national defense, health care, taxes and the government bureaucracy.

“The clear contrast is good for New Hampshire and good for democracy,” Bradley said.

Any use of the “extremist” label “shows me Jeb Bradley is out of touch with the people,” said Shea-Porter. She said she is in the mainstream while “he is so busy with the top 1 percent, he is ignoring the rest of us.”.

WHITHER THE DCCC?

Shea-Porter may be a great organizer, but she recognizes that to compete as the nominee, she needs big bucks quickly. She doesn’t have them now.

She shouldn’t look to the DCCC, said state Democratic Chair Kathy Sullivan.

“I don’t expect there will be money coming in from the DNC or the DCCC or affiliate groups now, because they traditionally get involved only if the candidate has a significant amount of money,” she said, “and Carol has chosen to run a more grassroots campaign as opposed to spending time doing fundraising.

“I’d love to see them come in now,” said Sullivan, who wasn’t at all happy that the DCCC got involved in the primary. “I don’t expect it, though.”

Sullivan said the DCCC virtually dropped Craig a while back. Officials there touted him early and talked about putting him on the lucrative “red to blue” list. He never made it.

The bottom line? Sullivan put it bluntly.

“The DCCC getting involved in this primary was a mistake. It hurt Jim Craig. I think New Hampshire is still the kind of place where people don’t like outsiders trying to tell us what to do.”

And then there’s the Presidential primary flap.

Although the DCCC and the Democratic National Committee are separate, they are affiliated. So, when you have the Washington-types at the DNC trashing New Hampshire and demoting its precious event to second-class status, there’s going to be a backlash.

Just maybe Jim Craig was victimized by that, too.

It’s not any one thing. But put it all together, and you have the makings of an upset..

WHAT NOW?

Bradley would have competed in Manchester even if Craig had won the nomination. But it would have been a strong base for the Democrat.

Now, Manchester is up for grabs. Bradley, as the incumbent, has the upper hand.

“Carol has to come over here and compete and work very hard,” said Sullivan. “She has to make her case to the voters in Manchester.”

Shea-Porter began her general election campaign by calling on Bradley to debate her weekly. Not a surprising move for an underdog challenger, but it could be effective if she follows through and constantly hounds him about it.

Shea-Porter said she knows she will need money, “but I’m hoping Jeb Bradley will do his civic responsibility and come and talk to the people. They want a clear message.”

“We are going to debate, there no question about that,” said Bradley, who noted he has held 128 town meetings throughout the district and has no qualms about going face-to-face with voters, or opponents..

DCCC: HODES IS THE GUY

Sure, the DCCC “supports” Shea-Porter, but when asked yesterday to what degree will it support her, regional press secretary Jen Psaki quickly turned the conversation away from the 1st District.

►Parties set for city representative fights
►Record low turnout seen in primary
►Merrimack County GOP ousts Sheriff Jordan
►Link to official primary vote totals

“I know this isn’t exactly what you asked,” she said. “But we see Paul Hodes emerging as one of the top pick-up opportunities in the Northeast.”

Hodes is the Democrat running against Charlie Bass in the 2nd District.

She said Hodes vs. Bass “has sort of fallen under the radar when it shouldn’t have. He has the fundraising base and he is very close in the polls.”.

SEAN WENT NEGATIVE (THEN SOUTH)

He was to be a rising star in the New Hampshire Republican Party.

Sean Mahoney helped the party raise money when it badly needed it. Mahoney turned down the state chairmanship, a job many believe he would have handled well.

He ran for the Executive Council, successfully warded off a potential residency fight and, after sending out a mailing portraying primary victor Chuck Morse as a “lap dog” chihuahua, he lost.

Even with the endorsement of the woman he wanted to replace, Ruth Griffin, even with help from Republican strategists Patrick Hynes and Dave Carney, he couldn’t pull it off. Sure, Russell Prescott took votes away from him, but the three-way race was close enough for one to argue that Mahoney took votes away from Prescott, too.

What becomes of Mahoney’s political future, should he choose to have one? It’s wounded, though not fatally. But this was his big chance to begin climbing the ladder.

Democrats feel very good about their chances in this district, just as they do about many state Senate districts.

Their District 2 council nominee, Bev Hollingworth, is popular on the Seacoast, where John Lynch and John Kerry ran very strong in 2004. Lynch will top the ticket.

It’s going to be a bumpy ride for Morse and the Republicans here..

ALICIA GOES NATIONAL

With the opening of the general election campaign, expect a rash of Presidential “potentials” in both parties in the state in the next eight weeks helping local nominees — and themselves.

In the George Pataki camp, Meridian Communications’ Alicia Preston is now with the 21st Century Freedom PAC as national press secretary. Yup, national.

Picking Preston instead of someone from his pool of New York talent says something good about her, and it is an indication of Pataki’s commitment to New Hampshire.

John McCain will stop by on Sunday to attend a big race at New Hampshire International Speedway and a house party at the home of backers Susan and Steve Duprey.

His state version of the Straight Talk America PAC will add five county officials as advisors: Cathy Stacey, president of the New Hampshire Association of Counties; Hillsborough County Treasurer David Fredette; Merrimack County treasurer Stuart Trachy; Merrimack County Attorney Dan St. Hillaire; and Rockingham County Commissioner Maureen Barrows, who backed McCain in 2000.

McCain’s PAC has also hired a New Hampshire field director, Brian Bernys, a former campaign operative for Vermont U.S. Senate candidate Richard Tarrant and the 2002 Bush-Cheney campaign..

“SPOILED LITTLE GIRL.”

Manchester City Republican Chairman Jerry Thibodeau isn’t backing away from this description of Democrat Betsi DeVries, the city alderman who is taking on GOP incumbent Andy Martel in the District 18 Senate race.

Sullivan denounced Thibodeau’s “crude remarks” made in a lengthy e-mail to Republicans that also lists the challenges and strong points of Martel’s reelection bid. At one point, he says that DeVries “has left meetings when issues were not going her way. This makes for a very weak leader.”

He concludes by saying donations to the incumbent “would help defeat Senator Martel’s opponent, the tax lover and spoiled little girl.”

Sullivan and city Democratic Chair Ray Buckley demanded an apology, with Sullivan saying she was “appalled and disgusted” to read the “attack” on the city’s first-ever woman firefighter.

Thibodeau said yesterday, “Everything I wrote was factual. The record shows she has walked out of meetings for not getting her way and that she has cried when she does not get her way.

“If my children, who are 35 and 37 years old, acted that way, I’d call them spoiled little children, too,” Thibodeau said. “There is nothing to retract or apologize for.”

He also accused Democrats of stealing Martel’s campaign signs, which, he noted, is against the law..

ASK THE COURT AGAIN?

Privately, Senate President Ted Gatsas is smarting over Lynch’s flat rejection of Gatsas’ call for bipartisan support for quick legislative action on a narrow constitutional amendment to take the court out of the education funding issue.

Gatsas knows that without Lynch, getting the Legislature back in session this fall to get an amendment on the ballot is impossible.

What now? Lynch is expected to promote his own plan throughout the campaign, a plan void of a statewide property tax and focused heavily on targeting funding.

Is Lynch’s plan constitutional?

There is a way to find out.

Ask the court for an advisory opinion.

It’s an option not being strongly considered now, but who knows what the coming weeks may bring?

REVVING UP

Jim Coburn’s gubernatorial campaign has added Roger Wilkins as its political director. He was a business partner of campaign manager Mike Biundo at the former Atlantic Strategies group. He also worked with Biundo on Pat Buchanan’s 1996 Presidential campaign.

Coburn has also signed on with Chuck Douglas’ education-funding constitutional amendment and is calling on Lynch to show “bipartisan leadership to get the issue through a special session.”.

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