Hello blogosphere!
If you’re looking for up-to-the-minute coverage of New Hampshire’s District 1 Congressional Election, you’ve come to the right place. And -- unlike my other blogs that tend to go a couple months/years between posts -- you know this one’s going to be updated regularly, or else…I will fail this class!
So the setup is that I’m taking a Political Science writing course, and each student has to choose a Congressional race and cover it throughout the Fall semester via a blog. Unfortunately, we can only choose House races, which crushed my dream of having an anti-Linda McMahon blog, complete with the most ridiculous puns/blog titles I could imagine (McMahon – Down for the Count! McMahon KO’d in the Primaries! Oh, the possibilities…). Ah, well.
But then; I digress. Back to the important stuff: New Hampshire’s District 1! District 1 comprises the majority of New Hampshire’s South-Eastern half, and includes – among others – Carroll, Rockingham, and Strafford counties. It has been dominated for the last century by Republicans, but as always, nothing’s certain ‘till the ballots are cast and the fat lady sings....or something like that.
Here’s the political scene: Democratic incumbent Carol Shea-Porter is attempting to secure a third term with no current primary opposition, but a bevy of Republican candidates are ready in the wings to rise up and take back the district for the G.O.P. once the race gets under way. Shea-Porter is, as her website proudly states, “the first woman elected to national office in the history of the state of New Hampshire,” (shea-porter.house.gov) and could be facing quite a battle from the Republicans. Currently, there are eight Republicans in the running, including Rich Ashooh, Peter Bearse, Bob Bestani, Frank Guinta, Andrew Kohlhofer, Sean Mahoney, Richard Parent, and Kevin Rondeau. Phew!
ElectionProjection.com projects that there is a “weak G.O.P. gain” in the region, but overall media coverage of the race – from the New York Times to CQPolitcs.com (Both sources I consulted) – has stamped the race a toss-up. In other words, this should be pretty interesting! So stay tuned.
The primaries are set for September 14th, so by my next post we’ll know who Shea-Porter’s Republican adversary will be. And if you just can’t bear the excitement until then, you can check out any of these great links below that are following and tracking the race.
Until next week, stay classy New Hampshire District 1.
Sources/Links:
1. CQ Politics: http://innovation.cqpolitics.com/atlas/house2010_rr
2. NY Times: http://elections.nytimes.com/2010/house/new-hampshire/1
3. Carol Shea-Porter’s Official Website: http://www.shea-porter.house.gov/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
This blog is very entertaining and the race sounds like an interesting one to watch. Now that Frank Guinta has won the GOP Nomination, what does that mean for Shae-Porter's platform? With the public's low approval rating of Congress, it will be interesting to see how she addresses her record of voting along with the Democratic majority on issues such as healthcare, the stimulus, and TARP.
ReplyDeleteHow is this such a toss-up considering the Republican tendency and Shea-Porter's name recognition? Do you think a primary system that is completely open would have worked as an advantage or disadvantage to Guita, considering the small margin by which he won the Democratic primary? It looks like Guita is going to have to do a lot of brown-nosing in order to win over any Republican voters who might sway in his direction. What are the major issues that the candidates are focusing on, do their positions line up with that of their national parties?
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