Politics in the Granite State

There seems to be a rift between Shaheen and Shea-Porter in New Hampshire. Jeanne Shaheen is, of course, running against John Sununu for one of NH's senate seats, and Carol Shea-Porter is running for re-election in NH's 1st Congressional District.

This is just a hunch on my part - no moles divulging secrets here - but Shaheen people are loathe to even mention Carol's name. I was at an event where Jeanne's husband, Bill, was speaking and he mentioned almost every candidate but Carol. It certainly didn't seem like an accident.

On the other hand, I attended a Shea-Porter event where Carol went out of her way to praise Jeanne and urge us to support the Shaheen candidacy.

My intuition is that the Shaheen's were embarrassed by the Congressional reps (Hoades in CD 2, and Shea-Porter in CD 1) early support of Obama in NH. The Shaheens worked hard for Clinton, providing the institutional support Hillary needed to squeak out a primary victory here. That said, a Clinton blowout might have changed the primary landscape for Clinton. Extrapolating one step further, a Clinton presidential nomination, particularly with an emphasis on a significant NH victory, would have been a electoral boom for Shaheen, with Hillary making a visit or two to campaign for Jeanne.

I'm also not sure about Obama's political in-fighting techniques and whether he has been helpful to the Shaheen camp or not. It would be difficult to blame him if he conveniently ignored this race, although he's going to need all the help he can get in the Senate.