May 6, 2007
WHY MAVERICK MATTERS:
Glass is half-full in eyes of New Hampshire GOP (DANIEL BARRICK, May. 6, 2007, Concord Monitor)
Despite the beating they took from voters six months ago, New Hampshire’s Republican leaders sound increasingly optimistic about their party’s chances of reversing last year’s Election Day losses.Many Republicans point to the new Democratic-controlled Legislature in justifying their bullish outlook. They say much of the legislation championed by Democrats is at odds with popular opinion and will make it easy to portray them as out of touch and extremist.
The reality is that the state party and its candidates and issues don't matter much--John McCain at the top of the ticket swings the state back to all Red rather easily. The '06 midterm just happened not to have a Senate race and did have a governor who, though a Democrat, had to that point governed with the GOP, so there was nothing to drive turnout by Republicans. Posted by Orrin Judd at May 6, 2007 8:23 AM
Wasn't there a recent poll/aricle, perhaps posted here, that showed NH has been trending blue for a while and therefore the '06 election was not a big shock? Southern NH is becoming MA north and is overwhelming the more conservative upper state. NH, like the rest of NE, will be Dem territory or at best moderate Rockefeller GOP in the future.
Posted by: AWW at May 6, 2007 10:07 PMIt's just the top of the ticket. The GOP has put up crappy gubernatorial candidates since Steve Merrill. Even most Republicans I know voted for the current Democratic governor.
Posted by: oj at May 7, 2007 6:52 AM