IT'S ONE OF THOSE SEATS THE PRESIDENTIAL WILL DETERMINE:

Walk the Talk: A conservative talk radio host runs for Congress in New Hampshire. (Fred Barnes, 08/20/2008, Weekly Standard)

PRIMARY ELECTIONS AMONG challengers for a House seat held by the other party aren't normally of great political interest. But the race for the Republican nomination in a New Hampshire district is an exception. The reason: Jennifer Horn, a conservative talk radio host, is running. She's the first member of the talk radio tribe, so far as I know, to give up her radio perch to run for Congress. [...]

Horn's breakthrough in the race came last week when she won the endorsement of the state's most influential newspaper, the Manchester Union-Leader, after being grilled by publisher Joe McQuaid and editorial page editor Drew Cline. "She is smart, likable, energetic, and solid on the issues," the paper wrote. "She stands the best chance of beating [Democrat] Paul Hodes this November, and if elected, she would vote the way a New Hampshire representative ought to--for smaller, more responsible government, a strong national defense and low taxes."

Hodes defeated Charles Bass, a 12-year Republican incumbent, in the Democratic landslide in 2006 in New Hampshire, once considered a reliably Republican state. Now Republicans regard the other freshman House member in New Hampshire, Carol Shea-Porter, as particularly vulnerable, Hodes less so.

Nonetheless, Republican officials in Washington and state party chairman Fergus Cullen went to trouble of meeting with Horn last fall and urging her to run against Hodes.