Is the New Hampshire GOP Ready to Make a Comeback in 2010?

  I feel that New Hampshire may be turning the corner as frustration grows with Governor Lynch and his out of control spending. Maybe I am still riding the wave of optimism that I have been feeling since last week’s tea party but I feel that residents are beginning to tire of the governor and may be ready for a change.

  Republican Jeb Bradley winning a special election earlier this week bolstered my feelings that New Hampshire is ready for a change and now comes this article from politico.com that considers the same thing.

 My representative, Carol Shea-Porter, could be facing a tough re-election bid in 2010. As the article linked to above states, she rode a toxic anti-Bush/anti-war wave into office in 2006 and also rode this current president’s wave of popularity into her re-election in 2008. In 2010 she will have no help higher up on the ticket, she will be on her own and even some New Hampshire Democrats are admitting it won’t be as easy this time around in New Hampshire.

In 2006, if you were a Democrat, … [you] were going to win no matter what office you were running for. And in 2008, you had Barack Obama on the ticket,” added state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark, a Democrat who ran unsuccessfully for the seat in 2002. “I think everything will be much more wide open for Democrats in 2010 than in the last two cycles.”

  I believe between the current out of control spending in Concord coupled with the out of control spending in Washington, which Carol Shea-Porter voted for 100% of the time, that New Hampshire voters are finally beginning to say enough is enough. And her approval ratings may prove this:

A late February University of New Hampshire survey showed Shea-Porter with a weak 38 percent favorability rating among all voters

  She remains popular with Democrats, not surprising, and has a favorability rating among Republicans of only 15%, again not surprising. But where her trouble lies is with the moderate voters:

just 34 percent of moderates view her favorably

  If that number does not improve I think that she will find it very hard to get re-elected next year. This coupled with two possible Republican candidates with name recognition, John Stephen, and Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta, could pose a problem for the congresswoman.

  Plus her fund-raising is way down.

her $130,000 haul during the first quarter was the smallest of any of the 40 endangered incumbents on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee’s Frontline program. Her $121,000 cash-in-the-bank total at the end of the quarter also put her at the bottom of the heap.

  2010 could be the year that New Hampshire finally starts to correct the out of control state government, and begins the road back to fiscal responsibility.