-By Warner Todd Huston
In keeping with the “Mittmentum” that we are seeing in many states and swing states across the country, New Hampshire is for the first time looking more like a lovely purple color tinged heavily in red with polls showing Mitt Romney topping President Obama there for the first time.
With less than two weeks to go, historically blue New Hampshire is showing a 50% Romney to 48% Obama result in Rasmussen’s latest polling. Rasmussen has shown a steady move forward for Romney for some time. In October, Rasmussen had NH at 48-48 and in June Obama was up 48% to Romney’s 43%.
In recent history New Hampshire has since 1992 gone mostly for Democrats for President. Obama won New Hampshire in 2008. Dem. John Kerry also won the state in 2004. Though Bush won by a sparse 1.2 percent in 2000, the state was back to blue in 1996 and 92 when it went for Clinton, twice.
Along with Romney’s gain, the Governor’s race in the Granite State has been a tossup all along with Republican candidate Ovide Lamontagne coming in currently at 48% while Democrat candidate Maggie Hassan stands at 46%. But the numbers for the guv’s race have been fading back and forth with rarely more than a few percentage points between them for quite some time.
As to the House races (no Senators are up this year), New Hampshire does have incumbent Republicans in both its House seats and both are up for re-election. In the 1st District is Republican Frank Guinta, and in the 2nd is Charlie Bass.
While conservative activists may not be overly thrilled with either Republican Congressman, at least one of them might be able to keep his seat. Frank Guinta, who faces Democrat Carol Shea-Porter is rated at plus 10 right now in the RealClearPolitics averages. News is not as sanguine for Charlie Bass who faces Democrat Ann McLane Kuster. The RCP average for that race currently Kuster at a plus 3.
In the mean time, Politifact has had a field day knocking down the “pants-on-fire” claims of the Democrats in New Hampshire.
Here are just a few of the false claims made by Carol Shea-Porter, Ann McLane Kuster, and the Democrat Party of NH:
- Shea-Porter falsely claims Frank Guinta voted to cut funds for veterans
- FALSE: Kuster said Charlie Bass forfeits right to equal rates with TV ad
- NH Dems lie about Charlie Bass’ relationship with Big Oil
- Kuster “stretches truth” on Bass’ stance on Social Security
- NH Dems lie about Gunita’s vote for House budget
- Kuster’s recycled attack on Charlie Bass still false
As Romney surges in swing states and as he gains in New Hampshire, the expectation is that he provides coat tails for the down ticket Republicans on Election Day. With the races in the Granite state so close, even a tiny bit of help will push New Hampshire red.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 2001 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, RightPundits.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDaily.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
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