Election insanity has reached a fever pitch here in New Hampshire as the state primary election draws near.
Many of the incumbents for both state and federal offices are seeing little, if any candidates running against them. Both of our Congresscritters, Carol Shea-Porter (D -NH1) and Annie Kuster (D-NH2), appear to have token opponents running against them in the Democrat primary. The same is true of both Senator Jean Shaheen (D-NH) and Governor Maggie Hassan. The GOP hopefuls for all four of those offices are going at each other hammer and thong, with endless attack ads trying to make it seem that this one is the true conservative while their opponents are really liberals in disguise.
What makes the primary campaign more interesting is that in the Senate race Democrat Senator Jean Shaheen is running attack ads against GOP candidate and former US Senator Scott Brown. It appears she's working hard to make sure he isn't her opponent come November because she knows that if he is the nominee she'll have a tough fight ahead of her. The other two GOP candidates, Jim Rubens and former Senator Bob Smith, don't poll nearly as well against Shaheen as Brown even thought they are considered more conservative that Brown.
In the First Congressional District, the three main GOP candidates have not been quite as combative as we're seeing in the Senate or Second Congressional District race. Former Congressman Frank Guinta appears to have a slight lead over his two opponents, though one of them, Dan Innes, has no government experience, but he is a an economics professor and successful business owner.
In the Second Congressional District it's two military veterans, Jim Lawrence (USAF), and Gary Lambert (USMC), facing off against 4-term state representative Marilinda Garcia. While I have been looking at the candidates in this race, I am outside their Congressional District. Of the three, my favorite is Marilinda Garcia, but only by a little bit. Next would be Jim Lawrence and last Gary Lambert, a dark horse than a number of people in both parties are saying may be the winner of the primary. I have to say I haven't cared for the campaign ads run by Lambert and Garcia, each with have been slamming the other by claiming their opponent is a closet liberal in Obama's pocket. Jim Lawrence has stayed out of the fray and tried to focus on the issues and the Democrat incumbent, Annie Kuster. Some that may be because Lawrence doesn't appear to have the funds to launch an ad campaign as expansive or contentious as the other two candidates.
In any case we won't have to put up with the noise and distraction for much longer as the election is this coming Tuesday. We'll have to put up with a much higher level of noise, distraction, and attack ads as the campaigns of the winners crank up to '11' in preparation for the November elections.
