Hodes: "Energy bill will help our economy"

Read his take in the Monitor here.

Meet the Lawmaker: Sen. Shaheen

The Hill has a series in which they interview legislators about their favorite books and that sort of thing. Here's their entry for Sen. Shaheen.

More on Ayotte

From The Hill: Aiming for Gregg's Open Seat, Ayotte is Unknown Big Name

From CNN: New Hampshire Democrats using Palin in fundraising appeal against Ayotte

And UNH poll results show Ayotte ahead.

Ayotte resigning to run for Senate?

So tweets NHPR.

Guinta and the bar fight?

Mayor and Congressional Candidate Frank Guinta was somehow involved in a bar fight in Manchester recently. It sounds like it was his friend, not him, who actually did the fighting, but Guinta and his friends left without calling the police or an ambulance for an injured man. More from Politico here.

A little late now, but...

As of June 27-29, Rep. Hodes was beating former Sen. Sununu in a hypothetical matchup, 40% to 34%. Now that Sununu has announced he isn't running, this data is less helpful, but it does still show that the voters are feeling relatively positively about Hodes.

Sununu Will NOT Run for Senate

Former Senator John Sununu told the AP that he will not be running for the seat Senator Gregg is vacating next year.

NRCC Targets Shea-Porter (Part 4)

"NRCC Targets Shea-Porter" (or some variant thereupon) is perhaps my most-used subject line. Sorry. In any case, in this FiveThirtyEight interview with NRCC executive director Guy Harrison, Harrison mentions twice that Shea-Porter's seat is one that the Republicans are aiming for next year. He seems pretty positive about Guinta.

DeJoie Interview

Here's an interview John DeJoie did about his potential run for Congress.

DeJoie said he is 90 percent certain he would be in the race, but that he was still exploring. The state primary is in September 2010, and he would file for candidacy in June 2010.

“It’s still day-to-day getting out to meet voters, and making sure my message continues to resonate,” he said. “This is a campaign against three lawyers, who can finance parts or all of their campaign. As a working person, I can’t finance my campaign, so I need a lot of people helping me pound the street to get the message out. It’s going to be one voter at a time.”

Fred Tausch for Senate?

Maybe. The Fix is hearing things. Here's a new ad he has up for his group STEWARD of Prosperity:

Based on that, I have to say that he's likely the cutest potential Senate candidate so far...

Sen. Gregg Predicts Government Takeover of Health Care

In an interview with Fox News, Sen. Judd Gregg said that a public option in the health care bill would lead to the government controlling all health care within 5-10 years.

"The bill we got in the markup in the Kennedy committee was basically a redo of the 1993, '94 bill, which is essentially a top- down, 'We'll tell you how to live your life' type bill," Gregg said during an appearance on Fox News. "It's basically a massive expansion of government and would lead, in my opinion, to a single payer plan."

Barbour in New Hampshire

Yesterday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour was in Bedford addressing a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. It was a big day for Barbour, as he became chairman of the Republican Governors Association when the Sanford news broke.

"I don't talk about people's personal problems: I don't think it's polite, I don't think it's appropriate. I don't think there's anything gained from it. But I can tell you that the Republican Governors Association is very focused, and we're going to keep going exactly in the direction we're going," he said.

Barbour claims that he has no 2012 ambitions, but the fact that he is also in Iowa this week makes that seem a bit fishy, at best.

6/24 House Update: Appropriations appropriations appropriations

The House yesterday had approximately eleventy million votes about the Department of Defense appropriations bill; it eventually passed. Both our Reps (along with all Democrats and most Republicans) ended up voting for it. The House also unanimously (among those voting) passed the Disabled Military Retiree Relief Act; Rep. Shea-Porter didn't vote on that one, although she did cosponsor it. Huh. I'm assuming that she knew it was going to pass easily and was busy doing something else and didn't make it back to the floor for the vote, but if anyone knows otherwise, let me know.

Olbermann: Gregg Third Worst Person in the World

6/24 Senate Update: Harold Koh

Yesterday, the Senate voted "to Invoke Cloture on the Nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, of Connecticut, to be Legal Counsel of the Department of State." Senators Gregg and Shaheen both voted yea; the tally was 65 to 31.

Friday Senate Line: #3 Again

Here's what The Fix has to say:

3. New Hampshire (R): Republicans have reason for optimism -- finally -- in the open seat race to replace Sen. Judd Gregg (R) with the news that state Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, a rising star within the party, may be considering a run. (The Fix is told that the Ayotte rumors are legitimate and that she is genuinely interested in a bid.) Democrats have united behind Rep. Paul Hodes and should have the advantage next fall due to the state's move away from the GOP over the last few elections. (Previous ranking: 3)

6/23 House Update: Veterans

The House yesterday passed the Veterans Compensation Cost-of-Living Adjustment Act of 2009, Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009 (Rep. Hodes cosponsored), and Women Veterans Health Care Improvement Act, and also motions to "direct the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to include on the Internet website of the Department of Veterans Affairs a list of organizations that provide scholarships to veterans and their survivors" and to "make technical corrections to the Higher Education Act of 1965, and for other purposes". Rep. Shea-Porter was not voting yesterday, but Rep. Hodes voted yea on all of these (along with practically everyone else).

Conboy and Ignatius Confirmed

(This, too, was supposed to be up a while ago. Blogger seems to be messing with me.)

Yesterday, the Executive Council confirmed Gov. Lynch's nominations of Judge Carol Ann Conboy to the NH Supreme Court and Amy Ignatius to Public Utilities Commission.

6/16 Senate Update: Tourism

(Note: This was supposed to publish days ago and I have no idea why it didn't. Weird.)

The Senate invoked cloture yesterday on the Travel Promotion Act of 2009, "a bill to establish a non-profit corporation to communicate United States entry policies and otherwise promote leisure, business, and scholarly travel to the United States." Sen. Shaheen was a cosponsor and voted yea. Sen. Gregg did not vote.

Focus Shift

Well, more of a redefinition, I suppose. I obviously don't have the time or resources to cover everything to do with New Hampshire politics here. So I'm going to specialize a bit. I'm going to focus on New Hampshire's representation in the U.S. Congress - so our current senators and representatives as well as the 2010 campaigns. Honestly, I will probably end up getting pulled into the gubernatorial race a bit as well, and once the next presidential primary season gets started, all bets are off. (Well, I'll certainly keep covering Congress, but likely won't be able to resist the primary stuff as well.)

So this basically just means that I'm going to stop trying to talk about the state and local stuff that I don't really know much about, and try to be more comprehensive with the congressional stuff. Look for an updated site layout to reflect this soon.

Gregg v. Mikulski on Marx v. Vader

Sen. Gregg yesterday said of the health care bill, "I don't know who wrote it, but if it had been Rube Goldberg, Ira Magaziner, and Karl Marx you might have gotten this product." Sen. Mikulski of Maryland answered with "But our current system is a combination of Adam Smith, Darth Vader, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers." Karl Marx! Darth Vader! Who would you rather have around? Yeah...

Ayotte Won't Confirm or Deny

Yesterday, we discussed Chuck Todd's claim of a potential Ayotte Senate candidacy. Ayotte told WMUR that she is "focusing on serving as attorney general," which is really the classic non-answer.

Len Mannino's New Web Site

Len Mannino has his official campaign site up. (He's running for Congress in the second district.) Click here for the rather loud and startling flash intro, or here to go right into the site itself. I have to say, the ESPN scores ticker on his main page is a unique feature for a politician's site...

Fernald for Congress (Officially)

(I was away at a conference last week and missed posting this in a timely manner. Sorry.)

Former state senator and gubernatorial candidate Mark Fernald has officially declared that he's running for the second Congressional District seat that will be opening up in 2010. Here's his campaign site, and here's his announcement speech.

Ayotte for Senate?

Chuck Todd is hearing rumors. For what it's worth, this is the first I've heard of it, and other NH sites seem skeptical, but who knows?

Jennifer Horn at Hillsborough County GOP Flag Day Picnic

Sununu Jr. on Anti-Poverty Trip to Africa

Former Sen. John Sununu is on a trip to Ethiopia and Ghana with Bono's group ONE. He's with "a bipartisan group of political and business leaders checking out U.S. efforts to fight extreme poverty and preventable diseases in Africa."

Sen. Gregg: Pay-Go: A Fraudulent Exercise

And he has a blog post at The Hill explaining why.

Rep. Hodes: "My earmark bill will help clean up D.C."

And he has a piece in the Monitor explaining why.

Rep. Shea-Porter gets demo of Police Records Online Service

Yesterday, Rep. Carol Shea-Porter attended a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Portsmouth police station for a new Police Records Online Service and got a demo of the system. "She said the system will make streets safer and also help officers successfully carry out their duties in a safe and professional manner."