NH-Sen: Drop out, Katrina Swett (with poll)

By now, everyone who’s following the drive to turn New England’s Senate delegation as 100% blue as the House delegation will soon be (Chris Shays will be gone by 2009, I’ll tell you), by 2012, knows that Jeanne Shaheen has finally announced that she is running against John Sununu.  They probably have also found out a good deal about Katrina Swett, who also hoped to unseat Sununu not too long ago.  Swett is an unelected (and it now looks, perpetually aspiring) politician who is a big supporter of Joe Lieberman (even if she’s backed away from him recently, because she knows how much it hurts to be associated with him in a Democratic primary).

Up until today, on Swett’s website, there is an alliteration-adorned graphic entitled "Swett’s Super Summer Success" where she touts the fact that she is "the strongest of announced Democratic candidates against Sununu".  Time to tell whoever designs your campaign website that it’s badly in need of an update, Katrina.

I’m sure Swett is aware of the most recent University of New Hampshire poll showing Shaheen leading Sununu 54-38%, it’s only a matter of accepting the inevitable fact that she simply has no choice but to drop her bid, and letting New Hampshire voters know she has accepted reality.

I know there have been some criticisms of Shaheen, that she is a bit too "moderate"... and that Steve Marchand might have made a better, more progressive, US Senator, and would perhaps even stand a better chance to win the race after it begins in earnest.  But I'm sure there's one thing people who prefer Shaheen and people who prefer Marchand can all agree on -- Lieberdem Swett makes Shaheen look like a total, unabashed, dye-in-the-wool progressive.

•  As long as she doesn't

  try running on something like "NH for Swett" after she loses the primary, no harm in letting her run.

  by TLS66 on Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 04:25:11 PM PDT

  •  Disagree...

    ... there's no telling if the political winds will change.  Although it looks very good for Shaheen, nothing should be taken for granted, and Shaheen should be given all her time, campaign funds and energy to defeat Sununu and Sununu alone, and shouldn't have to even spend a nanosecond considering whether or not she should have to respond to any single statement against her by Swett.

    by homoaffectional on Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 04:32:13 PM PDT

•  This is profoundly anti-democratic

  small-d. Voters get to choose their candidate.

  I notice you did not call on the other candidate, Jay Buckey, to drop out. If you just want to clear the field of candidates you don't like, say so.

  by Elwood Dowd on Mon Sep 17, 2007 at 06:13:19 PM PDT

  •  Well, Mr. Elwood Dowd...

    ... actually I like to clear the field of total hypocrite backers.

    Voters did choose the candidate they liked in the US Senate primary in Connecticut last year.  But apparently voters did not get to choose their candidate, because even after voters did choose the candidate they liked, Joementum decided to create his own party so that he could run, even though voters had made their decision.  In other states, Lieberman wouldn't have been allowed to do that.  For example, in Georgia, there is a "sore loser law" that prevents people from running as an independent, which is why Cynthia McKinney couldn't run as an independent after she lost her primary.

    So, no, it's more about the fact she backs someone who clearly doesn't really respect "small d" democracy or the will of the voters rather than "clearing the field of candidates I don't like".  Don't hold your breath for my say so.

    Oh, and please, don't talk to me about "voters getting to choose their candidates".  In a world where Supreme Courts appoint (and perhaps I should also use the word "annoint") unelected candidates, where Diebold machines pick winners, and where the corporate media derides the candidates whose policies don't benefit its ambitions at further consolidation of its power, which has an adverse affect on voters' opinions on candidates (and then they often later come to regret it and wonder what they were thinking, when it was the media's thoughts that were coursing through their brains, and not their own) this is clearly not so, and it is profoundly disingenuous of you to claim otherwise.  It would be nice if you share some of your scolding in those instances as well.  Perhaps then I might take you and your claims of being "small d" anti-democratic a bit more seriously.

    by homoaffectional on Tue Sep 18, 2007 at 04:40:54 PM PDT