Shaheen-mentum

When you're beating the incumbent by 28 points in a respected poll, you have to jump into the race, right? That's what Jeanne Shaheen is doing with John Sununu, another example of the absolute crumbling of Republican support in the New England states. By the end of the 2008 cycle, Olympia Snowe, Judd Gregg and Joe Lieberman might be the last ones standing in the Senate, and really maybe NOBODY in the House (Chris Shays is the only Republican House member from New England, and he'll have a challenge next year.

Sununu looks like a cross between Rick Santorum and Lincoln Chafee. He's a Republican in New England, which is suicide, and his conservative politics are wildly out of step with the state (the guy is single-handedly stopping a veto override on stem cell research, for example). Shaheen, the former governor, has yet to decide to run, but with this kind of an auspicious poll number, I can't see how she'll be able to resist. There is a revenge factor here as well - in 2002 Shaheen lost to Sununu, but New Hampshire Republicans, in association with the RNC, jammed Democratic phone lines on Election Day to hamper GOTV efforts. James Tobin, the NRSC's field guy, was convicted of this crime.

Here's hoping Shaheen decides to run.