The ONLY reason Sununu has that seat is he proclaimed himself as the "electable" candidate in 2002 and said Bob Smith shouldn't be running and needed to step aside. Sununu is now losing to Shaheen by over 20 points, worse than Bob Smith was. If Sununu would follow his OWN advice from five years ago, that seat wouldn't be "in play". A few years ago, Republicans held EVERY major office in NH. I refuse to believe New Hampshire was gone so far left in six short years that now "no" Republican can win statewide there.
If we'd simply run someone like Bruce Keough (i.e. an up-and-coming, popular conservative NH Republican that can't be tied to Bush and/or Iraq, and whose credentials aren't simply "my daddy held statewide office so I should too") that seat would be in play for us.
I urge all of you to write Sununu and tell the egomaniac that he needs to take his own advice from five years and step away from his kamikaze run so we can field someone electable. We can't afford to waste time and money dislodging this terminally unelectable fool in the primary.
As for the other states, running popular former governors does make winning those seats possible.
In South Dakota, Rounds can beat Johnson.
In Virginia, Gilmore can beat Warner.
In Nebraska, Johannas can beat Kerrey.
Granted, their Dem opponents are quite formible and have just as impressive credentials, so there's no gurantee of a win here, just a promise of a competitive race. It's up to the candidates themselves to pull it off.
Rounds has already said he won’t run against Johnson. Now if Johnson were to retire, Rounds would consider it.
It was bound to happen: eventually the MA liberals would totally overrun NH too. But where are all the liberals coming from to overrun VA?