Paul Hodes for NH-02

by DaveMB, Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 11:41:08 AM EST

Since my own district, MA-01, is one of the safest blue
seats in the country, I'm going to concentrate my 2006
efforts on a neighboring swing district, NH-02.

The incumbent Republican is Charlie Bass, who has been in
for a while and has pretentions to be a moderate (but as we
know, there are no GOP moderates).  The district is slightly
more blue than NH-01 and went narrowly for Kerry in 2004.

Paul Hodes is a former prosecutor, a musician, and a veteran.
He won the nomination in 2004 and lost to Bass by 20 points.
He got little national support despite the potential blueness
of the district, and also had some health problems late in the
campaign.  He is organizing for 2006, so far using a version of his 2004 website.  He made a few appearances over the summer, trying to pick up some money to retire his 2004 campaign debt, but the website shows little other recent activity.

One of the more promising recent developments in his campaign is that he made the top ten in the recent DFA online popularity contest (ok, he placed ninth, but there's some support out there).  His platform stresses energy independence and Bass' ties to the national GOP, both of which are stronger selling points given recent events.  I think the issues pages on his site show him to be a thoughtful Democrat with potential broad appeal.

This race should be at least on the fringes of the national
radar screen, which is why I call it to your attention.  It's not
one of the 20 most promising challenges to red seats, but it's
probably in the top 50.  It needs to be contested hard, because
if it is we will win it in the case of an anti-Bush tidal
wave, and we have some chance at it in other scenarios.

Anybody else out there interested in this race?




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Great Idea (none / 0)

I love the idea of people in blue districts adopting red ones. I can give you some ideas on what to do but alot of it depends on how much time you can devote to it. Finding other like minded spirits that can lend a helping hand is a real plus.
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by ignatzmouse on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 12:08:29 PM EST

Paul Hodes (3.00 / 1)

Hey Dave,

I live in NH-02 (Nashua) and I plan on volunteering for this campaign. I have never worked on a campaign before, so this will be a first. I have never met Paul before, but I like his positions and I voted for him in 2004. I have no idea if he is a strong campaigner or not. His name recognition is very low, even after 2004. Beating Bass is somewhat of a longshot but in a great year for Democrats it can be done. Hodes really needs to get his name out there and will need a good ground game to make the race competitive.

I believe NH-02 was 52-48 for Kerry last year while NH-01 was 51-49 Bush. I see NH-02 only getting more Democratic in the future as we have Democratic strongholds in Keene, Concord, Hanover, Lebanon, and Nashua (went 54% or 55% for Kerry). The areas that are Republican strongolds include towns like Hudson, Merrimack, Litchfield, and Salem (4th or 5th largest "city" in the state). I think those four towns could be the key.

Bass is fairly entrenched and has a reputation as a "moderate". He's no Tom Delay or Sensenbrenner, but he votes with them something like 87% of the time. He has enough independent positions (stem cell research, pro-choice, hate crimes legislation) where you can't really label him as an extremist (on social issues at least). But he has ALOT of anti-worker, corporate welfare votes to use that against him. He was also in favor of Social Security privatization and favors doing nothing about health care except expanding HSA's (which don't do anything to fix the problem). He's basically marched in lockstep with the corporate-controlled Republican party. NH-02 is, on average, lower income than NH-01 and this type of attack could do some damage.

Anyway, you can e-mail me at scoonie77@hotmail.com if you want to discuss this race. I see this campaign as nothing to lose and everything to gain. Hodes needs to be agressive and sharply draw contrast. He also needs to raise a lot more money.

by Scoonie on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 02:18:34 PM EST

Re: Paul Hodes (none / 0)

Also, let me add that Bass favors prescription drug reimportation from Canada, another issue where he differs from Delay/Frist/Rove.
by Scoonie on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 02:20:38 PM EST
[ Parent ]

Very interested in this race. (3.00 / 1)

If you want to get people from Massachusetts up to New Hampshire, contact Kerry's 2004 Western Mass corrdinator, Micheal Vito, the College Democrats Western Massachusetts Liasion
Danielle Lee, Micheal Forbes Wilcox and the Berkshire Brigades and The Franklin Country Democratic League.  

by strrbr on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 03:02:26 PM EST

Swing The Vote (none / 0)

Thanks very much for the ideas -- I will follow up on them.

Another progressive organization in Cheshire County is Swing the Vote, a PAC that organized to be anti-Bush rather than explicitly Democratic in 2004 (the leadership tends toward ex-Naderite) and is now organizing mostly as an antiwar force.  One of their obvious goals is to bring antiwar voters to the polls in 2006.  I enjoyed working with them in 2004 but am looking for a more partisan Democratic group, like the Hodes campaign itself, for 2006.

by DaveMB on Fri Sep 23, 2005 at 03:27:32 PM EST


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