The Candidates
Senator John Sununu of New Hampshire is the incumbent senator considered most likely to lose in this fall election. He has trailed former Governor Jeanne Shaheen consistently in the polls this year. I’ll leave it to others to debate whether he can make a comeback and survive his challenge or whether he will be the Rick Santorum or Mike DeWine of 2008.
In case he is not around the U.S. Senate next year, here is an article to remember him by:
Where is there a philosopher in Washington?
Actually, I was pretty sure I knew where, and never mind that like any intelligent person he didn’t major in philosophy. Senator John Sununu (Republican of New Hampshire) earned a BS and an MA in mechanical engineering from MIT, an MBA from Harvard, and a living as a design engineer and manufacturing consultant. His reputation is .??.??. well, as one of his fellow senators said to me, “Don’t let anything happen to this boy in the New Hampshire election, otherwise we’ll have to argue about who’s the smartest person in the Senate.” I was willing to bet that Senator Sununu knows that if a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to hear it, the government will tax the timber industry and subsidize the purchase of Miracle Ears.
I went to see Senator Sununu at his office in the Russell Building and said that I assumed he had a political philosophy. “I like to think so,” he replied. “But it’s not something I have written down on an index card.”
As a gut reaction conservative myself, I take the senator’s point. In fact, however, Senator Sununu could write his political philosophy on a small piece of paper: “I have a deep-seated belief that America is unique, strong, great because of a commitment to personal freedom–in our economic system and our politics. We are a free people who consented to be governed. Not vice-versa.” (Italics added for the sake of the multitudes in our government’s executive, legislative, and judicial branches who need to fill out that index card and keep it with them at all times. And if the multitudes are confused by “Not vice-versa” they may substitute, We aren’t a government that consents to people being free.)
“It’s important for politicians to understand,” Senator Sununu said, “that the Founders’ writings reflect that point of view. From Jefferson to Hamilton, freedom was the special ingredient in human prospects, moral prospects, political prospects. The argument was over what government mechanism would ensure common good and guarantee freedom. There was no argument about whether we were free people. In most parts of the world there never has been an appreciation for that perspective. Governments have evolved to provide greater freedom, to reduce the power of monarchies, to reduce absolute power.”
When, indeed, governments have evolved at all. Darwin, if he’d studied Russia instead of Galapagos finches, would have come up with the theory of “survival of the filthiest.” Senator Sununu wants a government mechanism without the innumerable moving parts that collect goo and sludge: “Just because something is a good idea doesn’t mean it should be a law–let alone a federal law. That’s where I begin,” he said, “with a firm belief that people in the United States are best served by limited and effective government.”
Read the whole thing.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Regardless how “smart” he is, Sununununu is burnt toast politically.
June 24th, 2008 at 2:55 pm
Clarence:
You’re a New Hampshire-ite, why is Sununu polling so badly? He beat Shaheen last time in 2002, did he punch a pregnant
woman or kick a dog or something?
June 24th, 2008 at 3:02 pm
I don’t have a definitive answer. I have a few theories though. First of all, Jeanne Shaheen was a very popular Governor when she was in. She had some problems toward the end of her tenure because she supported a sales tax, a position she had opposed in the past. Many voters held that against her in 2002. However, after four years of Governor Lynch, and no sales tax, voters no longer hold that issue against Shaheen. They just remember her as the first woman Governor. If Sununu were running against a lower caliber Democrat (and there are some real weirdos in the NH Democratic party), he would be ahead. He consistenly led Katrina Lantos-Swett and Steve Marchand (who you guys have never heard of) when they were running, before Shaheen got in the race. Even despite the sales tax issue, Shaheen was always popular, even when she lost. In 2002, Craig Benson (R) won by about 20 points for Governor and carried Sununu in. Plus Bush was more popular and came to campaign for Sununu at the end. Shaheen had led in the polls for most of the fall, but the stars just aligned right for Sununu on election day. There are a number of other reasons Sununu is in trouble, Bush’s popularity being an example, but those are some of the reasons.
June 24th, 2008 at 3:07 pm
So, is there any hope? Could McCain help pull him across the finish line? I read that one of NH’s Congressional
districs might swing back to the Republicans this year. Could that help as well?
June 24th, 2008 at 3:12 pm
Even if McCain does better than expected, Sununu is not the first Republican under McCain on the ballot. The Governor’s race is in between McCain’s race and Sununu’s, and Democrat Lynch is expected to win rougly 70-30. The more conservative of the two Congressional districts may or may not swing Republican, but that race is under Sununu’s on the ballot and would not impact his race. Sununu does have some chance. His IQ is much higher than Shaheen’s, and he outdebated her by miles in 2002. He is the underdog, but the race isn’t over.
June 24th, 2008 at 3:16 pm
“He is the underdog, but the race isn’t over.”
Sort of the story of this election isn’t it.
June 24th, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Sununu is a pretty mild-mannered, inoffensive guy, but I admit I am surprised he has failed to build up enough good will with the voters over the last 6 years. His favorability has failed to get much higher than 50%. If he had built up more good will, he could overcome the fact he’s a Republican and be in a better position than he is.
June 24th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
#7:
Maybe he should try the McCain Method. Townhall meeting Shaheen to death. It has worked for McCain, why not
Sununu?
June 24th, 2008 at 5:57 pm
It’s always sad to see such good senators go down to defeat to some hacks: talent, dewine (this year sununu).
June 24th, 2008 at 6:22 pm
You have Jeanne Shaheen pegged right. She is very political. She was strongly in favor of the Iraq War in 2002 when it was popular and is now opposed. She always talks about how bipartisan she is while she acts really partisan behind the scenes. If NH had to have a Democratic Senator, I can think of all kinds of local Democrats I would rather have than Shaheen. I disagree with IR-MN about the DeWine race. I would not classify Sherrod Brown as a hack. He is a good man but just very liberal. I don’t know enough about Claire McCaskill to comment. Jeanne Shaheen is a hack though.
June 24th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Claire McCaskill was a shrewd operator. In her first race she lost for being an out-of touch liberal.
So in her second race she runs as the down-home queen of rural Missouri.
Still she’d have lost if the Minimum Wage Amendment had been off the ballot or if the election had been now instead of 2006.
June 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Has Sununu ever shown his index card to the current crop of Republicans? Or is it just over their heads?