Jeanne Shaheen
U.S. Senate, NH
Click here to view Shaheen's photo gallery.
Righting the wrongs of 2002. Democrats got their wish when former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen announced she would run against GOP rubber-stamping Sen. John Sununu in 2008. Shaheen narrowly lost to Sununu in 2002, but his victory was tarnished by the guilty pleas of GOP operatives who admitted they jammed Democratic phone lines on election day. Two Republican operatives served jail time for this conspiracy scheme. So helping Shaheen unseat Sununu in 2008 would be a double victory for Democrats — moving another seat into the Democratic column, strengthening our Senate majority — AND righting the wrongs of the 2002 election, which Sununu won thanks to Republican dirty tricks.
A vulnerable incumbent. The Washington Post calls Sununu “the single most endangered Republican incumbent in the country.” He has lost the trust of voters by voting in lockstep with Bush, including on the war in Iraq. He is radically anti-choice, even opposing embryonic stem cell research. He supports Bush’s failed economic agenda and efforts to roll back environmental protections. He accepted $210,000 from the oil and gas industry — then voted against the Democratic energy bill that would have provided tax breaks for renewable energy. But Sununu has a $3 million war chest and a new seat on the Finance Committee to help him raise even more.
A record of changing lives. As a three-term governor, Shaheen made dramatic improvements to education and health care, and used her power to protect reproductive rights. In fact, one of Shaheen’s earliest acts as governor was to repeal New Hampshire’s 150-year-old law making abortion a felony. Polls consistently show Shaheen leading Sununu, but she will be the target of vicious and costly attacks by right-wing Republicans and corporate special interests desperate to keep Bush loyalist Sununu in the Senate. Jeanne Shaheen needs to raise $10 million to unseat this well-funded incumbent and answer the call of Granite Staters to become their first woman senator.
More About Jeanne Shaheen
The rematch between former New Hampshire Gov. Jeanne Shaheen and first-term Republican Sen. John Sununu is without doubt one of the hottest U.S. Senate races of the 2008 election. Sununu was already considered highly vulnerable before Shaheen decided to challenge him. Her candidacy, according to the Washington Post, “ensures that [he] is now the single most endangered Republican incumbent in the country.”
Republican dirty tricks helped Sununu edge out Shaheen for this seat in 2002, a 19,000-vote victory was tarnished when GOP operatives admitted they jammed the lines of Democratic get-out-the-vote phone banks on election day in an illegal scheme to suppress voter turnout. Two Republican operatives were convicted on conspiracy charges and served jail time. The state and national Republican Party committees spent millions in legal fees on what has been called one of the biggest political scandals in state history.
Democrats’ determination to right this wrong has been steeled by Sununu’s slavish devotion to the Bush agenda, especially on the war in Iraq. He is radically anti-choice and a key Bush ally against funding for life-saving embryonic stem cell research. He has voted to roll back environmental protections and supported the Bush economic agenda that has widened the gap between rich and poor, created record deficits, and dragged the country toward a recession. His failure to lead has eroded the confidence of Granite Staters, who are eager for change.
A Shaheen victory here is key to widening the Democrats’ narrow Senate majority. During three terms as governor (the first woman governor in state history), Shaheen expanded access to public kindergarten, extended health care coverage to thousands of uninsured children, and used her power to protect reproductive rights. In fact, one of Shaheen’s earliest acts as governor was repealing New Hampshire’s 150-year-old law making abortion a felony. Since 2002, Shaheen has vaulted to national prominence as a progressive leader. A former school teacher, she was director of the Institute of Politics at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government and national chair of John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign.
The Political Situation
As a popular three-term governor, Shaheen earned the respect of colleagues and voters for her independence and ability to work across party lines — drawing a stark contrast to Sununu’s lockstep support for Bush. When advocates of legislation to fund embryonic stem cell research were one vote away from overriding Bush’s veto, Sununu’s support helped Bush’s veto stand. After receiving $210,000 from the oil and gas industry, Sununu helped defeat the Democratic energy bill that would have provided tax breaks for renewable energy. Sununu has provided key support to Bush on the war in Iraq, voting at least seven times last year alone against withdrawing American soldiers.
Senate Republicans, desperate to shore up the vulnerable Sununu, recently passing over a more senior senator to give Sununu a seat on the prized Finance Committee — a much-needed boost that will fuel his fundraising. As the scion of a political dynasty (Sununu’s father was governor), he will have plenty of aid from right-wing Republicans and corporate special interests who will spend millions to help him hold this seat.
Shaheen has an experienced campaign team and is herself a formidable political strategist who has engineered come-from-behind victories for three presidential candidates in New Hampshire’s critical primaries. Record-breaking voter turnout in this year’s presidential primary indicates strong enthusiasm among Democrats heading into November.
Defeating Sununu in 2008 would strengthen the Democratic Senate majority and right the wrongs of the 2002 election, which Sununu won because of Republican dirty tricks. Shaheen outraised Sununu in the last quarter of 2007, $1.2 million to $920,000 — an astonishing feat for a challenger. But Sununu has nearly $3.5 million in the bank, giving him a significant cash advantage over Shaheen, who has $1.15 million cash on hand. With strong support from EMILY’s List members Shaheen can raise the $10 million she needs to unseat Sununu and bring her bipartisan skills and balanced leadership to the Senate.
The Issues
Shaheen is an expert at working across party lines to get things done. “As a Democratic governor, I worked with a Republican legislature to achieve sensible solutions that won support from both parties,” she says. “It will take years of hard work to reverse the deep damage of the Bush administration, but I know how to get results.”
Shaheen will bring to the Senate a lifelong commitment to public education. “As a former governor, I know what states, schools, and families need most from the federal government,” she says. This includes repairing infrastructure, building new schools, providing more support for early childhood education, and making higher education more affordable and accessible for middle-class families. Shaheen will fight for full funding for special education and to reform the No Child Left Behind law.
“The majority of parents work, and it’s long past time our nation came to terms with this dynamic,” Shaheen says. “We need to make quality child-care affordable and give parents the peace of mind that comes with knowing their children are safe.” As governor, Shaheen worked with business leaders to develop family-friendly workplace policies and launched an apprenticeship program to train child care providers. “We need to expand these efforts on the federal level,” she says. Noting that many families are caring for aging parents, Shaheen supports home- and community-based options like adult day care.
Shaheen was the first New Hampshire governor to lead trade missions outside North America, securing investments that helped the state achieve one of the fastest-growing export rates in the nation. “We live in a global marketplace, and we must compete internationally for our economy to grow,” she says. She will advance trade agreements that contain enforceable labor and environmental standards.
“We must restore fiscal discipline in Washington,” says Shaheen, who as governor always presented balanced budgets that made important investments in New Hampshire’s future. She opposes Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy and will work to restore tax fairness for the middle class. To jump-start the economy and avert a recession, Shaheen has proposed a short-term stimulus package that provides tax breaks for small businesses to make capital investments; tax rebates targeted at low- and fixed-income workers, Social Security beneficiaries, and veterans; and extended unemployment benefits to help people get back on their feet. Longer-term solutions include promoting investment in clean energy technology and stem cell and other medical research — "new technologies that will create the jobs of tomorrow." As a senator, she will work in Congress to address the housing crisis that is driving the economic downturn.
Ending the war in Iraq is Shaheen’s top foreign policy priority — one that will also have economic benefits. “By bringing our troops home, we can begin to invest the $10 billion a month we are spending in Iraq right here at home,” she says. Shaheen will advocate investing in the developing economies of Latin America and Africa and increasing funding to combat global health epidemics, including HIV/AIDS. “The most important military investment we can make is in our men and women in uniform,” she says, including higher salaries and benefits for troops, as well as new equipment and technology. “And we must keep our promises to our veterans. Funding for health care and other benefits is especially important given the casualties from the Iraq war.”
Shaheen made lasting changes to guarantee civil rights for all Granite Staters, including ending New Hampshire’s status as the only state that did not celebrate Martin Luther King, Jr., Day; signing into law hate crimes and equal pay legislation; adding sexual orientation to the state’s anti-discrimination laws; and helping to overturn a law preventing gays and lesbians from serving as foster or adoptive parents. “We must prosecute those who break civil rights laws and put in place measures that prohibit discrimination against any person on any basis, including sexual orientation,” she says.
When Shaheen was governor, New Hampshire had one of the lowest crime rates in the country. “The best way to fight crime is to prevent crime,” she says. “We need to help local law enforcement put more cops on the street and help communities provide quality after-school programs to provide alternatives to crime.” Shaheen will fight to strengthen and coordinate intelligence capacities to protect citizens from terrorism.
Shaheen was a pioneer in bringing the Children’s Health Insurance Program to New Hampshire, over strenuous GOP opposition. “I stood up to big insurance and drug companies when I was a state senator and governor, and I’ll stand up to them when I’m a U.S. senator,” she says. As governor, Shaheen launched a pilot program to help senior citizens obtain discounts on prescription drugs. “It boggles the mind that the federal government has prohibited Medicare from negotiating for the lowest possible drug prices,” she says. “We need to change that, remove the barriers to generic drugs, and allow importation of safe drugs from Canada.”
As governor, Shaheen led efforts to dramatically reduce mercury emissions and remove MTBE, a gasoline additive, to protect New Hampshire’s water supply. “Our number one environmental priority must be to reverse global warming and become energy independent,” she says. “We must invest in renewable energy and technologies to increase energy efficiency, and end tax breaks and subsidies to big oil companies.”
Shaheen is a leader in protecting reproductive freedom. Her commitment to reproductive rights will be a tremendous asset in the U.S. Senate.
March 2008