Politics

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) ― Democrat Jeanne Shaheen defeated Republican Sen. John Sununu Tuesday in a fierce rematch between two candidates who stayed the same while nearly everything around them changed.

The win was another milestone for Shaheen, who was the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire 12 years ago. She'll be state's first female U.S. senator -- and she's the first Democrat New Hampshire has elected to the Senate in 33 years.

For Sununu, a strong closer who had never lost an election, the loss hands Democrats hungry for a filibuster-proof Senate majority a seat they have been salivating over for well over a year.

Without uttering Shaheen's name, Sununu congratulated his opponent and the night's other winners.

"We have enormous challenges in America, and those that won office tonight, no matter what office they sought ... they're going to need all the fortune, all the wisdom, all the luck they can possibly get," he told supporters in Manchester.

Though Shaheen's campaign slogan was "a new direction," neither candidate was a fresh face. Shaheen followed six years in the state Legislature with six years as governor. Sununu, the son of a former governor, served three terms in the U.S. House before moving to the Senate.

During their final debate last week, the candidates watched video clips of themselves six years earlier, delivering answers that matched their current comments almost word-for-word.

But the political landscape has shifted significantly since Sununu defeated Shaheen by 4 percentage points in 2002.

A recent study by the University of New Hampshire estimated that about one-quarter of the electorate has changed since then, with both young voters and newcomers to the state more likely to identify themselves as Democrats. New Hampshire was the only state to reject President Bush in 2004 after voting for him in 2000, and Democrats swept the governor's office, both houses of the state Legislature and its two congressional seats in 2006.

On the issues, Shaheen, 61, of Madbury, pushed for making health care more accessible and affordable, ending the war in Iraq and promoting alternative energy sources. But she focused much of her own energy on trying to link Sununu to the unpopular president, particularly on economic policies she claims led to the current financial crisis.

David Hackenburg, 39, a Democrat from Durham, voted for Shaheen "to undo the mess that has been made in the past eight years."

He said he expects Democrats to invest in priorities he said Republicans have neglected, including funding education, protecting the environment and helping the middle class.

"Jeanne Shaheen is the one who will do that," he said.

Sununu, 44, of Waterville Valley, argued he has bucked his party when necessary, including by crafting the compromise to allow the renewal of the Patriot Act after he raised concerns about civil liberties. And he pointed to legislation that bans Internet access taxes and protects New Hampshire's White Mountain National Forest as proof of his "determination to vote with New Hampshire 100 percent of the time."

On the most pressing issue of the day, the economy, Sununu voted for the $700 billion rescue of the financial industry, while Shaheen eventually opposed it after being a bit murky before the vote.

She argued that Congress should have done more to protect taxpayers and increase oversight of financial institutions instead of adding millions of dollars in unrelated spending to the bailout package, but Sununu countered that he helped add taxpayer protections to the bill and that it was necessary to avoid a complete breakdown of the credit market.

With so much attention focused on the presidential race, some political observers expected the top of the ticket to determine the outcome of down-ballot races like the Senate contest. That outlook favored Shaheen, given Democrat Barack Obama's win in the state, but Sununu had prevailed in a similar dynamic before: he won his first House term in 1996, a year in which Bill Clinton carried New Hampshire in the presidential race.

Libertarian Ken Blevens, 67, a Realtor from Bow, also was on the ballot.

(© 2009 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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