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Second time a charm for Shaheen in N.H.
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Jeanne Shaheen, AP photo
The first time around, six years ago in New Hampshire, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen ran for the U.S. Senate in a climate of Republican control of the country's ideology. And she lost.
This time around, running against Republican incumbent John Sununu, she had the misery from a Republican administration in the White House running on her side. And Shaheen won. Big time.
What changed?
In 2000 it might have been Florida, Florida, Florida that swung the presidential election. This time around it was the economy, economy, economy. The economy went south -- way south -- with a Republican administration at the wheel. And Shaheen, like many Democratic candidates, locked the yoke of a very unpopular Bush administration around the neck of her Republican opponent. At every opportunity on television, radio and in person, she tied Sununu to Bush and campaigned on her politically moderate credentials as a vote for change and improvement.
Shaheen, 61, earned her political cred in the Live Free or Die state first by running for and winning the governor's seat in 1966. The state's first woman governor, she served for three two-year terms until 2002.
She had built her campaign around a strong statewide network of support, helped in the process by her lawyer husband Bill. And being a Democratic governor in the state with the first presidential primary put Shaheen and her network in a position of strength when it came to presidential politicking. Her support for Al Gore in 2000, and the fact that husband Bill was Gore's statewide campaign chairman, put Shaheen high on the list as Gore considered who to pick as his running mate, a choice that ultimately went to Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman in a campaign that was decided by the Florida recount.
The 2002 Senate campaign pitted Shaheen, fresh from the governor's office, against Sununu, the son of John H. Sununu, former Republican New Hampshire governor and former George Bush (the elder) White House chief of staff.
In New Hampshire, where talk of taxes is the third rail of politics, Sununua pushed Shaheen off the subway platform and onto the third rail for her support of a sales tax for tax-free New Hampshire. George Bush (the younger) was in his second year of his presidency and was enjoying the post-9/11 fervor of a get-tough-with-terrorists popularity. Sununu beat Shaheen 51 to 46 percent.
While Shaheen laid in wait at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government, she kept her influential hand in presidential politics, signing on as national chairperson of John Kerry's 2004 presidential run.
When popular Democratic Gov. John Lynch decided to run for re-election and not run for the U.S. Senate, the stage was set for Shaheen's rematch against Sununu in 2008.
The usual campaign issue suspects were up for debate -- the Iraq War, energy, health costs, and the economy. While the war dominated early campaign rhetoric, it became secondary in September as the financial markets and the economy started their meltdown. An unpopular war along with an even more unpopular economy spelled doom for Sununu in an important swing state for Democratic control of Congress and for Obama's control of the White House.
Shaheen, in defeating Sununu 52 to 45 percent, entitled her to an historic first: She is the first woman in U.S. history to be elected as a governor and U.S. senator.
Born in Missouri, she has a bachelor's degree in English from Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania and a master's degree from the University of Mississippi. She taught high school in Mississippi and in 1973 moved to New Hampshire, where she taught school.
Shaheen, who will turn 62 in January soon after taking her seat in the Seante, and her husband have three daughters and six grandchildren.
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