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

One of the best opportunities to unseat a right-wing senator and strengthen the Democratic majority is in New Hampshire, where former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen is waging a rematch against first-term Republican Sen. John Sununu, who narrowly defeated her in 2002. Shaheen’s candidacy made an already vulnerable U.S. senator even more so: according to the Washington Post, Shaheen’s decision to run made Sununu “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

Democrats’ determination to right this wrong has been steeled by Sununu’s slavish devotion to the Bush agenda. Sununu is radically anti-choice and a key Bush ally against funding for life-saving embryonic stem cell research. He has supported Bush’s efforts to roll back environmental protections and an economic agenda that has widened the gap between rich and poor, created record deficits, and dragged the country into a recession. And he has consistently supported Bush’s war in Iraq. Sununu’s lockstep support for the administration has eroded the confidence of Granite Staters, and polling indicates they trust Shaheen to provide the kind of creative leadership and independent thinking they want from their senator.

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

Republicans are right to be concerned about Sununu’s re-election. Polls have consistently shown him trailing Shaheen, and political prognosticators Charlie Cook and Stuart Rothenberg have labeled this race a toss-up. However, as the scion of a political dynasty (Sununu’s father was governor), Sununu has contacts throughout the GOP establishment who are helping him raise millions from right-wing and corporate special interests. To further boost his fundraising power, Senate Republican leaders gave Sununu a seat on the Finance Committee, granting him access to even more sources for campaign cash.

Sununu has been a most loyal footsoldier to Bush. He provided the key vote to uphold Bush’s veto on embryonic stem cell research and has voted repeatedly against withdrawing American soldiers from Iraq, including at least seven times in 2007 alone. Sununu is very much a part of the pay-to-play culture in Washington. After receiving $210,000 from the oil and gas industry, he helped defeat the Democratic energy bill that would have provided tax breaks for renewable energy. (Indeed, Sununu accepted a campaign contribution from Chevron the very same day he voted to protect tax cuts for the oil companies.)

Helping Shaheen defeat Sununu in 2008 will strengthen the Democratic Senate majority and right the wrongs of the 2002 election, which Sununu won because of Republican dirty tricks. Record-breaking voter turnout in the state’s 2008 Democratic presidential primary indicates strong enthusiasm among Democrats heading into November. But John McCain is popular in New Hampshire, and his position at the top of the ticket complicates the situation for Democrats in this battleground state.

The Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee has been attacking Shaheen on the web for months. She has begun airing television ads and is keeping pace with Sununu in fundraising, but the incumbent has a significant cash advantage, with $4.3 million in the bank to Shaheen’s $1.8 million. Strong support from EMILY’s List members can help Shaheen raise the $10 million she needs to unseat Sununu and bring her bipartisan skills and balanced leadership to the Senate.

The Issues

Shaheen is expert at working across party lines to bring change. “As 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 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.” 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 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 and 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, 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.”

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 technology to increase energy efficiency, and end tax breaks and subsidies to big oil companies.” Shaheen’s strong record on the environment earned her the endorsement of the Sierra Club. Shaheen is a leader in protecting reproductive rights; her commitment is needed in the U.S. Senate.

June 2008