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CQ TODAY ONLINE NEWS
"Early Money Gap for New Hampshire GOP Hopeful"
By Rache Kapochunas, CQ Staff, cqpolitics.com - July 16, 2009
Republican Frank Guinta is challenging two-term Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter in New Hampshire’s 1st District, and GOP officials are touting the mayor of Manchester -- the state’s biggest city -- as one of their top recruits for the 2010 elections. But Guinta, whose campaign has had a bumpy start, filed an initial campaign finance report in which the numbers fell short of stellar.
Guinta reported receipts of $110,000 at the June 30 conclusion of the year’s second quarter. That included a $20,000 loan he made to his campaign from his personal accounts after he formed his campaign committee at the end of April, nearly a month into the second quarter.
While Guinta’s amount was close to the $120,000 that Shea-Porter raised during the same three-month period, the incumbent had an earlier start, and her combined total as of June 30 was $254,000 overall. Another key measure produced a similar gap, as Shea-Porter reported $211,000 remaining on hand and Guinta reported $93,000.
Shea-Porter’s fundraising pace is somewhat slower than the one she set in 2007 as she prepared by her first re-election campaign. She raised $155,000 in the second quarter of 2007 and had $269,000 in cash as of June 30 of that year.
Shea-Porter, a liberal activist and social worker with no prior experience as a candidate, scored a big upset in 2006 when she unseated Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley by about 3 percentage points. She dispelled GOP claims that her win was a fluke by winning a 2008 rematch with Bradley.
But her 6-point margin was not a blowout, and her 1st District remains high on the Republicans’ target list. Even in the very strong Democratic year of 2008, Barack Obama took a modest 53 percent of the district’s vote for president; Republican incumbent George W. Bush was favored by 51 percent of the district’s voters four years earlier.
So Republican strategists are counting on Guinta to produce one of their strongest takeback bids, as the party seeks to regain some of the major ground it lost to the Democrats in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. But he has received negative press in recent weeks.
According to the New Hampshire Union Leader and other local sources, the mayor left a local social club when a fight broke out and failed to report it; a man involved in the brawl reportedly broke his leg in several places, requiring more than 30 staples to repair. Guinta, according to the news stories, did not contact police until six days later, when he said he learned the seriousness of the man’s injury.
Democrats have highlighted the incident, saying it reflects on Guinta’s character, while Republicans say opponents are merely exploiting the situation for political purposes.
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New Hampshire's 1st district (Democratic-controlled): Manchester Mayor Frank Guinta (R) kicked off his campaign for Congress with a bang or, more accurately, a crack. Guinta's involvement in a bar fight that left a man's leg broken has significantly marred the momentum national Republicans were hoping to build for his race against Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D). The $90,000 he raised between April 1 and June 30 (2009) didn't exactly bowl us over either. Is Shea Porter vulnerable? Yes. Is Guinta off to a very rocky start? You betcha.
Source: voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix - Political News & Analysis By Chris Cillizza, July 31, 2009.
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