When the pack of presidential hopefuls and the reporters who follow them descend on New Hampshire in January, as the 2008 campaign begins, a surprise awaits them. For the first time in anyone's life, New Hampshire has turned into a bright blue Democratic state.
Democratic Gov. John Lynch won a second term with 74 percent of the votes, providing coattails for many others on the ticket.
The Executive Council, which has the power to confirm appointees and approve state contracts, switched from 4-1 Republican to 3-2 Democratic.
The state Senate, which Republicans controlled 16-8, is now Democratic by a 14-10 margin.
The state House of Representatives, which is dwarfed in size only by the British House of Commons and the U.S. House of Representatives, went from 242-150 Republican, with eight vacancies, to 239-161 Democratic.
In addition, Democrats defeated both incumbent Republican congressional representatives in a powerful demonstration of party-line voting.
Clearly, what was once a reliable Republican state, as recently as 2002, has significantly shifted its loyalties. Broder is right to point out the dramatic ascendancy of the Democratic Party in New Hampshire. But I think he's got it wrong that New Hampshire has suddenly become more liberal, or more "blue".
New Hampshire is still, by and large, a fiscally conservative, libertarian state. Once upon a time, having that kind of philosophy made a voter inclined to vote Republican.
However, after six years of the Patriot Act, the Medicare Prescription Drug Bill, unparalleled deficit spending, two massive and budget-crippling tax cuts, two simultaneous and unending wars, a secret and illegal citizen wiretapping program, the Dubai Ports deal, and a schizophrenic and untenable immigration policy, the libertarians of New Hampshire seem to have learned that, whatever the Democrats stood for this week or the next, at least they didn't stand for the aforementioned horrors.
Call me crazy, but I also have this hunch: to the many proud, gun-owning citizens of New Hampshire, the disgusting spectacle of a sitting Vice President behaving so carelessly with a firearm as to shoot a friend in the face, a friend who stood merely 15 feet away in broad daylight, didn't help the GOP too much, either.
