Sununu seems beatable, but by whom?

Passion for federal issues
“My passion comes from federal issues,” he said in an interview in a coffee shop in downtown Portsmouth. He cited “my work with the Concord Coalition (a group that urges deficit reduction and control of fed spend), working exclusively on federal issues, my work with AARP and SEIU (Service Employees International Union), where a lot of my passion was on federal issues.”

Marchand headed the Concord Coalition branch in New England and New York.

Marchand said he supports withdrawing U.S. troops from Iraq over the next two years but warns that there won’t necessarily be a “peace dividend because the war on terror doesn’t end just because we withdraw from Iraq.”

He envisions American experts in agriculture, energy and other fields working in Iraq even after U.S. troops leave.

But wouldn’t those experts be kidnapped, tortured, and murdered if U.S. troops aren't there to protect them?

Marchand replied, “As you slowly draw down the number of troops, you need to have an exchange of knowledge and what I would describe as showing that the best of America is not simply providing military and physical security, but providing knowledge exchange, technology exchange, providing economic support….”

Swett makes the case she's stronger
“I’m the stronger candidate,” Swett said in an interview in Manchester. “I have an enormous wealth of experience. I bring the tested experience in the political trenches in this race to defeat John Sununu…. This is going to be a race that will cost between $6 million and $7 million – I anticipate, if necessary, spending $3 million in the primary.”

She implied Marchand couldn’t raise as much money as she could.

Swett, the mother of seven children, served as former deputy counsel to the Senate subcommittee on criminal justice and was director of the graduate program in public policy at New England College.

She is also well-connected as the daughter of Rep. Tom Lantos, D-Calif., the chairman of the House Foreign Relations Committee, and as the wife of Dick Swett, who served two terms in the House from 1991 to 1995.

She says she is better known in New Hampshire than Marchand: “People on weekly basis come up to me and say, ‘you know, when your husband was in office, he helped my family solve a problem with the government.’”

A Lieberman liability?
Some New Hampshire Democrats say Swett’s role as national co-chair of Sen. Joe Lieberman’s 2004 presidential campaign will be a burden for her, since those on the Left of the party, such as Moveon.org and the Daily Kos web site, loathe Lieberman.

But Swett said her support for Lieberman won’t be a problem in the primary.

“Joe has been a leading national Democrat for many years with a very progressive record on a wide range of issues. While some Democrats were dismayed by his decision to run as an Independent following the Connecticut primary, no less a progressive Democrat than Barack Obama chose to support his candidacy,” she said.

Obama supported Lieberman until Ned Lamont won the Democratic primary; the day after Lamont's primary win, Obama’s political action committee sent a $5,000 check to Lamont’s campaign, but some Lamont fans wished Obama had done more to help Lamont, who ended up losing in November to Lieberman by ten points.

For Swett, the senator at issue in 2008 will be Sununu, not Lieberman.

“The contrast will be between Katrina Swett who calls a spade a spade in terms of the appalling and tragic mismanagement of this whole effort by the administration and John Sununu who will have to defend not only his own votes but the conduct of the Bush administration for eight years,” she said.

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