This… does not sound like Senator Jeanne Shaheen is unconcerned about her re-election prospects in New Hampshire.
Maureen Mooney told the Granite Status the Affordable Care Act was “by far the dominant issue” in what she said was a 19-minute the survey.
Mooney said she was asked to assess on a scale of zero to 100 not only Shaheen, but also Brown, Rubens, Sen. Kelly Ayotte and Gov. Maggie Hassan.
She said she was asked twice to assess Shaheen and Brown, and was asked to assess Shaheen after being told that the senator supported the Affordable Care Act “because of ‘X, Y and Z.’”
That’s pretty significant; it suggests that the Democratic Senator is getting hammered in popular opinion over Obamacare – big shock, that – and is trying to find some magic spell framing that will neutralize the damage. Mind you, it is not yet entirely clear that there is any way to neutralize the damage, but I suppose that we cannot reasonably expect Senator Shaheen to simply accept the inevitable gracefully and lose with some dignity. Standards have slipped so in the Democratic party, of late…
Seriously, this is a little odd. Shaheen has been enjoying a healthy lead over her likely opponents lately, albeit one where she’s hovering just around 50%. It’s starting to look like Obamacare may be a bit more literally corrosive to Democratic electoral prospects than the Democrats might care to admit…
Via @RyanGOP.
Moe Lane (crosspost)
“Seriously, this is a little odd. Shaheen has been enjoying a healthy lead over her likely opponents lately, albeit one where she’s hovering just around 50%.”
Nothing odd about it, when you look at the current batch of “likely opponents”. The NHGOP seems to be attempting to field of idiots designed to drive votes to Shaheen. If they ever find one who’s worth a damn (or if it even occurs to them to hammer Shaheen directly on issues- look at her senate website, where one of her top contact form issues is animal rights), she won’t stand a chance. Consider that even with the present republican field and her crappy in-state reputation she — an incumbent with name recognition (historically and statistically incumbents get reelected 90% of the time) — she can _only_ pull 50% in polls.
But I doubt that the Republicans will get their act together, and the Libertarians rather consistently field people who look like loose cannon freaks.