Washington media sound off on Sununu primary win

By Max Heuer

WASHINGTON, Sept. 11, 2002--National and insider Washington media outlets wrote Wednesday about Rep. John Sununu's historic New Hampshire Republican primary victory over two-term Sen. Bob Smith (R-NH) as if it were a decision that probably had been made three years ago.

A New York Times headline read "Senator Loses Nomination After Changing Party Twice" while a Washington Post article called Smith an "idiosyncratic conservative" whose "decision to quit the (Republican) party planted the seeds of his defeat."

Sununu won 53 percent of the vote in Tuesday's Senate primary to Smith's 45 percent.
The Washington Times reported that "Mr. Smith lost last night after his strongholds in the northern part of the state did not give him enough votes to close the gap." But most major newspapers said the key to his defeat was his departure from the GOP in 1999 to run as an independent for president after he delivered a speech on the Senate floor harshly criticizing the party only to rejoin it three months later.

The Washington take focused on the national GOP support that Smith's decision to run for president may have swung to Sununu, the son of former Granite State governor and White House Chief of Staff John H. Sununu.

"The White House and the National Republican Senatorial Committee had watched the Sununu-Smith race closely - even playing a behind-the-scenes role in persuading Mr. Sununu to give up his House seat and make the Senate run," The Washington Times reported.

In what will be a tight race with Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen for a key seat in the narrowly divided Democratic-controlled Senate, several Washington insiders see Sununu's appeal to centrist Republicans and independents as important.

"Shaheen's got her work cut out for her, as she must convince quite a few independents who backed Sununu" in the primary "to vote Democratic in just a few short weeks. It's not an easy sell," Hotline's Editor-in-Chief Chuck Todd wrote on the political publication's website Wednesday.

"Mr. Sununu is a soft-spoken conservative House member whom many New
Hampshirites perceive as slightly more centrist than" Smith, wrote The Washington Times.

However, others say Sununu's "soft-spoken" tactics may need to change.

"Sununu's low-key campaign has been getting a lot of criticism inside the Beltway," Jennifer Duffy, senior Senate editor at the Cook Political Report, said in an interview, referring to insider Washington opinion.

But Duffy also said that she thought the "national Republicans will make sure there will be a better-run campaign" against Shaheen.

"Polls have consistently showed that Sununu runs stronger against Shaheen than Smith," Todd wrote. "The primary battle between the two Republicans was not nearly as divisive as it could have been (or Democrats had hoped for)."

Moreover, Duffy said, Shaheen has failed to gain ground despite running unopposed in the Democratic primary and serving as governor.

"Her numbers have not moved," Duffy said. "The hardest place in American politics to be right now" is as a governor. She added that this is because history has shown that - at least at the state level - difficult financial times reflect on governors more than on other officials.

Todd, and others in Washington, certainly appreciated the race's historic significance, which he said "shouldn't get lost in all the hype surrounding" the general election campaign.

"Smith is just the third incumbent senator to lose a primary since 1980 and just the second elected senator to lose a primary since that time," he said.

The Hill, a weekly newspaper covering Congress, also noted the historic meaning. "In the Granite State, a politician's candidacy is never a sure thing - even if he is a 12-year incumbent senator who hasn't always walked the party line," the paper wrote on its website Wednesday.

The unusual result was fueled by the fact that "many prominent Republicans, including close advisers to President Bush," supported Sununu in the primary, said a report in The New York Times.

The paper added that Sununu also benefited from the backing of many "party leaders in New Hampshire "because of his family ties in the state and because of discomfort with Mr. Smith."

Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.