Sununu and Shaheen Accuse Each Other of Partisanship
By Riley Yates
WASHINGTON, Sept. 26, 2002–In the latest battle in New Hampshire’s Senate race, Republican Rep. John Sununu and Democratic Gov. Jeanne Shaheen accused each other Thursday of following their party’s national leadership over the interests of Granite State voters.
“Jeanne Shaheen has campaigned on the rhetoric that she has an independent mind,” Sununu said in a telephone press conference. “But the fact is, when asked on national television to name an issue where she disagrees with the Democratic national leadership, she could not name one,” he said, referring to Shaheen’s Sept. 21 appearance on CNN’s Novak, Hunt and Shields show.
And with the Senate stalled over homeland security and appropriations bills, New Hampshire cannot afford to strengthen the Democrats’ control of the Senate by electing Shaheen, said Sununu, who was joined by National Republican Senatorial Committee chairman Sen. Bill Frist, R-Tenn., and Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas.
But Shaheen aide Colin Van Ostern said the governor has a long record of bipartisanship. He pointed to the 2002 Clean Power Act, which established fossil fuel pollution standards, and the 2000 HMO Accountability Act, which set up an independent review board to which patients who are refused coverage can appeal their cases.
“She’s not a lock-step partisan like John Sununu,” he said. “John Sununu is a rubber stamp for the Republican party leadership.”
Shaheen supports President Bush’s tax cut and “strongly supports” his military budget, Van Ostern said.
Published in The Manchester Union Leader, in New Hampshire.
