Sununu has a challenger

It's Portsmouth Mayor Steve Merchand.
"Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand (D) said that he will run for Senate against Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) in 2008, according to the Portsmouth Herald.

"Marchand said his choice was made easier after he received information that neither Gov. John Lynch nor former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen were interested in taking on Sununu next year."
http://politicalwire.com/archives/2007/01/12/in_new_ham...

We need a top drawer challenger for this race we should win this seat.

I wouldn't automatically write off a mayor as a candidate, sometimes those mayoral races can be as hard as anything on the statewide level.

Is Merchand popular in his city, has he survived multiple re-election campaigns, does he have a personal background that would make him unacceptable to the wider NH area? I'd guess he's either fairly confident he can make a bid, or he thinks his candidacy is such an obvious failure that he's trying to push someone else into running.

but I want the best candidate we can find. We need to win at least one seat to offset the all but certain loss of Landreiu's seat.

Cause losing Landrieu seat is basically everything but certain. I would of loved to seen Lynch run againist Sununu cause if that happened The Senator might as well trown in the towel the minute he announced his candidacy.

He lost last time, but rigged the phones. I hope he loses this time. my friend worked on her, shaheen, campaign and i'm pissed he won.

Was elected in 2006, and before he was Mayor he was on the Portsmouth City Council. He has presented himself as, and I'm quoting: "fiscally conservative, socially moderate, and environmentally progressive". He'll attract a base, but I'm not sure how much DUers are going to take a liking to him.

He's young and inspires confidence, and he'll be more than able to conduct a race. I wouldn't consider him a top-tier challenger, but he's not a throw-away.

He also has competition. Ex-Rep. Dick Swett's daughter, Katarina Swett, is "98% in". Yogurt baron Gary Hirshberg, who could easily self-fund, is also close to announcing a bid. And State Senator David Gottesberg has been contemplating a bid for the last three months.

When is Gregg's seat up? IMHO, he's worse than Sununu.