Skip to Content, Navigation, or Footer.
Support independent student journalism. Support independent student journalism. Support independent student journalism.
The Dartmouth
March 28, 2024 | Latest Issue
The Dartmouth

Gubernatorial race up for grabs

The tightly-contested New Hampshire Senate race may be garnering more attention statewide, but the campaign to fill departing Governor Jeanne Shaheen's position promises as close a finish, with no candidate having yet emerged as a clear front-runner.

With little more than a month remaining before primary elections, Republican Craig Benson holds a lead over rivals Gordon Humphrey and Bruce Keough in most polls, while Democratic candidates Bev Hollingworth and Mark Fernald remain neck-and-neck.

Recent weeks, however, have seen Benson come under fire for alleged discrimination against women while he was head of Cabletron, a network software provider that became one of the most successful companies of its kind in the late 1980s and 1990s.

Benson, who has touted his business experience during the campaign, saw a jury order Cabletron to pay a $2.5 million penalty on sex discrimination charges in 1995.

In response, Benson's campaign has pointed at Humphrey's own corporate career on the board of directors of W.R. Grace & Co., which was subjected to several lawsuits during the 1990s.

"The race has deteriorated into a highly personal campaign of Humphrey versus Benson, with Keough on the sidelines," Government Professor Richard Winters said.

Though Benson's July lead appeared to be strong, Winters cautioned against reading too much into statewide polls, which he said tend to be "notoriously unreliable."

Meanwhile, Democrats Hollingworth and Fernald have run quieter campaigns. The relative lack of controversy among the two may be due as much to financial limitations as any other factor, however.

"The Republicans have more money to throw around, while the Democrats are saving theirs until the end," said Sharon Nordgren, Democratic deputy leader of the house in the New Hampshire legislature and a Hollingworth supporter.

With few major issues dividing the two candidates, both of whom favor implementing a state income tax to boost New Hampshire's struggling school system, Nordgren suggested Hollingworth and Fernald may simply be trying to avoid "giving any ammunition" to the Republican side.

In fact, Nordgren said, the Democrats may stand to benefit from the Republican infighting.

"The way the Republicans are tearing each other apart, they're going to be tarnished when they reach the general elections," she said.

Looking past the Sept. 10 primary, Nordgren predicted the chosen Republican candidate to make the election into a referendum on the income tax, which Humphrey and Benson have both promised to veto should it come before them.

Adding to the complexity is the presence of independent voters, who don't vote in primaries but who will help determining the winner in the general election round.

"I think there are a lot more independent voters than there were 10 or 15 years ago," Nordgren said, "and those people tend to vote more Democratic."

Regardless of current poll numbers, the week before the primary promises to be a hectic one.

"It's one of the often quoted characteristics of New Hampshire primaries that voters do not begin to focus until the day after Labor Day," Winters said.

As a consequence, he said, during that time candidates bring up "every issue that's been discussed over the course of the campaign that looks like it will resonate with voters."