Candidates for New Hampshire's open U.S. Senate seat participated in a debate in Manchester, N.H., concerning transportation, earmarks, health care and taxes on Monday, according to WMUR. Controversial e-mails sent by former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, the state's Republican candidate for U.S. Senate, and a settlement by an outside organization that illegally polled for Rep. Paul Hodes '72, the Democratic candidate, sparked additional contention between the candidates as they debated health care, taxes and other issues, WMUR report.
Recent poll results also showed Democratic candidates leading in the races for governor and for New Hampshire's 2nd Congressional District, WMUR reported.
In the Senate debate, held at St. Anselm College in Manchester, Hodes said he supports tax cuts for the middle class.
"We need to extend them and make them permanent so people in the middle class can spend in this economy," Hodes said, according to WMUR.
Ayotte said she does not support any tax increases.
"We should be cutting spending in Washington to make the hard choices rather than putting more burdens on the American people," she said.
The candidates agreed that earmarks should be abolished and that senior citizens should be given a Social Security cost-of-living adjustment, but expressed opposing views about the benefits of the new federal health care law and the stimulus package, WMUR said.
Hodes and Ayotte also disregarded the moderator at multiple points in the hour-long debate and talked directly to each other, WMUR reported.
E-mails from Ayotte are currently being examined by attorneys for Michael Addison, who was sentenced in 2008 with the death penalty for shooting and killing a Manchester police officer in 2006, the Concord Monitor reported.
Addison's attorneys are trying to determine if the e-mails in which Ayotte allegedly told her political advisor, Rob Varsalone, of her decision to seek the death penalty for Addison two weeks after the shooting can be used for an appeal.
The e-mails might constitute new grounds on which to re-open the case, because they call into question Ayotte's reason for seeking the death penalty, the Monitor reported.
Hodes has said that Ayotte pursued the death penalty for political gain, but Ayotte denied these allegations, the Monitor reported.
Hodes has also faced his own political challenges. The New Hampshire Attorney General's office announced that Idaho-based Mountain West Research Center which conducted a push poll on behalf of Hodes in July has paid $20,000 to settle the push-polling case, according to the Monitor.
Push polling involves attempting to influence public opinion through political campaigning disguised as a telephone survey. The practice is outlawed under New Hampshire election law.
The New Hampshire Republican Party filed the original complaint against the company.
"This company was clearly conducting illegal and unethical push poll calls on behalf of Congressman Paul Hodes and his campaign," Republican Party spokesman Ryan Williams told the Monitor. "Congressman Hodes is a Washington politician who has repeatedly used disgusting gutter politics to smear his opponents."
The Hodes campaign said it is no longer working with the company, the Monitor reported.
"We expect all of our vendors to follow applicable New Hampshire laws and would fire any vendor from our campaign that does not," Hodes spokesman Mark Bergman told the Monitor.
In the race for the 2nd Congressional District, Democratic candidate Ann McLane Kuster '78 is leading Republican former Rep. Charlie Bass '74 by 43 percent to 36 percent, according to a WMUR Granite State survey conducted earlier this month by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
This poll represents a significant shift in the race, as Bass held a five-point lead one month ago, WMUR reported.
"[Bass] didn't run a particularly strong primary campaign, and I think we are seeing the results of this," pollster Andrew Smith told WMUR. "Kuster, on the other hand, ran an extremely good primary campaign."
Smith called the race "the race to watch," adding that he thinks it will be the closest race in the state.
A poll conducted by The Hill, however, in the week prior to the WMUR poll placed Kuster behind Bass by 3 percentage points.
Vice President Joe Biden will campaign for Kuster on Monday, according to WMUR. This will be Biden's third visit to the state since August. Former Secretary of State Madeline Albright headlined an event supporting Kuster in Concord, N.H., on Wednesday night.
The WMUR Granite State Poll also showed incumbent Democratic Governor John Lynch leading Republican candidate John Stephen, 51 percent to 38 percent.
These results show that the gubernatorial race is closer than it was in September, when the poll showed Stephen with 34 percent and Lynch with 51 percent.
"It's turning out to be nowhere near as close as some people thought it would be," Smith said, adding that Lynch is "in pretty good shape" in the race.
Earlier this week, an outside group called Citizens for Strength and Security launched an ad campaign against Stephen, according to the WMUR Political Scoop.
The ad criticizes Stephen for a number of character issues and decisions regarding public safety.
