At bluehampshire.com Chairman Buckley blames Jean Shaheen's decision not to take the TAX Pledge for Al Gore's loss in 2000.
Let's tell the whole story (0.00 / 0)
in 2000, Governor Shaheen was re-elected with less than 48% of the vote against a woefully unacceptable opponent. Governor Shaheen wasted precious resources in the primary and our entire ticket suffered for it. We lost the presidency by 7,000 votes and the state senate by a grand total of less than 400 votes.
Do we really need to do relive this again?
by: Ray Buckley @ Mon Jul 07, 2008
A bit more: (0.00 / 0)
Here's the data. Shaheen got 48.7%.
You and I may agree that Gordon Humphrey was "woefully unacceptable" but he had won two statewide elections as U.S. Senator before retiring undefeated - he was no lightweight. Suggesting that Shaheen was only vulnerable because she refused to take the pledge is... speculative.
The suggestion that her refusal to take the pledge tiled the election to Bush is laughable.
by: elwood @ Mon Jul 07, 2008
Not funny at all. (0.00 / 0)
Elwood, you seem to forget that I was the person running the NH Gore general election effort. I think I have a bit more information and knowledge about the situation and yes Governor Shaheen's numbers had a direct result - laugh all you want - but it is true and sure as heck not funny one bit to me.
by: Ray Buckley @ Mon Jul 07, 2008
I'm wondering how one could quantify this. (0.00 / 0)
I really haven't seen this claim before - that the Shaheen gubernatorial campaign may have cost Gore a win in New Hampshire and thus the Presidency. I've seen Nader's role cited frequently but not this.
We could compare Shaheen's share of the vote to 1998, but she was running against unknown Jay Lucas then - not a two-time statewide winner.
We could compare turnout to the most recent non-incumbent Presidential race, but we would have to decide whether high turnout helped or hurt Gore and Shaheen. And 1992 doesn't compare well to 2000 anyway - different demographics in the state.
I certainly believe that the people running the day-to-day campaigns have the richest store of anecdotes and the strongest knowledge of the impact that short-term tactical decisions made. I'm not at all convinced that they have any especially useful perspective on the broad currents of a race.
by: elwood @ Mon Jul 07, 2008 at 12:04:27 PM CDT
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