Democrat Carol Shea Porter is meeting voters across the first Congressional District in an effort to defeat incumbent Jeb Bradley.
The challenger has stepped up her efforts since pulling off a surprising primary win over a better known, well-financed candidate.
Now Shea Porter finds herself making a similar challenge against Bradley.
But the magnitude of the task she needs to complete to defeat the incumbent is much bigger than the one she pulled off last month
When Carol Shea Porter speaks to Democrats and other interested voters, she talks about her opposition to the war in Iraq.
She frequently discusses how she'd like to see the country tackle its energy and environmental problems.
And near the end of her speeches, she typically asks members of her audience to help her campaign.
...its up to all of you, to work with the rest of us, to go through your neighborhoods and go through your communities and bring people out and tell them, this time it makes a difference. this time they actually will be heard. i've made that my commitment you know, for two and a half years, i've spent my life helping people and i plan to continue that in washington.
SX UP:
About 70 people heard her speech last week in Bedford.
Most of them were Democrats, but at least two registered Independents came away voicing their support for Shea Porter.
Trisha Swonger of Merrimack and her husband were clearly moved to action.
... actually we've just written a check. we've signed up for a sign. i will be speaking to all of my neighbors and i can't remember what else you're doing. but yeah, we've definitly made up our minds after tonight.
Shea Porter relied on volunteers like Swonger to win 54 percent of the vote in the Democratic primary last month.
And she has kept up a grueling schedule of campaign appearances to try and let voters know who she is and what she's about.
In spite of this, political analysts say she is following in the footsteps of other Democrats who have garnered less than 40 percent of the vote in each of the last two general elections.
Andrew Smith of the New Hampshire Survey Center says the latest Granite State Poll shows she's nearly twenty points behind Bradley.
so it puts her in a difficult spot because she's essentially unknown facing a well known, pretty well liked, and well funded candidate. and carol shea porter doesn't really have the funding she needs to really compete with that incumbent advantage.
Shea Porter has trailed in the fundraising race during this entire political season.
During the primary, two candidates she defeated each spent ten times as much as she did.
Jeb Bradley has an even greater spending advantage, since he's raised half a million dollars.
Shea Porter has pulled in perhaps ten percent as much.
In one point of view, her spending shortfall is less of a problem in this election cycle than it would be in a more typical political environment.
Political scientist David Moore recently wrote a book on the controversial 2000 presidential election.
Moore says he sees a national and state political scene this year that is more favorable for a Democrat than it's been in a while.
...this year, given the high level of discontent of the public with the war in iraq and with president bush, and given the fact that there's a popular democratic governor so that it means democrats are likley to turn out and support him, it could be a time when republicans are less likely to turn out because they have nobody really strong to vote for at the gubernatorial level, and because ...republicans themselves could be a little discouraged about what's going on.
Shea Porter lined up Democrats who are fed up with the current administration to work for her in the primary.
She did particularly well in her home base, on the Seacoast and in Carroll Country.
But in racking up her victory, she failed to win any of Manchester's twelve wards.
Voters in the city and other towns around Manchester have consistently made up a Bradley stronghold.
Dante Scala of St. Anselm College says he doesn't see that changing much for Shea Porter.
He says she needs to hold her own in the city to stay competitive.
in the greater manchester area, i think her hope is ..not to win those places but to keep them close enough to not allow bradley to create an insurmountable lead there.
Shea Porter took a step toward making inroads into Manchester last week, when she announced that two notable Democrats have signed on to be her campaign's co-chairmen.
One is Jim Craig, the Democratic leader in the New Hampshire House.
He lost the race against Porter in the primary, but did manage to outpace her in all twelve city wards.
Activist Bill Shaheen also signed on as co-chair.
He's no stranger to Manchester, since his wife, former Governor Jeanne Shaheen won statewide elections three times.
Carol Shea Porter introduced both men as her co-chairmen last week in Manchester.
In his remarks, Shaheen said he's truly impressed with her, and he's going to work as hard as he can to elect his fellow Democrat.
i don't care about the money. and i don't care about the polls. i've seen polls and i've seen money, but you give me people who are determined, that want to make a change in this world, and i'll give you a winner. and carol shea porter is the winner.
No matter how persuasive she is, the latest political poll says Shea Porter is relatively unknown by voters.
So strategists say she needs to get a few advertisements on television, to make herself more recognizable.
The candidate has said she's produced an ad that's playing on select radio stations.
But it hasn't reached t.v.
Several strategists say another reason she needs a television ad is no matter how hard she works, she can't meet enough voters to turn the tide against Bradley.
Of course, buying time for television ads takes a good deal of money.
And Shea Porter hasn't raised very much so far, only about fifty-thousand dollars.
Dante Scala of St Anselm says he thinks that lack of cash may end up hurting her, despite the work of hundreds of volunteers.
i think there are elements of her message that could resonate with voters. the question will be whether most voters in the first district ever get to hear that message.
Of course, Shea Porter's checkbook could get a boost from her newly recruited campaign chairmen.
Both Bill Shaheen and Jim Craig have shown they can raise significant chunks of cash.
And with just four weeks to go before election day, they and the whole campaign have their work cut out for them.
