In many ways, First District Congressional candidate Martha Fuller Clark is just another New Hampshire Democrat who lost. But Democrats had high hopes for Clark. She did better than expected in 2000 against Republican incumbent John Sununu. But the early promise didn't hold in the race against Republican Jeb Bradley. Now, just a few days after the election, Democrats and political experts analyze Clark's defeat.
NHPR's David Darman has more.
New Hampshire Democrats are gravely disappointed by their recent election losses. And state party officials continue to be bitter about Republican attack ads against first congressional Candidate Martha Fuller Clark. Still, Democratic Chairman Kathy Sullivan says she can understand why the GOP's ads worked so well.
02 41 I think that the republicans did a very effective job in making the state income tax an issue, in a congressional race, even though it had nothing to do with the
congressional race. 02 53
Martha Fuller Clark says the issue was the biggest obstacle to overcome. Clark had about 2.6 million dollars to fight with. But she says the Republican effort against her was well organized, and was in large part financed by the deep pockets of the National Republican Congressional Committee. Nationwide, the NRCC raised nearly 158 million dollars. That's nearly twice as much as the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee. It's not clear yet how much of that money was spent in New Hampshire. But Clark says Republicans simply overwhelmed her campaign's financial resources.
18 46 while the democratic congressional campaign committee did attempt to assist me, they simply didn't have the same resources. And basically, we had to win this campaign ourselves. 18 102 that's where it stood. 18 106 not that they didn't try to help me, but they didn't have the same resources to spend. 18 110
The GOP was able to make the income tax label stick to Clark. But couldn't do the same thing to Bradley, even though he supported the statewide property tax. And the first district has a number of "donor towns". Clark also tried to distinguish her position on social security from Bradley's. But Political Science professor Dante Scala of St. Anselm College says it didn't work. And other Democrats had the same problem.
14 02 That was supposed to be one of the key democratic issues this year. Not only for her, but for Democrats across the country. And today we're looking back to find out what happened, and we're finding it did not have the effect that it might have. 14 32
Most analysts agree that President Bush's trips to the state galvanized Republicans to vote. Dante Scala says he believes the moderate Republican Jeb Bradley was also a good candidate to put up against Martha Fuller Clark. Bradley is an environmentalist and also pro choice. Scala says Bradley's political profile closed off many of the issues Clark could have used for contrast against a more conservative opponent.
18 128 she couldn't run on the abortion issue, the way that shaheen ran against sununu fairly effectively. That was no longer a wedge issue. So what you had was a republican candidate that was socially moderate to liberal, and fiscally conservative. And that's about as good a fit for the first district as you're going to find. 18 147
Despite campaigning for almost 2 years, Clark still had an uphill struggle to win the first district. Republicans have held the seat for more than 20 years. But Clark's campaign also ran into a "perfect storm" this year. The strong winds of an effective Republican message met the moderate GOP opponent.
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