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Jeanne Shaheen served three terms as Governor of New Hampshire from 1996-2002. She was the first woman ever elected to the office and was reelected twice by wide margins. A former school teacher, small business owner, and state senator; a mother and grandmother. As Governor, she established protections for people in HMOs, helped families to save money for college tuition, worked to expand public kindergarten, and successfully supported health insurance for 20,000 additional children. She put forward responsible, balanced budgets, held the line on taxes, and established the first ethics code for government workers. Under her leadership, New Hampshire added 50,000 jobs. Shaheen has a strong and proven record of environmental leadership. As Governor, she established the nation's first law to reduce emissions that cause global warming and created the Land and Community Heritage Investment Program to preserve New Hampshire's open and historic places. Prior to serving as Governor, Shaheen served as a New Hampshire State Senate and chair of her local zoning board. Before entering politics, she worked teaching high school. Most recently, she served as Director of the Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government — a position she has left to run for the Senate in 2008. This will be Shaheen's second attempt to become the junior Senator from New Hampshire. At the end of her third term as Governor, Shaheen made her first run for what was then an open seat against Republican candidate John Sununu. Sununu's narrow victory over her in 2002 was a controversial one because of a Republican scheme to illegally jam the phones at the Democratic headquarters on Election Day, which effectively suppressed get-out-the-vote operations. The phone-jamming scandal gained national attention, leading to indictments of several prominent New Hampshire Republicans — a number of whom served jail time. Circumstantial evidence suggested involvement by the national Republican Party. In spite of GOP law breaking and the punishing electoral environment for Democrats in 2002, Shaheen lost by a very slim margin. Six years later, circumstances have changed dramatically. Sununu has proven to be just another rubber-stamp Republican for George Bush and the Iraq War, making him highly vulnerable in increasingly blue New Hampshire. And a series of recent polls suggest that Shaheen enters the 2008 race as the frontrunner. Still, this rematch is sure to be one of the tightest contests in the nation in a state where Republicans have proven they will do anything to suppress Democratic votes. Sununu is a right-wing conservative: anti-choice, opposed to stem cell research, and voting repeatedly to support George Bush's war policy, anti-environmental initiatives and ballooning deficit. In contrast, Jeanne Shaheen supports progressive policies that put people first. Here is the text of her September 16, 2007 announcement of her candidacy: Dear Friends, I didn't plan to run for office again when I left the New Hampshire Governor's office almost five years ago. It was time for a new stage in my life. But every day I read stories about more deaths in Iraq; the billions of dollars in debt we're going to leave our grandchildren; health insurance costs going up; global warming, and politicians in Washington doing nothing. I knew I had to do something about it. Like you, I can't ignore the urgent need for real change in Washington. It's time for affordable health care for everyone and a clean energy future independent of foreign oil. It is time to fix No Child Left Behind and help middle class families afford college. It is time to put science over ideology, invest in stem cell research and battle global warming. It is time to stop the corruption, the runaway spending, and the special interest giveaways. And it is long past time to end this war and bring our troops home as safely and swiftly as possible. That is why I am running for the United States Senate. I hope you'll decide to join my campaign to make Washington start working for us again. Together, we can make the change we want happen. Thank you, |
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