Shaheen attempts to frame general election message

MANCHESTER--Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen (D-Madbury) sought to tie her opponent, U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-Waterville Valley), to President Bush in a speech titled "A New Economic Direction for New Hampshire."

Shaheen said Sununu is tied to Bush's economic policies and argued that her policies would change the direction of New Hampshire.

Republicans responded that Shaheen is attempting to hide her record as governor.

"New Hampshire's paying the price for George Bush's failed economic policies, and John Sununu has been right there, supporting that failed economic agenda every step of the way," Shaheen said in a speech at the YWCA. "John Sununu has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time. He voted for every Bush budget, doubling our national debt to more than 9 trillion dollars."

Shaheen said that Sununu voted against tax credits for renewable energy sources.

"Now, this is another issue on which John Sununu is trying to have it both ways. His voting record says one thing, while his election year rhetoric says another," she said.

New Hampshire Republican Party Chairman Fergus Cullen, who sat in the audience during Shaheen's speech, criticized Shaheen's stance on oil drilling. Shaheen wants oil companies to drill on land they currently have leased from the federal government.

"This is a supply and demand issue.  Some of us remember Shaheen's days as a radical community organizer in the 1970s and 80's working with the Clamshell Alliance opposing the Seabrook nuclear plant.  Nuclear has to be a part of solution," Cullen told reporters. "She's opposed to drilling on new lands, that's the bottom line."

Cullen called Shaheen a "radical community organizer" four times while talking to reporters, referring to her time as a member of the Clamshell Alliance, which was a group opposed to the development of the Seabrook nuclear power plant.

The Republican Party also released a statement outlining Shaheen's record as governor.

When asked to comment on Republicans criticizing her gubernatorial record Shaheen said she was proud of her record.

"I'm proud of my record as governor," Shaheen told reporters. "I would ask voters 'are you better off after six years of John Sununu being in Congress? Or were you better off after six years of me being governor?'"

Shaheen also outlined her policies on health care, energy and the economy.

Before Shaheen's speech the New Hampshire Democratic Party released a web video of "John Sununu's career of marching in lockstep with George Bush's disastrous economic agenda."

"After 12 years in Washington and seven years marching in lockstep with George Bush's disastrous economic policies, John Sununu is now asking for six more years to continue those same policies that put special interests first and New Hampshire families last," said Alex Reese, press secretary for the NHDP's Coordinated Campaign.