Cohen still paying for failed 2004 campaign

Former New Hampshire State Senator Burt Cohen (D-New Castle) continues to pay for the illegal activities of his former campaign manager.

The former state senator ran for the United States Senate in 2004 but abandoned his bid after it was discovered his campaign manager, Jesse D. Burchfield, falsified fundraising numbers.

According to FEC records, Cohen’s campaign committee has a debt of $256,902.

The debt is the result of loans Cohen made to his own campaign.

“Those are owed to myself, I’m not Mitt Romney you know,” Cohen told PolitickerNH.com.

Cohen made news last week when he penned an op-ed that argued former governor Jeanne Shaheen’s connection to U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-New York) could damage Shaheen’s senatorial campaign. Shaheen is running in the Democratic primary against Jay Buckey, the winner will compete against U.S. Sen. John E. Sununu.

“People wearing Shaheen stickers at events have whispered to me that while they have to keep up appearances because of the fearsome Shaheen Machine, in the private voting booth they'll do what they want,” Cohen wrote in Foster’s Daily Democrat.

Cohen, a Buckey supporter, told us “the Shaheens have always been strategic, in everything they do.” He added, “the nomination is not something to be inherited, you have to work for it.”