Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Sleepy primary yields surprising results

It was another sleepy primary in Concord with just 14 percent of the voters turning out to cast ballots in a number of contested races.
The biggest shocker of the night is probably incumbent Rep. Liz Hager's loss in the 5-way 12th District [Ward 5, 6, 7] Republican primary. Earlier this year, Hager had joked, "Don't you think 26 years is enough?" but then changed her mind and decided to run again. However, John Kalb 395, the mother and son team of Pam Ean 352 and Garret Ean 313, along with Travis Ingram 312, shocked the Concord political establishment by besting Hager 297 in the primary by a mere 15 votes.
Over in District 11 [Ward 4, 8, 9, 10], both Democrats and Republicans had primaries.
On the Democrat side, four incumbents retained their seats: Tara Reardon 702, Candace Bouchard 637, Bob Williams 604, and John DeJoie 491. Newcomer Michael Bartlett came in fourth with 499, with Klee Dienese getting 195 after dropping out at the last minute because he was being called up to Iraq. In a letter to the Concord Monitor this week, Dienese endorsed Bartlett.
On the Republican side, seven candidates duked it out for five seats with incumbent Rep. Jim MacKay heading up the pack with 598 votes, followed by Elizabeth Cheney 408, Lynne Blankenbecker 403, Jeff Newman 385, and Margaret Carnahan 312. Ed Carnahan and Frank Rosano tied for last place with 293 votes.
In the county races, Kathy Rogers beat Ted Barnes, 1,060 to 767 votes, in the county attorney race.
In the County Commissioner race, Elizabeth Blanchard beat Doris Ballard 980 to 807 votes.
In the Executive Councilor race, Dan St. Hilaire handily beat Bernie Sparks and Richard Wasson, 1,331 to 260 to 117.
In the larger races, Gov. John Lynch easily beat Kathryn Forry both in Concord and statewide. Former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen easily beat Raymond Stebbins both in Concord and statewide.
In the race for the Republican nomination for Representative to Congress, Jim Steiner 653, beat Jennifer Horn 512, Bob Clegg 492, Grant Bosse 171 and Alfred L'Eplattenier 17. However, Horn won the Second Congressional District race.

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