GOP's Battle Of New Hampshire

A bitter Senate primary fight in New Hampshire is drawing national attention and making some Republican leaders wonder whose side to take. Douglas Kiker of the CBS News Political Unit reports.

Smith, the burly, conservative two-term incumbent, has had a rocky relationship with the state's voters and some national party leaders in the last few years. His primary opponent, Sununu, is a two-term congressman who looks to many in the GOP to be a stronger candidate against Jeanne Shaheen, the four-term governor and likely Democratic nominee.

With control of the Senate currently determined by just one vote, the New Hampshire race has huge national implications for both parties.

Shaheen formally kicked off her campaign on Sunday in Dover. While she didn't mention the two potential GOP candidates by name, she did say they're both "opponents are already on the attack, funded by special interests who like things just the way they are in Washington." Privately, the Democrats say they're banking on the Republicans to bloody each other until the mid-September primary.

In 1999, Smith briefly left the Republican Party to run for president as an independent. He returned when the chairmanship of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee was vacated by the death of Rhode Island Sen. John Chafee. His scathing speech on the Senate floor announcing his departure from the GOP – in which he attacked the party for abandoning its core values – angered party leaders and rank-and-file Granite State Republicans.

"People in New Hampshire are not happy with Bob Smith because of that," said Andy Smith, a professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire and director of the UNH Survey Center. "Then again, Smith has never been a particularly popular candidate here. In his last two races, he barely squeaked out wins."

Smith's opponent is no newcomer to New Hampshire Republican circles. Sununu, first elected in 1996, is a son of John Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor and controversial White House chief of staff during the first Bush administration. The 37-year-old is an MIT and Harvard Business School grad whose only experience as an elected official has been his three terms in the House.

Fund-raising has been surprisingly slow for Sununu, who's been outspent nearly six to one by Smith. At the end of April, Sununu had raised $983,408 and had $661,159 cash on hand. By contrast, Smith had raised $3.1 million and had nearly $1.5 million in the bank.

An April UNH poll showed Smith losing to Shaheen, but Sununu topping the popular governor in a hypothetical general election match-up. A new poll by the American Research Group in Manchester, N.H., had Sununu topping Smith in a head-to-head race by 55 percent to 38 percent. The poll also showed Smith's approval rating dropping 13 points in the last month, from 61 percent to 48 percent.

Smith's departure and return to the GOP has helped Sununu gain support from several of Republican senators, including Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Kit Bond of Missouri, Richard Shelby of Alabama and Ted Stevens of Alaska. Trent Lott, the Senate Republican leader, joined the four, hosting a fund-raiser in Washington for Sununu, but has not endorsed him.

Lott has also attended Smith fund-raisers and given money to his campaign. Other Republicans are pushing for Smith as well. Peter Fitzgerald of Illinois hosted a Chicago fund-raiser for him last month and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani made a radio ad for Smith last week and says he'll go to New Hampshire to campaign for him.

The White House also has sent mixed signals on the race.

Last year, presidential adviser Karl Rove traveled to New Hampshire to raise money for Smith, and Environmental Protection Agency chief Christie Whitman spent a day traveling through New Hampshire with him last month, where she called Smith "very important" for the administration's agenda.

At the same time, President Bush's father – former President George H.W. Bush – attended a fund-raiser for Sununu last summer. And White House Chief of Staff Andy Card – who was Sununu's father's deputy in the first Bush administration – told reporters last month that he's had a "close and personal relationship with the Sununu family" and favored him over Smith.

Smith displeased the administration by backing a continued ban on drilling for oil in the Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska, a key proponent of the president's energy proposal. He's also raised some eyebrows in GOP circles for his ardent advocacy of animal rights.

On most issues, however, Smith and Sununu are virtually indistinguishable in their conservative positions. Both get high ratings from the American Conservative Union for their lifetime voting records in Congress, with Sununu scoring 94 out of 100 and Smith rated at 92.

The race has had some ugly moments already. In March, a Smith spokesman suggested that Sununu, who's of Lebanese descent, was not taking a strong enough stand on terror. In an anonymous quote in The New Republic, the spokesman said of Sununu's voting record in Congress: "People are just beginning to focus on how pro-Arab he is and how naive his positions on the terrorism issue." The accusations were impolitic enough to garner a White House phone call reprimanding the comments as "unhelpful."

Last week, Smith, who once left the Republican Party entirely, told a gathering of Granite State Republicans that he questioned Sununu's "loyalty to the GOP." One Sununu supporter noted that Smith was correct to note how much party loyalty means in New Hampshire.

In the end, Professor Smith of the University of New Hampshire says what will sway voters is each candidate's personality.

"The difference is more a matter of style than issues," he said in an interview. "Smith is more out there in his conservative style. Sununu holds the same positions and probably votes same way on all the issues. He is just not as out-front on those hot button, red meat topics."

By Douglas Kiker