Shaheen Defeats Sununu In New Hampshire

Democrat Jeanne Shaheen has defeated Republican Sen. John Sununu to become the first woman elected to the U.S. Senate from New Hamsphire.

Shaheen, who also was the first woman elected governor of New Hampshire, will be its first Democratic senator in more than 30 years.

She defeated Sununu in a bitter rematch in which the candidates stayed the same, but nearly everything else changed.

After losing to Sununu in 2002, Shaheen benefited this time from demographic trends favoring Democrats and her efforts to link Sununu to the unpopular Bush adminstration.

Sununu’s loss – his first ever – hands Democrats hoping for a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate a seat they have been salivating over for more than a year.

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