Incumbent	Carol Shea-Porter
Party	Democratic
Seeking Re-election?	Most Likely
Candidate Website	House Website Campaign Website
Other Resources	Congresspedia profile on Carol Shea-Porter

2004 Presidential Vote	Bush - 50.74% Kerry - 48.42%
2006 Election Results	Shea -Porter - 51.31% Bradley - 48.68%
District Blog(s)

Challenger	Jeb Bradley, former NH-01 Representative (2002-06)
Party	Republican
Source of Information	Bradley says he's running; Concord Monitor, 7/4/07
Candidate Website	Campaign Website
Other Resources	Congresspedia profile on Jeb Bradley

Challenger	Bob Kingsbury
Party	Libertarian
Source of Information	Green Sheet
Candidate website	Bob Kingsbury website

Challenger	John A. Stephen - defeated by Jeb Bradley in the 2002 Republican primary; current NH DHHS Commissioner
Party	Republican
Source of Information	D.C. Political Report
Candidate Information	Union Leader Article DSSH Commissioner John Stephen website

Background Information

New Hampshire's 1st Congressional district was considered a safe Republican seat until very recently. Republican incumbent Jeb Bradley, who had held the seat for two terms, was defeated by Democratic challenger Carol Shea-Porter in 2006.

Few pre-election polls have traditionally been conducted in New Hampshire, because it has traditionally been a safe Republican state. The few polls that had been conducted in New Hampshire's First Congressional district showed Bradley winning by a comfortable margin. When Bradley lost to Shea-Porter by a margin of 4 percent (48-52), it was quite a surprise. The Union Leader, an NH newspaper reported that "No one in Bradley's office saw it coming."

Bradley has announced that he intends to try and regain his old seat, and since Shea-Porter won by a relatively small margin in a "blue wave" year (2006), she could have a tough re-election race ahead of her. NH's 1st district is considered more conservative than NH's 2nd, where Republican incumbent Charlie Bass was also defeated by Democratic challenger Paul Hodes.

Note that the two times that Bradley was elected (2002 and 2004), he garnered roughly 63% of the vote. Note also that 130,000 people and 200,000 voters turned out in both of those years respectively (dramatically higher turnout in 2004 because it was a Presidential year), wheras only 95,000 turned out in 2006. Shea-Porter's victory was likely due in large part to low Republican motivation to turnout, so she is likely headed for a tough re-election campaign in 2008.

John Stephen, former NH HHS Commissioner, has filed with the FEC for the NH 1 seat and will face jeb Bradley in the state primary in September of 2008.

District Map

Resources

Below you will find links to additional information about the 2008 Congressional election in New Hampshire's 1st district.

General

Wikipedia: New Hampshire's 1st Congressional district
Wikipedia: New Hampshire's 2006 Congressional elections
National Atlas: a map of NH-01

Shea-Porter (D-incumbent)

2006 Campaign website
Wikipedia: Carol Shea-Porter

Bradley (R-challenger, former incumbent)

2006 Campaign website
Wikipedia: Jeb Bradley

NH Blogs

Lost Nation
GraniteGrok
BlogNet News NH
RobBoyce
Democracy for NH
NH Insider
And Rightly So!