Which Republican Will New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen Beat In 2014?

I doubt we'll see a Republican primary fight between Florida's Bob Smith and Massachusetts' Scott Brown for the worthless GOP Senate nomination. Brown seems to have made up his mind to run for president governor (of Massachusetts), leaving the field open for Smith, who, unlike Brown, actually did at one time, live in New Hampshire, having moved there from New Jersey. In fact, he was both a Representative (beating someone named Dudley Dudley) and a Senator from that state. He's 72 now and living in Florida... but wanting to get back on the Beltway ego/gravy train.

Smith was a bit of a crackpot even before the Republican Party institutionalized crackpottery as the official party stance and world view. He tried running for the presidency in 2000 and got angry when no one was interested so he quit the GOP and joined a series of fringe parties. But no one was interested in seeing Bob become president in any of them so he finally withdrew-- and re-joined the GOP. He was defeated in the next New Hampshire primary by John Sununu and then moved to Florida and ran for the Senate there in 2004 and 2010. Still: no one interested.

So now he's back, metaphorically, hoping to run against extremely popular New Hampshire Democrat, Jeanne Shaheen. New Hampshire Republicans have had a hard time recruiting a viable candidate, especially because everyone was so afraid of Scott Brown's gigantic Wall Street warchest when he said he might relocate to New Hampshire to run there. Smith still has a summer home in Tuftonboro, so technically, he's still a Granite Stater, although he's been voting in Florida.

"I am giving it serious consideration," Smith said Friday, but "I have not made a final decision. I have not."

He said he expects to make a decision in the next two to three weeks.

...Smith said the biggest issue for him is the country's huge debt, which both parties helped create. He said he is also concerned about a push for national health care, government spying on private citizens and deficit spending.

"We need leadership to try to head that off," Smith said. "I did have a voting record over 18 years of anti-deficit, anti-debt. I lost that battle, but now we need to turn it around before it is too late."

He said while he has been out of politics for 10 years, he does not want to be a "sunshine patriot" and believes he still has something to contribute to the debate. 

Smith said he has been meeting with people, including a small gathering Friday evening, to hear what they have to say, pro and con.

Several other candidates have said they are interested in the Republican nomination, and one, conservative activist Karen Testerman, has announced she will seek the nomination.

Others exploring a run include state Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, and former state Sen. and gubernatorial candidate Jim Rubens of Etna.



Former U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., has also been mentioned as a possible candidate, often appearing in the Granite State and refusing to rule it out, although he is also considering a run for governor of Massachusetts. His family owns a summer home in Rye.

Apparently Brown didn't find the reception he was looking for in Iowa and told the Des Moines Register, rather than any Massachusetts (or New Hampshire) news papers that he'll be announcing his campaign for governor (of Massachusetts, presumably) “in a week to 10 days.”

Between stops for bacon-wrapped ribs and a hammy photo with the super bull, Scott Brown didn’t introduce himself to many Iowans.

Brown, a Republican former U.S. senator from Massachusetts, strolled for over two hours today through the Iowa State Fair, an annual 11-day event that’s a magnet for politicians who might want to run for the White House.

Few Iowa fairgoers recognized him as he ate his very first corn dog, drank a couple beers at the Bud Tent, shot a bunch of photos of his wife, Gail Huff, posed in front of the fair’s main attractions (the butter cow, a deep-fried Oreo stand, the Big Boar) and did three local news interviews.

...Brown was voted out of the U.S. Senate nine months ago in Massachusetts, where there are three times as many Democrats as Republicans. He’s now on the buzz list for several possible political offices--  the Senate again, the Massachusetts governor’s office and, as of this weekend, the White House. He told the Des Moines Register on Saturday that he’s scoping out whether Iowa would be favorable to his brand of Republicanism-- fiscally conservative, open minded on social issues, dedicated to bipartisan problem-solving... "I’m here, seeing if there’s any interest.”