Nashua Telegraph - …As Election Day Nears

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14-year Republican legislator Joseph Kenney, of Wakefield, a decorated Gulf War veteran was first elected as a write-in candidate by beating venerable Republican incumbent Gordon Wiggin in 1994.

"They said it couldn't be done, but I'm living proof that every vote makes a difference," Kenney said during an interview after appearing on WTPL-FM radio Thursday. "I just thought we could be better represented, lost in the primary by 25 votes, and then with the help of a lot of volunteers, caught him in the general."

Kenney's challenge this time is Mount Everest-like by comparison - with no money and even less name recognition, trying to upset a chief executive who has 66 percent of Republicans approving of the job he's doing.

Lynch beat Kenney in that University of New Hampshire Survey Center poll, 66 percent to 17 percent, with the other 17 percent undecided.

"John Lynch is in excellent position because he's well known and well liked by Republicans and Democrats," UNH Survey Center Director Andy Smith said. "It's going to be difficult for Kenney to upset Lynch. Around the state, we're seeing close races, but this is one that isn't going to be very close.''

Kenney, 48, catches himself marveling at Lynch's stratospheric support.

"You are about as popular as the pope,'' Kenney declared during their first debate on the campus of Saint Anselm College in Manchester on Wednesday.

Kenney went on to light into Lynch for his failure to get the Legislature to approve a constitutional amendment to take from rich towns and give poor towns more education aid.

For Kenney's part, Lynch is too nice a guy, someone who let liberal special interests overrun him and embrace a record 17.5 percent increase in state spending, raise more than 20 taxes and fees, and tolerate a too-intrusive state government.

"I think maybe we need someone in the Mel Thomson mode who's going to make the tough calls for the taxpayer and not be concerned about what the polls say tomorrow about him,'' Kenney said on Dick Patten's "Around Town'' Concord Community Cable TV program Thursday afternoon.

"It's called leadership; it's called the bully pulpit, and we've seen neither from this governor. You would see both from me.''

Despite Lynch's large lead, the Democrat is capable of striking back like he did at Kenney for casting the deciding Senate vote to kill Lynch's education aid bill that had already cleared the GOP-led House of Representatives.

"I remember it like it was yesterday,'' Lynch said. "Senator Kenney publicly said he was with us on a plan to get rid of the statewide property tax, and then he changed his mind at the last minute. That was stunning to me.''

Kenney said it was because Lynch's aid plan cost his district $300,000. Kenney tripped badly during the debate, however, claiming the alternative he embraced had no statewide property tax when in fact it did.

Larry Sabato of the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia rates Lynch as perhaps the safest incumbent of the 11 races for governor across the U.S. this fall.

Democrats hold six of the 11 seats up for grabs.

"Ultimately, the road to the Statehouse is very much uphill for Kenney,'' Sabato said. "Lynch, on the other hand, will be able to coast, so long as he avoids any unanticipated bumps in his path to re-election.

Michael Barone, co-founder of the Almanac of American Politics, said Lynch's profile as a "safe Democrat'' makes him a tough adversary in a state that's trending away from a long history of GOP dominance.

"John Lynch has a nice smile, he's obviously got great people skills and there's nothing threatening about him,'' Barone said. "He's a good fit for a state that is fiscally conservative but socially moderate to downright liberal.''

Lynch has raised more than $1.5 million for his re-election, a list chock full of New England captains of industry who in past years any Republican candidate could have claimed as his own.

For more than six months, Lynch has had a full-time campaign staff of 10 and two consultants blanketing the state with 4-foot by 8-foot blue and white signs. Since June, he has had Madison Avenue-like ads on the air that former Bill Clinton wunderkind Maggie Grunwald has devised.

Kenney has raised less than 10 percent of Lynch's money pile and has only campaign manager Casey Crane, of Nashua, at his side 2-4/7. On Thursday, he hugged a Penacook teenager at Merrimack Valley High School who said she would volunteer.

"Great, you can help us sign Manchester,'' Kenney said of the state's largest city only 34 days before the election.

Kenney talks up his grassroots support, pulled together from visiting 150 towns in the nearly 18 months he has been meeting with voters to put this challenge together.

"I've always felt that grass roots are what wins elections," Kenney said. "We've got more support out there than may be apparent to people."

Even this likeable, handsome, upbeat candidate making this large leap up on the ballot admits frustration as he watches the millions flowing in to bankroll the TV attack ad wars of Sen. John E. Sununu and presidential nominee Sen. John McCain.

"You see all that money buys these thousands of ads that they are playing all the time in our state,'' Kenney said. "And what do they say? 'I hate you.' 'No, I hate you.' "

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