Sen. John Sununu (R) Elected 2002, 1st term up 2008
Born:	Sept. 10, 1964, Boston, MA
Home:	Bedford
Education:	M.I.T., B.S. 1986, M.S. 1987, Harvard U., M.B.A. 1991
Religion:	Catholic
Marital Status:	married (Kitty)
Elected  Office:	U.S. House of Reps., 1996-2002.
Professional Career:	Design Engineer, Remec Inc., 1987-89; Mgr. & Operations Specialist, Pittiglio, Rabin, Todd & McGrath, 1990-92; C.F.O. & Dir. of Operations, Teletrol Systems Inc., 1993-95; Consultant, JHS Associates, 1995-96.
DC Office	111 RSOB20510, 202-224-2841; Fax: 202-228-4131; Web site: sununu.senate.gov
State Offices	Berlin, 603-752-6074; Claremont, 603-542-6582; Manchester, 603-647-7500; Portsmouth, 603-430-9560.
Additional Info
Recent Articles · Offices · Committees · Ratings · Key Votes · Election Results
More On New Hampshire
At A Glance · State Profile Senior Senator · Almanac Home
Recent News Coverage
Search the CongressDaily, Hotline, House Race Hotline, National Journal and Technology Daily archives using the form above:
[an error occurred while processing this directive]

John E. Sununu, a Republican elected in 2002 when he defeated the state's senior senator and its governor, is the youngest member of the Senate. He grew up in Salem, on the Massachusetts border, one of eight children of John H. Sununu, who was elected to the first of three terms as governor in 1982 and served as White House chief of staff from 1989 to 1991. The younger Sununu graduated from M.I.T. and, like George W. Bush, got an M.B.A. at Harvard. He worked as an engineer for a microwave manufacturer, a high-tech consulting firm, the building automation manager Teletrol and as a consultant for JHS Associates. In April 1996, when Congressman Bill Zeliff announced for governor, Sununu and seven other Republicans got into the House race; Sununu won with 28% of the vote. In the general, Sununu faced Joe Keefe, former state Democratic chairman, who had run twice before in the district and who, with help from PACs, raised more money than Sununu. This was also a close race but Sununu won 50%-47%.

In the House, Sununu compiled a conservative voting record and climbed to important positions on the Appropriations and Budget Committees. In 2002, Republican incumbent Bob Smith was obviously vulnerable in the primary and seemed likely to lose the general election. How a New Hampshire Republican got himself into this predicament is an interesting tale. Smith, a fervent opponent of abortion, ran for the Senate in 1990 and won the general election 65%-32%. In 1996 Smith had well-financed competition from former Democratic Congressman Dick Swett. Smith won by only 49%-46%; he had a near-political-death experience on election night when the VNS exit poll declared him the loser (New Hampshire exit polls have leaned Democratic since 1988). Astonishingly, Smith proceeded to run for president. What prompted him to think he would make a plausible candidate is not clear: he had no executive experience in government and no major legislative achievement. His standing with New Hampshire voters was shaky and support from his colleagues was nonexistent. He spent much time on the road in 1997 and 1998 and became the first candidate to formally announce for the presidency in February 1999. Much of the buzz in New Hampshire was hostile, and many feared his presence would drive out other presidential contenders, and thus reduce the importance of New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary. In July 1999 Smith rose on the Senate floor and made a 50-minute speech announcing that he was leaving the Republican party and would run for president as an independent or third party candidate. Senate Republican leaders allowed him to keep his committee seats and seniority. Then in October 1999 Senator John Chafee died; he was chairman of the Environment and Public Works Committee and Smith held the next-ranking Republican seat. Four days later Smith abandoned his presidential candidacy, saying he could not raise enough money, and on November 1 he announced he was a Republican again. A day later he became chairman of the Environment Committee. Previously, his record on the committee had been solidly conservative, while his efforts as a subcommittee chairman to change the troubled Superfund program had gone nowhere. Now he took liberal stands on environmental issues, including opposing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

By early 2001 New Hampshire polls showed Smith trailing Governor Jeanne Shaheen in the general election and Sununu in the primary; they also showed Sununu ahead of Shaheen. The Bush White House was officially on Smith's side: Dick Cheney assured him that the White House backed all incumbent Republican senators in March 2001. But Republican consultants believed that only a Sununu win in the primary could save the seat, and the White House appears to have made no attempt to persuade Sununu not to run. In October 2001 Sununu announced he was running for the Senate. Smith argued that with his seniority it would be a "serious matter" for Republicans to reject him. Sununu's argument was that he was the only one who could win. Smith's response: "The 1st District House seat is now in jeopardy. He's risking the president's agenda by running in this race. He's risking the Senate race because we have to spend money against each other and Shaheen is piling the money in the bank. So we could lose the House seat and the Senate seat. It wasn't me who did that." These arguments were undoubtedly dispositive for most primary voters, since the candidates disagreed on only a few issues--normal trade relations with China and ANWR oil drilling, both of which Smith opposed and Sununu favored.

It is highly unusual for leaders of both parties to refuse to support, much less oppose, one of their incumbents in a primary. But there were signs that even leaders officially on Smith's side were lukewarm in their support. Presidential adviser Karl Rove attended a Smith fundraiser, but White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card, who knew the Sununus for 30 years, endorsed Sununu. Majority Leader Trent Lott attended two Smith fundraisers but in April 2002 attended a Sununu fundraiser. Senate Republican campaign committee chairman Bill Frist said he supported Smith, but in October 2001 Smith upbraided him in the cloakroom for not supporting him strongly enough. Richard Shelby and Christopher Bond endorsed Sununu early on. Chuck Hagel sent $2,500 to both candidates. Judd Gregg, Smith's New Hampshire colleague for 10 years, said he was neutral. The House Republican leadership held a fundraiser for Sununu. The Manchester Union Leader endorsed Sununu. Despite all his support from leading Republicans, Sununu raised far less money than Smith, who raised much by direct mail; altogether Smith raised $3.8 million and Sununu $1.5 million.

A few differences on issues surfaced during the long campaign up to the September primary. One was policy in the Middle East. Sununu is of Lebanese descent, and was one of the few Republicans to vote against recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. The weekend before the primary, Smith ran an ad saying that Sununu voted to let terrorist suspects stay in the United States; Sununu replied that someone granted permanent residency status has rights under the Constitution. New Hampshire polls often produce conflicting results, as close observers of New Hampshire presidential primaries know. In the weeks before the September 10 primary, one New Hampshire poll showed the race even and one showed Sununu with a 22% lead. Both turned out to be wrong. Turnout was a record high and Sununu won 53%-45%. Sununu carried every county and even carried Smith's hometown. Smith made a gracious concession statement and endorsed Sununu.

Now, having beaten New Hampshire's senior senator, Sununu faced New Hampshire's governor, Jeanne Shaheen. The Senate Republican campaign committee had been running ads against Shaheen since the spring, focusing especially on education funding. This had been the central issue of her governorship. She was proud of extending kindergarten, regulating HMOs and joining the tri-state pool (with Maine and Vermont) to purchase prescription drugs at discount. But the real problem was how to respond to the state supreme court decision outlawing New Hampshire's local-based school financing. In 1999, when the legislature, with a Democratic state Senate for the first time in years, seemed on the verge of passing an income tax, she announced that she would veto it. Instead, the legislature passed a temporary statewide property tax, plus business tax increases. But this did not solve the problem permanently. In 2000 Shaheen declined to take the pledge to oppose income and sales taxes and was whipsawed on both sides. She won the Democratic primary by only 61%-38%, an unusually low primary showing for an incumbent governor, and in November beat state Senator (and former U.S. Senator) Gordon Humphrey by only 49%-44%.

Shaheen ran as a moderate on key issues. She said she supported the 2001 Bush tax cut and in October 2002 came out staunchly for the Iraq war resolution. She emphasized her support of abortion rights and with help from EMILY's List and other feminist groups and from likely presidential candidates she raised far more money than Sununu. She attacked Sununu for supporting "privatization" of Social Security. He responded with an articulate advocacy of voluntary individual investment accounts as part of Social Security--"modernization", as he put it.

In late September, supporters of Bob Smith launched a write-in campaign for him; eventually three different groups announced Smith write-in campaigns. In the end Smith got only 2,396 write-in votes and is now in the private sector; he mulled running for the Senate in 2004 in Florida.

The polls tightened in late October and national Democrats started to count this seat as a pickup. But the New Hampshire tax issue may have hurt Shaheen. She was on record in support of a sales tax and she was, necessarily, supporting gubernatorial nominee Mark Fernald, an outspoken advocate of an income tax. Fernald was defeated 59%-38% and Sununu defeated Shaheen 51%-47%. His margin was nearly 20,000 votes--eight times as great as the number of Smith write-ins.

In the Senate Sununu has a generally conservative voting record but has not supported the Bush administration all the time. In 2003 he voted against the Medicare/prescription drug bill as overexpensive and opposed the energy bill, partly because it barred a lawsuit by New Hampshire against the manufacturers of the gasoline additive MTBE, which caused environmental damage. He also criticized its "tax-and-spend provisions that cater to unique and narrowly defined business activities" and doubling of ethanol subsidies. With Congressman Paul Ryan he sponsored a version of voluntary personal retirement accounts as part of Social Security. Drawing on his own advocacy of that in the 2002 campaign, he said, "Every candidate that I know of that's been in a campaign where they have stood for the status quo … they've lost." On the Commerce committee he was active on telecom issues. The New Hampshire and Vermont senators sponsored a bill to change TV market definitions in small states so that satellite TV could carry more local stations. Sununu pushed for a bill providing federal and eliminating state regulation of Voice over Internet Protocol phone service. But in the July 2004 markup, Byron Dorgan and Conrad Burns amended it with provisions allowing states to enact universal service fees, requirements to carry 911 and taxes on providers. Sununu said, "This in effect guts the bill by turning back to state commissions all the powers they have over traditional phone service. This takes us 180 degrees in the wrong direction." He sponsored a similar bill in 2005. In December 2004 Sununu predicted that the Senate would pass a major telecom bill, and hoped it would create a framework to encourage Internet and voice data transmission. But he called for changes in the universal service formula.

Sununu surprised some cultural conservatives in July 2004 when he voted against the constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage (he said it should be a state issue unless courts overturn the Defense of Marriage Act) and in December 2004 when he opposed the House's uniform driver's license standards in the intelligence reorganization bill (he said there shouldn't be federal standards). With Larry Craig, he sponsored a bill to change some provisions of the Patriot Act, to require notification of sneak-and-peek search warrants within seven days, to require roving wiretaps to specify a specific suspect or location and to add sunsets to several provisions. With Chuck Hagel and Elizabeth Dole he sponsored a bill in January 2005 to create a tougher federal regulator for government sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, with the power to shut down GSEs, to raise capital standards and to have approval rights over new programs and activities. He was one of three senators to vote against a resolution commending Israel's Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's proposed withdrawal from the Gaza strip; he said his ethnic background "has given me maybe a natural and personal interest in the region and in the peace process in particular."

Committees

• Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs: Financial Institutions; International Trade & Finance; Securities & Investment.
• Commerce, Science & Transportation: Aviation; Fisheries & the Coast Guard; National Ocean Policy Study (Chmn.); Science & Space; Surface Transportation & Merchant Marine; Technology, Innovation & Competitiveness; Trade, Tourism & Economic Development.
• Foreign Relations: African Affairs; International Operations & Terrorism (Chmn.); Near Eastern & South Asian Affairs; Western Hemisphere, Peace Corps & Narcotics Affairs.
• Joint Economic Committee (3d of 10 Sens.).

Group Ratings (More Info)
	ADA	ACLU	AFS	LCV	ITIC	NTU	COC	ACU	NTLC	CHC
2004	10	38	0	17	91	82	93	100	95	100	--
2003	15	--	0	42	--	85	83	95	--	--	--

National Journal Ratings (More Info)
	2003 LIB	--	2003 CONS		2004 LIB	--	2004 CONS
Economic	44%	--	55%		9%	--	90%
Social	41%	--	57%		31%	--	66%
Foreign	32%	--	65%		40%	--	58%
For National Journal's complete 2004 Vote Ratings, as well as previous ratings dating back to 1995, please click here.

Key Votes Of The 108th Congress (More Info)
1. Ban Drilling in ANWR N 2. Approve Bush Tax Cuts Y 3. Medicare/Rx Bill N 4. Bar Overtime Pay Regs. N 5. Energy Bill N 6. Support Roe v. Wade N		7. Ban Partial-Birth Abortion Y  8. Assault Weapons Ban N  9. Ban Same-Sex Marriage N 10. Ban Bunker-Buster Bomb N 11. Fund Iraq War Y 12. Restrict Missile Defense N

Election Results (More Info)
	Candidate	Total Votes	Percent	Expenditures
2002 general	John Sununu (R)	227,229	51%	$3,545,925
	Jeanne Shaheen (D)	207,478	47%	$5,821,219
	Other	12,428	3%
2002 primary	John Sununu (R)	81,920	53%
	Bob Smith (R)	68,608	45%
	Other	2,694	2%
Prior winning percentages: 2000 House (53%); 1998 House (67%); 1996 House (50%)