Morrissey: Decision day in New Hampshire

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An excerpt from Captain Ed's Hot Air op-ed on today's New Hampshire GOP primary:

With all of the heat and light on Delaware today, some may be forgiven for missing the well-contested primary in New Hampshire that concludes today, for the open Senate seat vacated by Judd Gregg’s retirement. Despite the apparent late entry of Democrat Paul “Hot Dog” Hodes, the race actually includes Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, attorney Ovide Lamontagne, and businessman Bill Binnie. Ayotte got an early endorsement from Sarah Palin, but the Tea Party lined up behind Lamontagne, and the race has become tight between the two, close to a virtual tie according to the Union Leader poll yesterday.

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Unlike Delaware, Granite State voters have a choice of two good candidates in this race. Lamontagne toured Blogger Row at CPAC and was impressive. Ayotte, however... has good polling against Hodes; Rasmussen shows Ayotte up 13 in a head-to-head race, although that was from five weeks ago. They didn’t poll Lamontagne in the survey, so it’s impossible to see how he would do against the two-term Congressman. Binnie beat Hodes by six, but as the Union-Leader reports, Binnie has fallen far off the pace in the last few weeks.

In this circumstance, either of the two Republican front runners would probably do well. Ayotte would be the safer pick and has better fundraising success for the general election, but it should be relatively easy for Republicans to unite around the winner in New Hampshire — certainly easier than in Delaware.

A HA reader tells Ed that turnout in NH appears to be heavy today. The full Ed Morrissey opinion piece is here.

- JP