New Hampshire's former three-term Democratic governor Jeanne Shaheen has been leading incumbent one-term Republican Senator John Sununu for a long time, although the gap between the two has been narrowing. Here are the polling results summarized by Pollster.com
Sununu's Senate record on opposition to trade barriers and subsidies is excellent. Here's the Cato Institute report (In the Cato figure each axis represents an index that goes from 0% to 100%. The higher an "X" is along the vertical axis the greater the opposition to subsidies, the further an "X" is to the right the greater the opposition to trade barriers):
Sununu was elected to the House in 1996, and his record from 1997 to 2002 is also very good:
A search of the two candidate's web sites, and a Google search, didn't turn up evidence that trade issues have been important in this campaign. Sununu isn't bragging about his attractive record, and Shaheen isn't hammering on a populist program.
Rather than look to protection to generate jobs, Shaheen tends to focus on positive steps about investments in infrastructure and education. Here are some relevant comments culled from her economic plan:
- "To restore our innovation advantage and create the jobs of tomorrow, Jeanne Shaheen believes we need to end tax breaks for companies that send jobs overseas and instead invest in emerging industries..."
- "Jeanne Shaheen understands we can't compete with India and China for low-wage manufacturing jobs. She believes America's future is in maintaining the cutting edge in science and technology, creating new jobs in new industries and giving older industries the tools they need to compete in the global marketplace."
- "A quality, public education system and affordable higher education are essential to giving our children the opportunity to take full advantage of the promise of America. More than that, it is critical to maintaining our competitiveness in the global economy and providing small business with the skilled workforce they need.... We need to make sure all Americans, up and down the economic ladder, can contribute to and benefit from technological advances. Technological advances not only create jobs for highly educated scientists and entrepreneurs, but also create jobs for people installing solar panels, energy efficiency systems, and broadband – jobs that cannot be outsourced overseas."
- "She will lead the fight to reduce health care costs by... and taking on the big drug companies to allow the importation of safe drugs from Canada." (this is form her health care costs position paper).
Shaheen's biography makes two interesting points:
- "Understanding that for New Hampshire’s middle class to prosper we must be able to compete in an increasingly global economy, she was the first New Hampshire Governor to lead a trade mission outside of North America. The trade missions she led generated more than $500 million in projected sales for New Hampshire businesses and the state’s International Trade Resource Center has helped open world markets for dozens of New Hampshire businesses.... Jeanne Shaheen understands the world we live in. As Governor, she led trade missions to England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Germany, Denmark, Mexico and Canada, including the first trade mission from the United States to Canada following September 11th."
- From 2005 to 2007 she was Director of Harvard University’s Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government.
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