Newly re-elected, NH Congressman Paul Hodes figures

prominently in a national profile about who will become the next

“bad cop’’ now that Illinois Congressman Rahm Emmanuel will

become White House chief of staff.

    “The Hill” story relates an exchange with Hodes who was feeling

pretty good about having been able to return the dog of a soldier

killed in Iraq to his New Hampshire family.

     “Good job. Now what have you done for your other 649,000

constituents?’’ Emmanuel demanded.

     Hodes served as president of the freshman class, a group that

Emmanuel kept close tabs on since he had engineered the

Democratic takeover of the House as chairman of the House

Congressional Campaign Committee.

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   The fifth-top ranking Democrat in the state House of Representatives has emerged as a contender to be a US marshal in the Barack Obama administration.

   Penacook Democratic State Rep. Steve Shurtleff confirmed that he’s interested in replacing former Goffstown Police Chief Steve Monier who was the New Hampshire’s marshal for most of President George W. Bush’s eight years in office.

    Shurtleff is a 26-year veteran of the marshal service and rose up to the rank of supervisory deputy under Marshal Raymond Gagnon during Bill Clinton’s years in the White House.

    Some had assumed given his federal retirement that Shurtleff, 61, wasn’t looking to get back into federal employ but he’d take the assignment if asked to.

    Shurtleff, a Concord native and Concord City Councilor, is an assistant majority leader who would have to leave his House seat if given the federal post.

    Another lawmaker some Democrats are talking up is House Majority Floor Leader Daniel Eaton, D-Stoddard, who served as a small town police chief for many years in Cheshire County.

    Other Democrats were talking up State Police Sgt. Bruce Twyon who is on Gov. John Lynch’s security detail but Twyon is staying put in state services, sources said.

    The New Hampshire Troopers Assocaition does not often take part in federal races and even in state ones is not considered a lock for the Democrats every two years.

     Most recently, the State Troopers Association supported Republican Gov. Craig Benson during his successful bid in 2002 but abandoned him two years later in favor of Democrat and now-Gov. John Lynch.

     Union president Lou Caponi credited Shaheen as governor with seeking legislation that stiffened penalties against those who risk law enforcement by committing hoaxes and protecting the rights of troopers to not lose sick leave if they suffered from a serious injury or illness.

  Labor, social and environmental groups weighed in during recent days with independent expenditures for Democrat Jeanne Shaheen or against Republican John Sununu.

    The Service Employees International Union dropped the biggest bomb, $53,305 for the printing and mailing costs for a hit Sununu piece.

    The League of Conservation Voters reported doing canvassing on Shaheen’s behalf and the Human Rights Campaign for equality of gays and lesbians did their own printing of a “magazine” to come out with their endorsement of the former Democratic Gov. Shaheen.

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   Rolling Stone magazine takes the bark of the Republican presidential nominee John McCain with its cover story entitled,“Make Believe Maverick.”

   Naturally, there’s a New Hampshire connection since o ne of his former colleagues, ex-NH Sen. Bob Smith joins a trio of GOP senators who suggest McCain lacks the temperament to be commander in chief.

    This dovetails nicely with the new, tougher line of attack from Democratic nominee Barack Obama that dubs McCain as “erratic.”

   “At least three of McCain’s GOP colleagues have gone on record to say that they consider him temperamentally unsuited to be commander in chief. Smith, the former senator from New Hampshire, has said that McCain’s “temper would place this country at risk in international affairs, and the world perhaps in danger. In my mind, it should disqualify him.”

     This has to hurt McCain who worked with Smith for years on Vietnam normalization and getting answers on the status of POW-MIAs.

     It could have been worse. MS Sen. Thad Cochran said of McCain, “He is erratic. He is hotheaded.”

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 Democrat Barack Obama’s presidential campaign was anxious Tuesday to send the message that the Illinois senator wants a solution to the stalemate over a Wall Street bailout soon.

   That’s why he will dispatch Whittemore School Professor and New England Economy Project chief Ross Gittell to warn New Hampshire citizens that even though the trickle down of the credit vice hasn’t fully hit the local market, it’s only a matter of time if Congress continues to keep fumbling this one.

    Gittell does a conference call with Obama economic experts Wednesday morning.

    Meanwhile, New Hampshire Democratic Congressman Paul Hodes said that leaders of the state community banks and credit unions assured him that while there was a sense of urgency, the area lenders are not in the “crisis mode here just yet.”

    Hodes and fellow, first-term Rep. Carol Shea-Porter, were among the 95 Democrats who opposed the bill.  Hodes noted that New Hampshire Republican Senator Judd Gregg, a lead negotiator on the asset buyout plan, had described it as a tourniquet to be applied to a seriously ill patient.

    “I am afraid it is more like a band-aid without a lot of stickem,” Hodes quipped.

     While back in the district for the Rosh Hashana holiday, Hodes said he’s met with accountants, economist, professors, lawyers and Wall Street financeers.

     “I am working to get my ideas in a form I can communicate them along with my concerns in a comprehensive way,” Hodes explained.  “We need to do something but we need to do it right.”

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  Former Congressman Jeb Bradley, R-NH, recently got some welcome news as he seeks to avenge his 2006 defeat to Democrat Carol Shea-Porter.

   After plenty of prodding, the Republican Congressional Campaign Committee is financially weighing in on Bradley’s behalf, helping to finance part of an $84,000 advertising buy on WMUR-TV in the coming week.

    Now, the ex-two term Republican has got a long way to go since we first reported last month the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee had blocked off $1 million worth of time and reportedly most of it dedicated to this targeted, First District race.

    But Bradley’s designs on getting back the seat rested in part with getting a national, GOP lifeline to this race and the first donation of any general election campaign is always the toughest to get.

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  The new wrinkle with the NH Republican State Committee was turning the public service into a hit mail piece.

   “Vote to protect your family from higher taxes,” the mailer cries.

    It goes on to list the GOP talking points about Democratic votes in Congress for higher taxes and against oil and gas subsidies that GOP leaders claim will raise gas prices.

    While a third of the vote may be cast nationally before Nov. 4 thanks to voting by mail and other state laws, New Hampshire doesn’t allow anyone to vote absentee by convenience but the mailing does give both parties a sign of voter intensity for this election.

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A chorus of Stephen supporters from The Union-Leader of New Hampshire and ex-Gov. Craig Benson to Manchester Mayor Frank Giunta had demanded last week that Bradley pull down the ad.

Instead, Bradley tacked on a Foster’s Daily Democrat quote from Stephen who said the lawsuit from county officials about a revamping of county-state cost sharing under Medicaid was “not my problem.”

Meanwhile, the only Stephen TV commercial on air for two weeks has been an attack spot against Bradley for past opposition to drilling offshore for oil and supporting deficit spending while in the U.S. House.

Over the holiday weekend,  Stephen picked up the endorsement of the Portsmouth Herald.

The two will tangle in their only televised debate Thursday night at 8 p.m. on WMUR-TV.

    Clegg lost more than 100 pounds after having weight-loss surgery in Boston a year ago and convinced the Legislature this spring to mandate health insurance companies cover the procedure.

     Clegg’s favorite presidential candidate, ex-AK Gov. Mike Huckabee [-] is also taking part in the conference.

     Prior to the invite, Clegg said he wasn’t going to the convention since it would interfere with run-up campaigning to next Tuesday’s primary. 

    GOP opponent Grant Bosse of Hillsboro lobbied against Clegg’s bill and issued a statement today attacking it as Gov. “John Lynch’s legislation” even though the Democratic governor refused to sign the bill and had let it become law without his signature.

    “I’m thrilled that Bob had bariatric surgery.  It probably saved his life.  But just because it was right for Bob Clegg doesn’t mean government should mandate it for the rest of us,” Bosse said

     ““We can’t afford Bob Clegg’s big government health care plan, in New Hampshire or in Congress.”

     In other news, the Concord Monitor endorsed Bosse’s candidacy on Sunday.

     The four best-known hopefuls in the Second District [-] ex-Nashua talk show host Jennifer Horn, Concord lawyer James Steiner, Clegg and Boss [-] will take part in the only televised primary debate Thursday night on WMUR-TV at 9 p.m.  The fifth candidate, retired engineer Alfred L’Eplattenier of Rindge [-] was not invited.

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