As the war in Iraq rages on, it's made Sen. John Sununu vulnerable. New Hampshire's junior senator, who is up for re-election next year, voted as a congressman to authorize the war and has supported it in numerous Senate votes since.

Many Democrats believe their best hope in the race is Jeanne Shaheen, the former Democratic governor who narrowly lost to Sununu in 2002. There's reason to believe 2008 could be different: A recent ARG poll had Shaheen beating Sununu, 57-29 percent. Iraq is likely driving that: Polls also show that less than 40 percent of Granite Staters now think the invasion was a good idea.

But if there is a Sununu-Shaheen rematch next year, Iraq - which was almost a non-issue in the 2002 campaign - may haunt both.

In debates and statements in 2002, both backed authorizing President Bush to go to war. In October 2002, the Union-Leader quoted Shaheen urging Senate leaders to pass the war resolution, saying: "I want to reiterate my support for President Bush's goals for regime change in Iraq."

Political observers said Sununu won't let Shaheen forget that. "For Sen. Sununu, what he needs to do is really just hang that support of the war on her and say 'You were right there with me,' " said Wayne Lesperance, an associate professor of political science at New England College.

But, experts said, that doesn't mean Shaheen and Sununu are on equal footing when it comes to the war: He's the one who voted for it and who has been in the Senate for six years providing oversight and funding.

Strategist and blogger David Sirota, who worked for Connecticut Senate candidate Ned Lamont and has been sharply critical of some Democrats on Iraq, said Shaheen's best bet is to deal with her 2002 stance head-on. Many Americans are in the same boat with Shaheen, he said.

"If I'm Jeanne Shaheen, I have to say: 'I have the independence to know I felt this country was misled, I was misled, we made a wrong choice and I'm a big enough person to say it was a wrong choice,' " he said. "And you, John Sununu, are such a stooge for George Bush that you can't even admit what the vast majority of Americans think was a mistake."

Of course, talk of a rematch may be premature. Shaheen is mulling a run but hasn't decided or even said when she'll decide, her husband Bill Shaheen said. Meanwhile, a "Draft Shaheen" campaign founded by former Democratic Party Chairwoman Kathy Sullivan is already humming, with a staffer and website.

Since the authorization debate, five years have passed, pointed out Dante Scala, an associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. "I think she would say something to the effect now: If I had been in office, I wouldn't have been a rubber stamp," Scala said.

Bill Shaheen seemed to agree with that, saying his wife would have provided fierce oversight if she had been in the Senate instead of Sununu. "I can tell you: Once Jeannie finds out you lied to her, watch out. Watch out. She doesn't take lying easy, so everything the CIA did, watch out. The yellowcake lie, the WMD lie, there have been so many lies that John Sununu just overlooked," he said.

Jeanne Shaheen didn't return a call yesterday, and neither did Katrina Swett, the best-funded of the announced Democratic candidates for Sununu's seat. Swett, too, may face hurdles in making Iraq an issue. In 2002, challenging then-Republican representative Charlie Bass for his seat in Congress, Swett supported the war, telling the Associated Press that "we can't wait until it's too late."

Portsmouth Mayor Steve Marchand and Dartmouth medical professor Jay Buckey are also in the running for the Democratic nomination.

Current debate

Meanwhile, this week, debate in Washington was intense over a bevy of Iraq bills. Sununu and fellow New Hampshire Republican Sen. Judd Gregg have backed a bill that would enact suggestions made by the Iraq Study Group, including a nonbinding withdrawal target of March 2008.

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