The Republican field in the U.S. Senate race is getting crowded.

So far, Kelly Ayotte is the only announced Republican candidate, with Ovide Lamontagne, Sean Mahoney and businessman Bill Binnie as possible challengers.

Now, Jim Bender looks increasingly likely to jump in.

Bender, a 56-year-old businessman from Hollis, has sent up an exploratory committee, a website and a YouTube channel. He has been making the rounds of state Republican events.

Bender is campaigning on a platform of reducing federal spending, simplifying government regulations - including the tax code - and instituting Congressional term limits. (Yes, he would abide by that himself and serve only two terms.) On Friday, Bender sent a letter to hundreds of friends stating that he is "actively exploring" a Senate run. "(My wife) Susan and I are taking on this challenge, because our government spends too much, taxes too much, wastes too much and borrows too much," he wrote. "It is inefficient at most everything it does, and it is much too big."

Bender, who has an MBA from Harvard Business School, drew on his experience as a businessman turning around companies. He wrote that he would fight against the "sense of entitlement" in Congress.

Bender helped start a personal computer peripherals business called IDEA, which took in $25 million in revenue within three years, he wrote on his website. He is the former president of Logicraft, a network server company that he ran for eight years and then sold.

He summed up his views this way at a recent Harvard University panel discussion: "If the United States government were a business, we'd almost certainly be in Chapter 11 (bankruptcy) right now."

Senate fundraising

In the Senate race, the candidates' full financial disclosure forms were released this week.

State Democrats note that Ayotte received approximately $100,000 in contributions from "the PACs of DC Republicans" - including Rick Santorum, John Cornyn, Trent Lott, Mitch McConnell and Jon Kyl. In a conference call with reporters, former state Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan cited some of the politicians' more conservative positions - Kyl's opposition to extending unemployment benefits, Cornyn's opposition to environmental regulations and Santorum's votes against minimum wage increases. "Kelly Ayotte is being supported by extremist Republicans who do not share New Hampshire values," Sullivan said. "Why is she accepting their support? Why are they supporting her?"

Ayotte campaign manager Brooks Kochvar responded that Ayotte raised $360,000 from New Hampshire residents this quarter - which is more than U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes raised from New Hampshire in the entire first half of the year. "Hodes never met a liberal special interest group he didn't like," Kochvar said.

Kochvar said Hodes took money from U.S. Rep. Charlie Rangel, who is under investigation for tax issues. State Republican Party spokesman Ryan Williams added that Hodes is being supported by Washington insiders including Sens. Harry Reid and Dick Durbin.

"Hodes will have to answer to why he's receiving so much fundraising assistance from Democrats in Washington who are bankrupting America with reckless spending," Williams said.

New think tank

Single page