Lynch, Sununu, Shaheen easily fend off party challenges

Two-term Democratic Gov. John Lynch easily defeated retired school teacher Kathryn "Katy" Forry, who challenged the popular governor to give voters a choice over an income tax.

In November, Lynch will face Republican state Sen. Joe Kenney, who was unopposed in his primary, and Libertarian Susan Newell of Winchester. Lynch and Kenney both oppose a sales or income tax.

Forry, 67, of Jaffrey, argued taxing income is fairer than continuing New Hampshire's over-reliance on property taxes to pay for public schools.

Lynch, 55, of Hopkinton, has pledged to veto income and sales taxes and reiterated that vow for this election.

"Our families are feeling the impact of the downturn in the national economy," Lynch said in his victory speech in Manchester. "They are worried about how they will stretch their budgets to pay the rising costs of fuel and food. They are worried about keeping their jobs and their homes. Now more than ever, our families need a governor who is listening to them, working for them, standing up for them."

Meanwhile, Republican Sen. John Sununu and Democrat Jeanne Shaheen defeated little-known challengers in their respective primaries, making their head-to-head race for the U.S. Senate official.

Lopsided early returns showed Sununu defeating former state Rep. Tom Alciere, a circuit board inspector from Hudson, and Shaheen beating Ray Stebbins, a Massachusetts lawyer who moved to Nashua four months ago. Libertarian Ken Blevens of Bow also will be on the November ballot.

Sununu and Shaheen had focused on each other from the beginning and kept at it yesterday.

"If folks want to continue the status quo, then they want to support John Sununu, because he has voted with George Bush 90 percent of the time," Shaheen said in a phone interview. "He has supported the policies that have gotten us to where we are today."

Sununu stood by his record.

"Everyone understands that Washington is broken, but even in that environment, I've been able to write and pass legislation that's important to New Hampshire," he said, also by phone.

Sununu, then a congressman, beat Shaheen, then the governor, by 4 percentage points in 2002. But Sununu now is considered one of the nation's most vulnerable Senate incumbents, in large part because the state has shifted hard toward Democrats in recent years. Shaheen hopes to capitalize on that by linking Sununu to the unpopular president.