From the Valley News

This week's Primary Source column in the Valley News explains why we should expect different results in 2008 than in 2006:

Numbers Game

New Hampshire Democrats were exuberant about their sweeping gains in the 2006 elections, but some savvy Republicans are pointing out that turnout in a presidential election year may be the key factor in November.

Grant Bosse, a former Sununu aide who is one of four Republicans running to unseat U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes, D-N.H., notes that more than 327,000 voters turned out in the 2004 2nd District congressional race, which coincided with the John Kerry-George Bush contest. By contrast, only about 205,000 people voted in 2006, an off-year election.

Hodes actually won more votes in 2004 (125,280) when he lost to then-incumbent Charlie Bass, than Hodes won in 2006 (108,743) when he defeated Bass in a rematch.

“My main point is the Democrats didn't necessarily get all sorts of new voters out. The point is Republican voters stayed home,” Bosse said of 2006.