New Hampshire Senate Election 2010: Two GOP Challengers Ayotte & Binnie Lead Democrat Hodes by Double Digits

Barack Obama … a negative effect in New Hampshire.

The New Hampshire Senate race to fill the seat for the outgoing Republican Senator Judd Gregg has two Republicans, Attorney General Kelly Ayott and businessman Bill Binnie ahead of Democrat Paul Hodes by 10% points.  It would appear that Republicans will hold on to the Granite state US Senate seat even though in 2008 Barack Obama carried NH with 54% of the vote.

Two Republican hopefuls now post 10-point leads over likely Democratic nominee Paul Hodes in New Hampshire’s U.S. Senate race.

A new Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in the state again finds former Attorney General Kelly Ayotte leading Hodes, who has no major challengers for his party’s Senate nomination. This time, she posts a 47% to 37% lead over Hodes. Four percent (4%) prefer some other candidate, and 12% are undecided.

But now businessman Bill Binnie, a political unknown who has introduced himself to the state largely through television advertising, leads Hodes 46% to 36%. Four percent (4%) favor another candidate. Fourteen percent (14%) are undecided.

The negative Obama factor in the ‘Live Free or Die’ state.

• Obama won state with 54% of vote, but presently only 48% of the state’s voters now approve of his performance as president.
• 37% say President Obama is doing a good job on the health care reform issue, 49% rate his performance in this area as poor.