NH Dems face fire on ObamaCare

Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-N.H.) is facing fire from Republicans over comments she made to President Obama calling for the resignation of administration officials over the botched rollout of ObamaCare.

{mosads}National Republican Congressional Committee spokesman Ian Prior pointed to comments Shea-Porter made, reported in The Wall Street Journal, in a meeting with Obama suggesting “some people should tender their resignations” over the rollout of the health care law.

Prior suggested her comments were “laughable and hypocritical” because Shea-Porter, like other Democrats, has supported the law and opposed Republican efforts to delay its implementation.

“If Shea-Porter is looking for someone to resign because of Obamacare, she should take a look in the mirror and call it quits herself,” Prior said.

The Republican attacks come as new polling shows Shea-Porter and her fellow New Hampshire Democratic congresswoman, Rep. Ann Kuster, locked in tight battles for reelection.

The WMUR Granite State poll, from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, shows former GOP Rep. Frank Guinta (R-N.H.) taking 45 percent support among likely voters in the district, while Shea-Porter has 39 percent support.

That’s a reversal from a UNH poll conducted in October, when Shea-Porter led Guinta by 16 points with 48 percent of the vote.

In New Hampshire’s 2nd District, Kuster leads the GOP front-runner, former state Sen. Gary Lambert, by only 4 percentage points, with the support of 38 percent of likely voters. That’s actually a slight increase for Kuster from October, when she had 33 percent support, while Lambert is holding steady at 34 percent support.

The troubling poll numbers follow a barrage of attacks from a prominent Republican outside group, Americans for Prosperity, which has spent more than $1.5 million since August on attacks in the state hammering the two congresswoman, as well as Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D), on ObamaCare.

The WMUR poll also showed the law’s numbers tanking in New Hampshire. For the first time since October of 2011, a majority of those polled, 53 percent, oppose the law, and only 34 percent favor it. That’s a drop from 40 percent approval and 47 percent disaproval in October.

The results are bad news for New Hampshire Democrats. Both Kuster and Shea-Porter are considered vulnerable heading into 2014, though Shea-Porter, facing a rematch with Guinta, is seen as the weaker of the two.

The UNH Survey Center surveyed 304 residents of New Hampshire’s First District and 280 from the Second District from Jan. 21-26, and the poll had a margin of error of plus or minus 5.9 percentage points.