NH-Sen: Gov. Lynch Won't Run Against Gregg

Gov. John Lynch (D-NH) announced today that he will not be challenging incumbent Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH) for his Senate seat in 2010. Lynch was widely thought of as the DSCC's dream candidate to take on Gregg.

“I can tell you that although I don’t know what I’ll be doing in 2010, I’m not going to run for the United States Senate. So, that shouldn’t be a distraction as I continue to work on the budget,” Lynch told the New Hampshire Union-Leader at a press conference this afternoon.

Lynch is serving his third two-year term as governor, and was reelected to that position with 70% of the vote in 2008.

Now the two leading Democratic candidates to challenge Gregg are the state's two representatives, Paul Hodes and Carol Shea-Porter, who are both still deciding whether to run. An ARG poll shows that Hodes would be the stronger candidate of the two, so he will probably be the DSCC's top pick for this race.