Cohen(D) drops out of US Senate bid in NH

[cjbuchanan]

State Sen. Burt Cohen (D-New Castle) is ending his bid for the U.S. Senate just one day before the period for candidates for that office to sign up ends.

"Burt Cohen will not be filing for the U.S. Senate," Cohen spokeswoman Meghan Scott said. "There is a situation with the campaign and we thought that it would be unfair to the party to continue."

link: http://www.politicsnh.com/archives/pindell/2004/June/6_10cohen.shtml

So what do you think the situation might be?

[FightinNewDem]

1. Curiouser and Curiouser...and Curiouser!

There's something else at work here, but I haven't figured it out...and that's after speaking to Sen. Cohen earlier this evening.

Burt is emotionally devestated by this. His announcement last week was a big success, and he seemed to be getting under Gregg's skin. Things had been picking up.

So, what next? Kathy Sullivan allegedly has a list of four possible replacements. My guess is that the list might include Bill Shaheen, Peter Burling, Lou D'Allesandro Phil McLaughlin, Joe Keefe, plus perhaps Jim Normand, Sylvia Larsen and George Bruno.

Not exactly an inspiring bunch, is it :boring:? This is what happens when the party becomes insular and fails to build a strong bench. The "successor generation" of candidates (Steve Marchand, Maggie Hassan, Joe Foster, Peter Sullivan, John DeJoie) isn't quite ready, and the other names seem tired and stale.

[cjbuchanan]

2. I was wondering

I had heard that he had a good start for a rough race. You say you talked with him, any other information you can pass our way. I was very, very surprised to hear about this.

Thanks.

[FightinNewDem]

3. I was stunned

Just the other day I spoke with the campaign staff about moving some surplus office furniture from the old Lieberman headquarters over to Burt's new field office a few blocks away. Nothing seemed out of sorts until this afternoon, when the staff apparently began clearing their schedules and cancelling meetings.

Burt seemed pretty rattled, so whatever this is, it's serious. Burt's been in the political game long enough to know the difference between minor silliness and something big, so I have to believe that this was not a triffling matter.

It's a shame. While Burt is ideologically well to my left, I respect the good work he has done in the state senate, especially on environmental issues, and I consider him a friend. He candidacy would have done the party a service by engaging the Dean/Kucinich liberals, who aren't a natural fit for either of the two gubernatorial candidates.