Baldasaro, Lundgren Tops in GOP Rep Race

Londonderry's Republican candidates for the state representative faced off Tuesday night, with 10 candidates vying for seven spots.

Rep. Al Baldasaro came out ahead at the polls, with 1,627 votes. Baldasaro is currently serving his third term in the House.

"I was shocked," said Baldasaro after the primary results were announced. "I was thinking I'd maybe come in second or third because we have such good candidates. We're all good together as a team."

Rep. David Lundgren took the second spot in Tuesday's primary with 1,467 votes, followed by Robert Introne with 1,376 votes.

Rep. Daniel Tamburello, who is seeking a second term, said he was pleased with his 1,103 votes Tuesday night. Tamburello came in fourth on the Republican side.

"I'm happy with that," he said. "I moved up a few notches from the last time, so I think it's respectable." Tamburello said he narrowly secured his spot during his first primary election.

"I feel that the voters are paying attention to how I vote and what I say and what I do, and they like what they see," he said. "I will continue to be who I am."

Tuesday brought a disappointing loss for Rep. Karen Keegan-Hutchinson, who has served 10 terms in the House. She garnered just 778 votes on Tuesday, ninth in the group of 10 candidates.

Keegan-Hutchinson blamed her defeat on last-minute mailings that she said targeted her directly. She said the two mailings funded by out-of-town groups inaccurately characterized her voting record.

"I'm sad and disappointed, but with these bogus mailings, I'm not surprised," she said Tuesday after the election results were announced. "I had no time to retaliate and it made a lot of difference."

Though she won't be joining them again them in Concord, Keegan-Hutchinson said she's confident in her fellow Republicans.

"They are all good people and I know they are going to work very hard for the constituency," she said.

And with his primary lead in hand, Baldasaro said he's confident that work will begin soon.

"For me, it will be business as usual," he said. "The day after the election is over, we'll continue to move forward as a Legislature."

But first, Baldasaro and the other Republican candidates will need to beat out the Democrats. There were just five Democratic candidates for state representative on the ballot Tuesday.

With an uncontested primary race, Democratic candidate Edward Combes said he's been saving up for the general election.

"Now we'll start doing a huge sign campaign," he said Tuesday. "We saved money up to now because we didn't want to spend money if we didn't need to."

The general election will be held on Nov. 6.