Dwyer: 'They'd Build Statues of (Bragdon)'

Despite winning his hometown of Merrimack for the Senate District 11 seat, in Amherst, Milford and Wilton to unseat Senate President Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, for the next two years.

Early on Tuesday, Dwyer said he expected he would need at least 3-1 odds in Merrimack and a decent showing in Amherst, Milford and Wilton to take the seat from Bragdon.

But he netted not quite 60 percent, with 1,271 votes to Bragdon's 900 in Merrimack, and fell short by about 1,100 votes overall.

Dwyer knew it was going to be a more difficult battle in Milford, Amherst and Wilton, the remaining three towns in Hillsborough County's Senate District 11. Bragdon is the incumbent Senator in those three towns and has more name recognition and a history with those constituents, Dwyer said.

In Merrimack, switching to a new Senate District made the contest somewhat of a blank slate.

Dwyer said he campaigned in Milford and Amherst quite a bit over the last couple of months.

“I didn't want people to get into the voting booths and see Dwyer and go, 'huh? Dwyer?' ” he said.

But in the end, it wasn't enough.

Dwyer said the toughest part of the loss was letting down the people who worked on his campaign and those who voted for him.

"They just helped so much and worked so hard, so that's the tough part," Dwyer said. "I had a great team of people working with me and I just think we expected to be stronger in Merrimack."

Leaving the polls after the election results were announced in Merrimack, Bragdon said he expected he would need about 60 percent of the vote in the towns that have been his district all along.

"When I left Merrimack, I wasn't sure what to expect for the rest of the night," Bragdon said after Wilton's results were reported, nailing down the win. "Obviously Dan did well in his hometown of Merrimack and I did well in the towns I've been representing in the last several years."

Going forward, Bragdon said he will continue to serve his communities as a voice for them in Concord. Taking on Merrimack presents a new set of issues for Bragdon to defend, probably the most important to Merrimack being having someone who will continue to fight for toll relief.

Bragdon said he will go to bat for Merrimack when it comes to the tolls and he hopes to work with Merrimack's representatives and Town Councilors to plan some strategy.

Knowing senators to Nashua and Manchester want improvements made to the Turnpike in their towns may help,” Bragdon said. “If they need improvements on their end, they need to help give some toll relief in Merrimack, which has been shouldering the burden for so long.

Dwyer said he hopes Bragdon will take notice of the town's needs and see that the toll issue is something he needs to take on as his own.

“The gated community thing in this town is a really big issue for us,” Dwyer said, adding that if Bragdon were able to get them some serious relief, he'd probably be elected senator for life in Merrimack. “They'd be building statues of him,” Dwyer said.

Asked if he'd have done things differently or if he thought his refusal to take special interest money played a part in his loss, Dwyer said affirmatively, “Not an inch.”

“If I had another $10 grand, what would I have done? I would have sent out a mailer?” Dwyer asked. “What would I have put in a mailer that they would have said, 'Oh, I want to vote for Dan Dwyer.' If anything, I proved you don't need $10 grand to run a good campaign.”

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While the Dwyer-Bragdon race was likely the most talked about locally, there was also a contested race with 10 people running for eight seats on the ticket for the House of Representatives and a race between Chris Christensen, R-Merrimack, and Carol Holden, R-Amherst, for County Commissioner.

Merrimack's sitting state representatives, Dick Barry (1,448), Dick Hinch (1,592), Jeanine Notter (1,493), Lenette Peterson (1,433), Tony Pellegrino (1,532), Joe Thomas (1,148) and Kathy Stroud (1,044) all retained their seats in the House, while newcomer Phil Straight was elected to the seat vacated by Christensen in his commissioner run. Newcomers Daniel Oberlander and Tracy Alan Coyer were knocked off the ticket.

Full results were not available last night for Christensen's County Commissioner run but according to the Nashua Telegraph, Christensen was behind Holden 2,617 to 2,773 with most precincts reporting.

As far as statewide races went, Merrimack aided in the who will now square off in the gubernatorial race. Merrimack cast 1,635 ballots for Lamontagne versus 635 for challenger Kevin Smith and 767 for Hassan versus 240 for Jackie Cilley.

Merrimack also resoundingly chose to see Frank Guinta, R-Manchester, (1,955) face off in with Carol Shea-Porter, D-Rochester, who ran uncontested on the Democratic ticket.

For complete voting results from Merrimack, check out our charts from the and ballots.

A total of 3,550 of voters cast votes in Tuesday's election – 200 shy of Town Moderator Lynn Christensen's projected of 3,750.

Winners of Tuesday's primary now go on to the General Election on Nov. 6.