Garcia Easily Wins GOP Primary

It will be probably considered one of the nastiest Congressional primary races in recent memory but in the end, the woman who bore the brunt of that negativity, came out on top.

State Rep. Marilinda Garcia, R-Salem, easily best three Republican rivals in the Sept. 9, primary, with about half of the vote cast, according to early returns.

According to unofficial results, Garcia earned more than 22,000 votes or about 50 percent of the turnout.

Former state Sen. Gary Lambert, another Republican, came in second, with 27 percent of the vote. Jim Lawrence, a former state Representative, who jumped into the race late, received 19 percent. Concord resident Mike Little received about 2,000 votes or 5 percent.

Garcia led throughout the night but the race wasn’t called until after Nashua’s voting results, where Lambert’s largest base was, were counted. After that, with 48 percent of the vote going to Garcia, the race was called.

Surrounded by supporters and family at The Centennial Inn in Concord, Garcia said that she could feel the momentum building during the later weeks of the campaign, including a solid debate performance and a backlash to negative attack ads from Lambert attacking her political positions on immigration issues.

Lambert launched two television ads and hit voters in the district with direct mail advertising introducing himself and attacking Garcia supporting amnesty. She countered that she was only supporting tracking illegal immigrants and didn’t support amnesty. Garcia received support from Club for Growth, which ran ads attacking Lambert’s position on the regional greenhouse gas initiative, and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who came to the state to campaign with her.

Lawrence appeared in the WMUR-TV debate but otherwise, ran a relatively low-key campaign.

Garcia faces Democrat U.S. Rep. Ann McLane Kuster, who was unopposed on Sept. 9, in the general election.