Democratic senator Jeanne Shaheen told reporters Friday that issues regarding national security and the threat from Islamic terrorist groups like ISIS don’t “come up very often” when she campaigns across New Hampshire.
At an event in Claremont, a reporter asked Shaheen about how issues of national security resonate in New Hampshire, given how both James Foley and Steven Sotloff, the Americans murdered by ISIS in the Middle East, have connections to the state.
“I think people around here felt very personally for the heinous murder of James Foley and Steve Sotloff,” Shaheen said. “But as I travel around the state, that’s not a question that comes up very often.” Watch the video below:
The Wall Street Journal reports it differently:
The threats of the Islamic State and Ebola are drowning out all other issues, the poll shows. Indeed, they hit highs for public awareness compared with any issue the poll has tested in its history. This tends to hurt Democrats as the governing party, but both sides are finding it equally difficult to break through the noise in seeking a mandate.
And another recent poll from WMUR and the University of New Hampshire found 54 percent of adults in New Hampshire say they consider the threat from ISIS “very serious.”
Shaheen’s Republican opponent, Scott Brown, has tried to “break through the noise” by focusing much of his campaign on national security issues. At the two candidates’ most recent debate, Brown criticized Shaheen for describing American troops in the Middle East fighting ISIS as a potentially “occupying force.”
The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows Shaheen with a 3.4-point lead, and the Democratic incumbent has led in most recent polls. A New England College poll from last week, however, showed Brown with a one-point lead, and Republicans say they see the race as essentially tied.
