CONCORD, N.H. — Democratic Gov. John Lynch has overcome an anti-incumbent groundswell and defeated Republican John Stephen to win a historic fourth consecutive two-year term as New Hampshire’s governor.
The 57-year-old Lynch faced one of his toughest re-election battles against Stephen, a former health and human services commissioner. Stephen tried to tap voter unrest by promising to cut state spending without raising taxes. He said Lynch’s mismanagement would leave a huge budget deficit for the next governor to fix.
Lynch said he could produce a balanced budget with spending cuts and a moderate growth in state revenues.
Advocacy groups spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on television ads attacking Lynch for signing a law last year legalizing gay marriage.
Libertarian John Babiarz (BAB’-ee-arz) also was on the ballot.
1 thought on “New Hampshire Election Results: John Lynch Defeats John Stephen In 2010 Governor’s Race”
As a 30-year New Hampshire resident, I can say that the significance of this election is that John Lynch will no longer enjoy the freedom to abuse his power as Governor that he has shown in the past. He must now deal with a 5-0 Republican Executive Council and a 297-101 Republican House, and a 24-9 Republican Senate. This will greatly restrict his ability to force through unpopular legislation, like he did in 2008, when he called an unprecedented emergency session of the (democrat) legislature, locked the doors, and said “do not leave until you approve my $68M emergency budget over-run”. How the mighty have fallen…
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