Frank Guinta Files to Run in NH-01

From CQ Politics: “Democratic Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s 2010 re-election bid just got complicated. Republican Frank Guinta, mayor of Manchester, filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to run in New Hampshire’s 1st District. Guinta recently announced he would not seek re-election as mayor and was mulling a run for federal office in 2010. But Guinta has not publicly announced whether he will run for the open Senate seat or for the 1st Congressional District seat. As mayor of the state’s largest city, Guinta’s name has often been at the top of Republicans’ lists of prospective candidates for higher office. Shea-Porter, a former social worker, ousted Republican Rep. Jeb Bradley in 2006, a year marked by significant Republican losses in the state. She narrowly survived a rematch with Bradley in November, winning a second term with 52 percent. The 1st District, in the southeastern part of the state, remains competitive territory home to many Republican voters as well as blue-collar Democratic areas where Shea-Porter has in the past struggled to gain sizeable leads. Barack Obama received 53 percent of the district’s vote in 2008. Guinta is the first major Republican to form a 2010 committee in the district.”