The debate Thursday evening between incumbent Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen and Republican Scott Brown in New Hampshire veered off into a brief geography tutorial when Mr. Brown talked about the challenges facing Sullivan County.
Mr. Brown, who used to represent Massachusetts in the U.S. Senate, said the challenges faced by all counties “north of Concord” were the same, including the national health care law and energy prices, the Union Leader reported.
“Senator Brown, Sullivan County is west of Concord, it isn’t north of Concord,” debate moderator James Pindell said.
“I believe I answered the question, that the challenges are the same,” Mr. Brown said.
Democrats quickly pounced on the exchange as proof of Mr. Brown’s status as a carpetbagger, but Mr. Pindell acknowledged later that the county is both north and west of Concord.
“So on this point, Scott Brown was right, I was wrong, and I apologize to Scott Brown, and to both campaigns,” he said.
“It’s northwest,” Mr. Brown said afterward. “I guess I should have been more specific.”
Mr. Brown has been giving Ms. Shaheen a much tougher race than Democrats had hoped to see, though a new WMUR poll released Thursday had Ms. Shaheen up by 8 points, 50 percent to 42 percent.
At the same time, a separate one from American Research Group showed the race is a dead heat. Ms. Shaheen leads by about 3 points in RealClearPolitics’ latest average of public polling on the race.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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