Katrina Swett Running Again for Husband’s Old Seat
It’s official: 2002 Democratic nominee Katrina Swett (D) has filed to run again for New Hampshire’s 2nd district seat.Swett’s announcement was expected — a local New Hampshire newspaper reported earlier this week that Swett, the daughter of the late Rep. Tom Lantos (D-Calif.) and wife of former Rep. Dick Swett (D-N.H.), was already planning campaign events for her bid. Swett confirmed her bid Thursday in a statement from her campaign.Swett’s entrance into the race sets up a competitive primary for Democrats in the race to replace Rep. Paul Hodes (D-N.H.), who is running for Senate. Attorney Ann McLane Kuster (D) has been running and fundraising for several months. Swett could afford to wait to make a decision because of the more than $825,000 she had in her campaign account from an abandoned Senate bid in 2008.Primaries can be devastating to parties in New Hampshire because they are so late in the election year. In addition to Swett and Kuster battling, there is a contested primary on the Republican side, where former Rep. Charles Bass and 2008 GOP nominee Jennifer Horn will face each other in September.Bass, who ended Dick Swett’s House tenure in 1994, defeated Katrina Swett in 2002. He was defeated by Hodes in 2006.