Democratic N.H. governor to face Republican senator

CONCORD, N.H. - Democratic New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan announced Monday that she will challenge Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte, setting the stage for a highly competitive race that will be critical in determining majority control of the Senate in the next president's first year.

In an online video, Hassan said she's running to bring a bipartisan, commonsense governing approach to Washington that mirrors that of New Hampshire.

She said Washington has given in to powerful special interests and lobbyists "who rigged the system for themselves and against the middle class."

Hassan, a two-term governor, has long been considered the Democrats' best chance of beating Ayotte, a former attorney general who won her seat during the 2010 Republican wave election. Democratic voter turnout spikes in New Hampshire in presidential years, handing the party a win here in 2008 and 2012.

Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton, the party's front-runner for the presidential nomination, won the 2008 primary and has long been popular in the state, marking another potential hurdle for Ayotte.

Hassan, 57, is one of the last major Democratic recruits to jump into the 2016 race. New Hampshire joins Illinois, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and several other states as keys to control of the Senate, and the race between Hassan and Ayotte is likely to cost tens of millions of dollars.

In a statement, Ayotte said she expects a spirited campaign and is seeking reelection to fight for "better opportunities and a brighter future for our kids and our state."

Hassan's announcement comes a little more than two weeks after she reached a deal with legislators allowing an $11.3 billion budget plan to go into effect after a months-long stalemate with GOP lawmakers over business-tax cuts.

Hassan easily won reelection in 2014, campaigning on a message of a bipartisanship that hinged on the state budget and passage of Medicaid expansion in early 2014.

More than 42,000 people signed up for insurance under the expansion, but the law will sunset at the end of next year if lawmakers don't vote to reauthorize it in the coming session.

It's a fight that is likely to suck up most of the political oxygen in Concord early next year.