The Republican who emerged yesterday to challenge state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark in the heavily Democratic 24th Senate District says he is running to give voters a choice.

"It would be unfair to the voters and unfair to taxpayers and unlike New Hampshire to have a candidate go uncontested," said Chris Callahan, 38, who is in the Seafood import and export business.

The committee raising money for state Senate Republicans was badly outraised this past year by their Democratic counterparts by a margin of nearly 6 to 1.

The Senate Republican Victory PAC reported Wednesday they had raised $74,834 in the past year and currently has $37,673 cash on hand.

In the same period the Senate Democratic Caucus raised $431,927 and was has $107,462 cash on hand.

Barack Obama will begin airing his first general election campaign ads in 18 states, including New Hampshire, the campaign announced today.

The 60 second ad titled "Country I Love" is biographical in nature.

New Hampshire Republican recruited a candidate to run against state Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), which will mean that both parties will have a candidate in all state Senate districts.

Christian Callahan, a Portsmouth businessman, was given the slot today under a rule that allows parties to recruit candidate for positions if no one else had at the end of the filing period.

I am proud to announce that Dante Scala, UNH political science professor and New Hampshire political numbers expert, is joining PolitickerNH.com as a regular contributor.

You can find his posts along the light orange contributor column to the right.

In addition to teaching, Scala is the author of the book "Stormy Weather: The New Hampshire Primary and Presidential Politics". It is a must read for anyone interested in New Hampshire politics.

For the past year he has also run the blog GraniteProf and before that write a popular column on PoliticsNH.com called "By the Numbers".

You can read his first column here.

State Sen. Bob CleggRepublican Congressional candidate Bob Clegg began airing his first radio ads, which are also the first broadcast ads in the 2nd Congressional District race.

The 60 second spot, called A "Little Common Sense" began airing today and will last for two weeks, his campaign announced this morning.

PolitickerNH.com reporter Brian Lawson is on vacation this week. Please send all tips and press releases to press@politickernh.com.

Two weddings of involving New Hampshire politicos get write ups in The New York Times.

State Rep. Bette Lasky (D-Nashua) tells PolitickerNH.com she will seek Senate seat vacated moments ago by Senate Majority Leader Joe Foster (D-Nashua).

More details to come.

WASHINGTON -- State Sen. Martha Fuller Clark (D-Portsmouth), who represents New Hampshire on the DNC Rules and Bylaws Committee, said she was pleased with the results of their national televised meeting on Saturday, but that the committee's work was far from easy.

"I think that it was very difficult," said Clark in an interview.  "I think that in the end we did what we had to do and there was no perfect solution."