John Sununu, R-NH

John Sununu was New Hampshire’s Representative in Congress before he ran for the same state’s Senate seat in 2002. His voting record is straight-up rank-and-file GOP all the way, but at least he comes by it honest — his father was Chief of Staff in the Bush 41 White House, and had been governor of the Granite State before that. And like granite, Sununu II is rock-solid Roadblock Republican when it comes to his politics as well.

Sununu had one of the most conservative records in the House prior to crossing the Hill, and he’s continued in the same vein as Senator. He’s voted right in line with the Bush Administration’s requests around 85% of the time, and is staunchly supportive of their every move when it comes to their wars and their assaults on the Constitution — so much so, in fact, that VoteVets has him on their special hit list for consistently blocking any attempts to stand up against the neocon warhawks’ moves to expand their military adventures in the Middle East.

Aside from being obstructionist about Iraq and civil liberties, Sununu’s record is also dismal when it comes to environmental issues. He disputes the science of global climate change, he approves of drilling for oil in the Arctic and of subsidizing more pulverized-coal burning power plants, and he thinks the EPA’s toxic waste control laws are way too strict and need to be relaxed so his big business contributors can rake in even more profits. No wonder Sununu’s approval rating in his home state continues to slip downward.

Of course, that steady downward spiral may also have something to do with his having beat out then-Governor Jeanne Shaheen for his Senate seat in 2002 with the help of an illegal Republican phone-jamming operation that suppressed Democratic voter turnout. Three New Hampshire GOP operatives pled guilty to criminal charges in that case, and the man who was the Northeast field director for the National Republican Senatorial Campaign Committee was convicted but his case was turned back for re-trial on appeal.

It’s not a good time to be John Sununu in New Hampshire. His anti-environment record and Roadblock Republican activities have angered many of his key constituencies, and with the illegal robo-calling case coming back for a new trial his campaign is under an ethical microscope these days. And when you consider that the foremost challenger for his Senate seat in 2008 is none other than his old nemesis Jeanne Shaheen, the odds of his being able to pull off another upset victory against her this time are looking anything but solid as a rock.