Sgambati beats Fitzgerald

In her first bid for elective office, Kathy Sgambati of Tilton captured the District 4 seat in N.H. Senate, topping two-term Rep. Jim Fitzgerald of Laconia in seven of eight towns with one still to report and capturing nearly 52 percent of the vote. With New Durham and Strafford outstanding, Sgambati, former deputy commissioner of N.H. Department of Health and Human Services, had tallied 7,944 votes to Fitzgerald's 7,407.

Although Sgambati lost heavily Republican Alton by 362 votes, she more than overcame the margin by carrying Laconia, Gilford and Belmont, the three largest constituencies in the district where Fitzgerald was thought to be strongest, by nearly 500 votes. Sgambati whipped Fitzgerald on his home field in Laconia, where he was a winning and popular football coach for three decades, 2,517-2,334 while taking four of the city's six wards. Nearly 53 percent of registered went to the polls in the city.

"We knew Mr. Fitzgerald was very popular in Laconia," Sgambati said, "and that we were working against that. But we worked really hard over a long haul, 14 hours a day, seven days a week." She said that "we felt good going into election but we had no idea what to make of the high turnout. The result is very humbling."

Sgambati traced her success to a "homegrown campaign" grounded on the issues that received support from across the district. She applauded the effort of her niece, Heather Gibson, who managed the effort, and other members of her family who did whatever was required and beyond. Sgambati also acknowledged the support she received from the Democratic Senate Caucus, particularly with the effort to get out the vote. "People were saying that they are important issues that aren't being addressed," Sgambati said, stressing that she stumped the district talking to anyone who listen about education, health care and the environment and highlighting her differences with Fitzgerald.

Meanwhile, when the last campaign finance reports were filed a week before the vote, Sgambati was outspending Fitzgerald by a margin of nearly three-to-one. She reported expenditures of almost $57,000 with another $15,000 in hand while Fitzgerald had spent a little more than $5,000 with some $21,000 in hand. Moreover, the N.H. Democratic State Committee invested heavily in the race with a flurry of direct mail pieces in the closing weeks.

Fitzgerald said that the result, like so many other Democratic triumphs across the state, indicated that "Governor Lynch has strong coattails." He said that he was "obviously disappointed, but proud and pleased to have run a good, clean campaign. It is what it is," he continued. "We knew we would be outspent and it's a tough race when you're up against a strong governor, but we did the best we could with what we had."