Ayotte's political debut

[ccharles000]

President Obama was in the Granite State yesterday, but of greater interest to political junkies was the political debut of former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte, who spoke to a group of GOP activists in Wolfeboro last night.

It was the first time Ayotte had appeared publicly since filing papers declaring her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. And even though she faced a friendly crowd, she offered some insight into where she stands on major issues:

She’s socially conservative. Ayotte sounded more like the social conservative that state GOP chairman John Sununu predicted last month. In an interview with the Concord Monitor, Ayotte said she is against abortion rights, except in the cases of rape, incest or medical emergency.

And even though New Hampshire is one of six states to legalize same-sex marriage, Ayotte told the Monitor she is “against same-sex marriage and believes marriage is between a man and a woman.”

She would have voted to confirm Sonia Sotomayor. Ayotte was taken by surprise when a conservative blogger came up to her, video camera in hand, and asked her whether she would have voted to confirm Sotomayor.

“I think that, in terms of her record, there are things that I would certainly disagree with her on, but if you look at her record overall — in terms of the qualifications in having been a circuit court judge … I think that I would have approved her,” Ayotte told the conservative GraniteGrok blog after her speech.

http://www.politico.com/blogs/scorecard/0809/Ayottes_political_debut.html?showall