State Sen. Molly M. Kelly spent election night 2008 in a much different atmosphere than in 2006, when she unseated former Senate president Thomas R. Eaton.

Then, the Keene Democrat was at the boisterous Cheshire County Democratic Headquarters, delivering a speech after her victory as a challenger to a longtime leader.

Tuesday night, she spent some time with aides, campaign workers, friends and family — and waited like much of the rest of the country for President-elect Barack Obama to speak, she said.

Kelly’s own victory was also certain early Tuesday night.

In the end, Kelly bested Eaton, 15,776 to 11,439.

Senate District 10 covers Chesterfield, Dublin, Fitzwilliam, Hinsdale, Keene, Marlborough, Richmond, Surry, Swanzey, Troy and Winchester.

“I am proud of the campaign I ran,” Kelly said. “We ran a positive campaign, a clean campaign.”

Early results from Keene put Kelly ahead by more than 3,000 votes — and resigned Eaton to a second defeat, he said.

He spent the night at The Stage restaurant in Keene with other local GOP members, he said.

“I haven’t seen all the results,” he said at midnight, “but after seeing the Keene results, I kinda had an idea how it would go.”

In Keene, Kelly beat Eaton 7,686 to 4,673.

This election was a rematch of two years ago when the roles were reversed, but the result was the same.

Eaton had been in the Senate since 1999, when he was elected in a special vote to replace Keene Democrat and Senate President Clesson J. “Junie” Blaisdell, who died while in office. Eaton went on to serve two terms as Senate president before resigning the presidency after a falling out with other GOP senators.

This time, Kelly said she had “a proud record” to back her up. She campaigned on the strength of the Senate’s accomplishments during her term, including determining the cost of an adequate education, as required by the N.H. Supreme Court.

When discussing ways to fund that education, Kelly has refused to take a pledge against broad-based income or sales tax. “Everything is on the table,” she said.

Kelly also trumpeted $1.8 million she secured in federal funding for a job training program for unemployed people; a pilot program will soon launch in Cheshire County.

Eaton campaigned as a fiscal conservative, and said Kelly and other state Democrats were responsible for a 17.5 percent increase in the state budget.

To compensate for a multimillion-dollar budget deficit, Eaton said he would support expanding gambling in the Granite State to bring in more revenue.

Kelly, a financial adviser and longtime Democratic Party activist, won every town in the district in 2006, her first run for any elected office.

In this election, Eaton pulled out victories in Surry, Swanzey and Troy.

On Tuesday night, Eaton said he believes recent news of large tax increases in many towns may have swayed voters back to the Republican side of the ballot.

“People got their tax bills and were concerned with how much the taxes went up ... If that’s what they want, that’s what they got,” he said.

“I think some people realized what was happening and wanted to see the change but it wasn’t enough to make the difference.

“Hold onto your hats, and wait two more years, that’s all I have to say.”

Kelly said her priorities for the next two years will be to continue to “represent the values of the district ... (and) to build on the accomplishments we’ve started.”

Those include continued investment in education, especially technical education, Kelly has said.

“We’ve got to focus on stimulating the economy, and investing in the people of our community,” she said.

“I will be representing every single town in the district,” she said. “We have a lot of work ahead of us, and it takes everybody to get it done.”



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