Polls Shows Guinta Far Behind; Does He Stand a Chance?

A new University of New Hampshire/WMUR poll shows that Frank Guinta is facing an uphill climb as he seeks to win back the 1st District Congressional seat he once held.

According to the poll, U.S. Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH) leads Guinta 48 percent to 32 percent right now. Despite relatively low name recognition, Guinta's Republican primary opponent, Dan Innis, trails Shea-Porter by a smaller margin, 43 percent to 32 percent.

Guinta lost the 1st District seat to Shea-Porter in 2012, and has drawn criticism within GOP circles for both being too conservative and not conservative enough.

It doesn't help his cause that Shea-Porter remains fairly popular, with 42 percent of respondents saying they have a favorable opinion of her.

The Granite State Poll also shows that U.S. Rep. Annie Kuster could be in danger of losing her 2nd District Congressional seat. Despite the fact that her only declared Republican opponent is Gary Lambert, a relative unknown, she is currently in a dead heat with him.

The poll has Lambert at 34 percent, and Kuster just behind him at 33 percent, and only 62 percent of Democratic voters said they would vote for Kuster if the election were held today. Kuster's favorability rating is also very low, at just 23 percent.

"Kuster is currently vulnerable," said Andrew Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center. "Typically, an incumbent with less than 50 percent support is in for a tough fight, but an incumbent below 40 percent is in real trouble."