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It has been only five weeks since the election, but the senate Democrats are already looking ahead to the 2010 election.

On December 16 the Democratic Senate Caucus will be holding a fundraiser at the Capitol Grille in Concord.

A former reporter for The Associated Press in New Hampshire and Ohio has landed one of the top political news reporting positions in Washington, D.C.

The AP announced earlier this week in an internal memo that Phil Elliott will now be covering the White House for the international news bureau. Elliott covered the New Hampshire primary for over a year and then covered the general election in Ohio.

State Sen. Peter Bragdon (R-Milford), the Republican leader, has named state Sens. Bob Odell (R-Lempster) and Mike Downing (R-Salem) to be the deputy Republican minority leaders for the upcoming legislative session.

"Senator Downing and Odell are true leaders and they will bring to the table a style of politics that will help us accomplish our goals in the minority," Bragdon said in a press release.  "Senator Odell has years of experience working on the Finance and Ways and Means committees, while Senator Downing brings to the table experience with the retirement issues that will be facing the state in the next two years."

With the budget deficit gaming lobbyists are gearing up and getting ready to cash in. Find out who else make the Winners and Losers list.

State Sen. Lou D'Allesandro (D-Manchester) said that he thinks this legislative session is the best opportunity to pass bills that would expand gambling in New Hampshire.

"If there is any chance that we can get expanded gaming in the state it's this year," D'Allesandro told PolitickerNH.com. "The stars have aligned to allow the legislature to look at ways to bring in new revenues to the state."

The State Senate has finalized its committee assignments for the upcoming legislative session.

With the retirement of six state senators, most committees will have a new chairman and one committee is comprised entirely of new state senators.

Three Republican state senators were picked to be committee chairmen. State Sen. Bob Odell (R-Lempster) is chair of Ways & Means, John Gallus (R-Berlin) will be chair of Wildlife & Agriculture and state Sen. Bob Letourneau (R-Derry) was picked to be chair of the Transportation & Interstate Cooperation committee. All three senators held the same positions in the last legislative session.

You can find the complete list of assignments below.

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Newly elected members of Congress listen to panelists discuss the current economic crisis

CAMBRIDGE - Forty newly elected members of Congress gathered Thursday morning to hear some of Massachusetts' finest economists discuss the current crisis and possible remedies.

And one thing became clear very quickly: No one knows a surefire way out of the mess.

The forum took place at the Institute of Politics at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government as part of its four-day conference this week for recently elected members of Congress. It featured panelists with economic expertise from the Kennedy School, Harvard's economics department and Harvard's law school.

Jeffrey Frankel, an economics professor at the Kennedy School and former member of President Bill Clinton's council of economic advisors, summed up the tone of the meeting in his opening remarks.

"No one thoroughly understands the economic crisis," Frankel said.

House Republican leader state Rep. Sherman Packard (R-Londonderry) has announced his leadership team for the upcoming legislative session.

Packard has decided to keep state Rep. David Hess (R-Hooksett) as the deputy republican leader. State Rep. Shawn Jasper (R-Hudson) will be the Republican whip and state Rep. Andrew Renzullo (R-Hudson) will be the deputy Republican whip. State Rep. Gene Chandler (R-Bartlett), who ran against Packard for House Republican leader, has been tapped to be the senior assistant Republican leader.

An argument between New Hampshire Republican Chairman Fergus Cullen and Fran Wendelboe, head of the New Hampshire Reagan Network, has taken center stage in the online comment section of The Union Leader.

The two were featured in today's Granite Status over allegations that Wendelboe is organizing an effort to replace state committee members with conservatives Republicans. It started earlier this week when Betsy Miller was replaced as the chair of the Merrimack County Republicans by Anne Copp, a prominent supporter of the Reagan Network.

The “down time” after an election is a good time to take the long view of things. “How the pendulum swung,” starting today, is an extended look at how the Granite State has changed politically over the last half-century.

Our “units of analysis,” to use the jargon of the political scientists, are the 10 counties of New Hampshire. We will take a look at how these counties have voted during the past thirteen presidential elections, from 1960 to 2008.