Two months after New Hampshire’s Republican Party was swept in races for president, governor, senator and both of the state’s representatives in Congress, the Party unanimously selected former Gov. John H. Sununu as its new chairman. Sununu, who was governor from 1983-1989, is holding his first prominent political role since spending three years as White House chief of staff under George H.W. Bush.

Sununu, 69, is returning to an active role in New Hampshire politics months after his son, former Sen. John E. Sununu, lost his re-election bid to former Gov. Jeanne Shaheen. He inherits a 10-seat deficit in the State Senate and a 55-seat deficit in the State House.

New Hampshire Republicans will be looking to former Gov. John H. Sununu to revitalize the GOP in their state

He enters the position at a critical time for the state party, as New Hampshire Republicans look to recover in local races in 2010 and the national party hopes to provide strong competition in 2012 for influence in Congress and control of the White House.

Following the 2008 election, it was announced the number of registered Democrats in the state had overtaken the number of registered Republicans for the first time. Fergus Cullen, the outgoing single-term Republican chairman who chose not to run for re-election, stated in a press release in December that Republicans as a whole must diversify their message to appeal to a greater share of the electorate.

“News that Democrats have overtaken Republicans in voter registration should be a wake up call for all Republicans, especially those who are bad at math,” Cullen said, arguing that it is unnecessary for the party to change its ideology or to cease opposing the “Democrats’ big government philosophy.”

New Hampshire opposition to Democratic ideas was recently demonstrated by Republican Sen. Judd Gregg, who withdrew his name from consideration to be Secretary of Commerce in Barack Obama’s administration earlier this month, citing “irresolvable differences” between himself and the new administration. Gregg announced he would not run for a fourth term in 2010, and keeping his seat Republican will be a primary goal for the new state party chairman.

Sununu called for increased dedication to the Republican cause in his acceptance speech.

 “I ask that you join with me for the next two years and give just a little bit of extra time, a little bit of extra energy, a little bit of commitment, additional commitment to a unified party and help us educate our citizens so we can once again make this a great state to live in, to raise a family, and to do business in,” he said, according to the New Hampshire Union Leader.

He will have to reverse current trends in order to provide the state party with success at both the local and national levels. In 2006, the Democratic Party garnered its best electoral results in the state in 130 years, the Boston Globe reported, and the Democratic presidential candidate has won New Hampshire four out of the last five times.

Though the possibility of reforming the presidential primary schedule lies in the hands of new national party chairman Michael Steele, New Hampshire currently remains the first state to hold a primary contest in the election season, and as we were reminded by John McCain’s triumph 13 months ago, the Granite State can hold significant sway on the outcome of the nomination process.

Sununu, a former chairman of the National Governors Association, told the Globe he felt the GOP had “lost its way in terms of fiscal responsibility,” both in New Hampshire and throughout the rest of the nation. Now heading the local recovery effort, he expects to produce serious challenges to New Hampshire Democrats, who he has claimed are “ruining our state.”

He is not alone in planning for a comeback.

“Talk of Republicans becoming a permanent minority is grossly premature and not supported by the facts,” Cullen said in the press release. “The Republican Party today is no more dead than the Democrats were after their huge defeats as recent as 2002. They came back, and so will we.”

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