LONGTIME HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY Attorney Peter McDonough appears to have lost his re-election bid to John Coughlin, a challenger who won the Republican primary as a write-in candidate. At press time, both candidates were awaiting the results of a recount, since the margin of victory for Coughlin was only 226 votes.

McDonough has been Hillsborough County Attorney for the past 15 years, and worked in the office as an assistant county attorney for another 12 years.

Coughlin, 49, who has a law office in Mont Vernon, has been in private practice in Hillsborough County since 1983. He has represented criminal defendants and also served as a judge advocate in the Marine Corps, where he was on active duty from 1980 to 1983. He also handled prosecutorial duties in that position.

Coughlin has served as the chair of the New Hampshire Human Rights Commission since 1997. He also serves as a command judge advocate for the 197th Field Artillery Brigade of the New Hampshire Army National Guard, which is based in Manchester.

Coughlin ran a write-in campaign for the Republican Party’s nomination for the county attorney post. Thanks to being in Canada for National Guard training, he had missed the primary’s filing deadline. He won the Republican primary, though, with 564 write-in votes to 401 for McDonough, whose name appeared on both ballots.

McDonough, 60, has served as county attorney for the state’s most populous county since 1987, and prior to that had served as an assistant county attorney, starting in 1975. He was in private practice from 1971 to 1974.

In the only other contested race, Dan St. Hilaire, running as a Republican, defeated Democrat Peter Odom for the post of Merrimack County Attorney. St. Hilaire, an assistant city prosecutor for Concord, is the brother of newly elected Grafton County Attorney Rick St. Hilaire. Odom is the chief deputy prosecutor of the Strafford County Attorney’s Office.

Elsewhere in the state, the following county attorneys ran unopposed and will continue in their posts for another two years: Lauren J. Noether (Belknap); Robin J. Gordon (Carroll); Peter W. Heed (Cheshire); Pierre J. Morin (Coos); James M. Reams (Rockingham); Janice K. Rundles (Strafford); and Marc Hathaway (Sullivan).

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