Attorney General Kelly Ayote is the frontrunner, but Ovide Lamontagne and Bill Binnie have stepped up their game in recent weeks as the Tuesday primary inches closer, and Jim Bender has waged a very respectable campaign as well. Lamontagne seems to be the conservative's conservative, but that may not fly in the muddley northeast where Scott Brown Republicanism works best. Anything's possible this cycle, though.

If Lamontagne unseats Ayote, it won't be the first time he'll have successfully taken down a more establishment candidate. In 1996, he defeated then-Rep. Bill Zeliff to win the GOP nomination for governor before losing to Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, who now serves in the Senate. Whoever comes out on top has a very sporting chance at winning the general; polls have shown incumbent Democrat Paul Hodes falling to any one of the four GOP contenders.