New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) still hasn’t decided whether she’ll run for Senate, National Journal reports.

“But that hasn’t stopped New Hampshire Republicans from already spending over a million early dollars against” her. That’s because the “biggest boost Republicans could give” Sen. Kelly Ayotte’s (R) “reelection campaign at this point would be to either damage the popular Hassan ahead of her campaign or maybe even dissuade her from running at all.”

“New Hampshire Republicans have begun a pre-emptive strike this month against the strongest prospective challenger to Sen. Kelly Ayotte, targeting Democratic Gov. Maggie Hassan months before she’s even set to decide whether she’ll enter the race,” National Journal reports.

“The early and aggressive campaign against Hassan demonstrates how seriously they take her as a challenger. Republicans already have filed a legal request to reveal her out-of-state travel and even have gotten prospective presidential candidates to criticize her stewardship of the state. This is unusual because Hassan has yet to determine whether she’ll run for Senate at alland won’t be deciding until the summer.”

A new New England College Polling Institute poll in New Hampshire finds Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has a small lead over Gov. Maggie Hassan (D) in a possible U.S. Senate match up for 2016, 48% to 43%.

“The poll gives an early indication of what many would expect from a match-up of these two major players on the New Hampshire political scene — it would be a close, hard-fought contest.”