CONCORD, N.H. (AP) – Doris Haddock, 94, formally began her campaign for U.S. Senate on Thursday, promising to bring to Washington a message of peace, welfare and justice – seasoned with a dash if vinegar if necessary.

Sounding at times like a parent ready to box a naughty child’s ears, Haddock gave a speech of the type rarely heard of in Concord’s Legislative Office Building.

“I am the angry grandmother come off my porch to ask young Judd what in the world he is thinking when he supports Bush’s military misadventures, supports the transfer of billions of our tax dollars to billionaires and supports the shipping of our jobs overseas,” Haddock said.

Haddock is running against incumbent Judd Gregg, R-N.H.

“Mr. Gregg is a good and likable fellow. As if he were a charming but troubled son-in-law, we do like the fellow but shake our head at what he has done to the precious treasure we have entrusted to him,” she said.

Haddock is better known as “Granny D” and for her cross-country trips as an activist. She entered the race last week, following the abrupt end of state Sen. Burt Cohen’s U.S. Senate campaign. Cohen quit after discovering that a large amount of his campaign cash as well as a campaign staffer were missing.

In 1998, Haddock walked from Pasadena, Calif., to Washington, D.C., to draw attention to campaign finance reform. In 2001, she walked around the Capitol in Washington for one week while lawmakers inside debated the McCain-Feingold campaign finance bill. Most recently, she has made trips across the country in a multicolored camper, registering women and minorities to vote.

Speaking deliberately, Haddock at times sounded a bit like another strong-willed New Englander, Katherine Hepburn. She was greeted with laughs for quips about her age, the incumbent and President Bush. Applause and shouts of “Right on Granny!” – often by Haddock’s 69-year-old son, Jim Haddock, punctuated her address.

Asked to describe his mother, he had but one word: “tough.”

“For those who may doubt my capacity to serve let me assure them that while I may struggle for the right word from time to time, I can yet string my words together somewhat better than even our current president,” she said.

“And while I need glasses for reading, I can see clearly the difference between a necessary war and an unnecessary war.”

Besides criticizing the war and special interests, Haddock said the government should help foster local economies and discourage globalization.

“If we need a new chair and our neighbor, the woodworker, needs work, what in hell are we doing at Wal-Mart buying a chair made three oceans away?” Haddock said.

Dressed in a black suit, ruffled white blouse and trademark feathered hat, Haddock drew cheers when she vowed to serve only one term if elected.

New Hampshire Democrats take issue with Gregg’s try at a third term. They say Gregg told the Boston Globe in 1992 that he would not spend more than 12 years in the Senate. Gregg seeks his third six-year term.

Gregg’s campaign did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

One friend, Kay Gilbert, 91, came from Peterborough to hear Haddock speak. Gilbert, who has known Haddock for 40 years, said the would-be senator always has been full of “vinegar and ginger.”

This is Haddock’s first major election attempt. A New Hampshire native, she served on the Dublin planning board in the 1970s and 80s. According to her campaign biography, Haddock and her husband worked against atmospheric testing of hydrogen bombs in Alaska in the 1960s.