Primary Players: Big States Seek Bigger Role

MANCHESTER, N.H., Feb. 11, 2007 — -- When Democratic Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., visited the Granite State this weekend for the first time in more than a decade -- and for the first time as a presidential candidate -- voters here were getting something they've come to regard as an inalienable right: the chance to size up the presidential candidates early and often.

Even though the primary here is still a year away, the major presidential candidates have already been here more than 30 times.

"It's the way politics should be," New Hampshire resident William Juch said of the onslaught. "These people should come and present themselves."

As hosts of the traditional first-in-the-nation primary, New Hampshire voters are used to getting to know the candidates personally.

"One of the benefits we have is a lot of the people will show up her," resident Kit Cottrell said. "A lot of the other states don't have that advantage."

Voters say that kind of intimacy is what makes this primary, which has been the nation's first since 1920, so special for New Hampshire and so important for the rest of the country.

"The value of the New Hampshire primary is that it's a small, level playing field, where anybody can play," St. Anselm College politics professor Dante Scala said. "Whether it's a small state governor, or a big state senator, it's a place where they can play out the game in front of the voters and everyone can listen to them."

But after 86 years, New Hampshire's position as leader of the pack is being challenged. California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey are all considering moving their primaries up to have more influence over who gets nominated.

California voters in particular say they're tired of having candidates ignore them -- except when it comes to raising money -- since the nominee is essentially chosen by the time they get to the ballot box. State legislators have introduced a bill to move the California primary from June 3 to Feb. 5. It's a proposal Republican Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger supports.

"If California moves, there will be a landslide," Washington Post political columnist E.J. Dionne said. "Other states will want to move. New Jersey is talking about it, Illinois to help Barack Obama, and who knows what other states will want to move up if California does."

If efforts to move up the primaries in those other states are successful, it means voters in California, Florida, Illinois and New Jersey could go to the polls on the same day early next February, creating a souped-up Super Tuesday just after the New Hampshire primary.

"If we end up with a one-day national primary, a lot of us think that it's just going to turn into one fundraiser after another, and only those who can afford to go to a fundraiser will actually get to meet a candidate," New Hampshire Secretary of State William Gardner said.

"It's a bad idea," said New Hampshire Sen. John Sununu, a Republican. "In most cases, it has been pushed by people who do not understand the value of having smaller states like New Hampshire and Iowa leading the process."

The New Hampshire process is one that, at least early on, favors personal contact over mass advertising.

"It's a place where free media plays a big role, [and] paid media plays a relatively small role," Scala said. "So with even a very small bankroll, you can make a very big impact on the presidential campaign right here."

A dramatic change in the campaign calendar would almost certainly benefit the best-known, best-funded and best-organized candidates, and dark-horse candidates like Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Bill Clinton in 1992 might never get out of the gate.

But officials here said they will do whatever it takes to keep the New Hampshire primary first, even if that means moving the election even earlier.

"We hope that we're not singing Christmas carols, going to the ballot box," Gardner said. "But we intend to do whatever we need to, to keep the tradition alive."