Cries of "Mitt, Mitt, Mitt" filled the small gymnasium of Exeter High School as hundreds of New Hampshire residents packed in to hear from the Republican candidate who seems poised to face President Barack Obama in the November elections. But Mitt Romney is taking no support for granted in his bid to secure the Republican nomination and a win Tuesday, when the small north-eastern state of New Hampshire heads to the polls, is key to that plan.
New Hampshire, with a population of just 1.3 million, plays an outsized role in picking presidential contenders and has long held the first party primaries. Along with the small central state of Iowa, which held caucus meetings of party members last week, New Hampshire draws inordinate attention from candidates who spend months attempting to woo voters.
Romney, a former governor of neighbouring Massachusetts, has longstanding ties to New Hampshire and has focused much of his effort here. His appeal to many supporters comes from his perceived ability to beat Obama and make use of his business experience to turn around the faltering US economy. "I believe he's the only one ready to be president," said Marsha Chapple after surveying the field of six major candidates. "I want someone who can walk in there right after the inauguration and get to work."
But first Romney's campaign must do the difficult work of overcoming the rest of the Republican presidential field, which has spent much of the past months looking for an alternative candidate perceived as more conservative than the more moderate Romney. In New Hampshire, each candidate gives voters the rare chance to interact with them up close and personal. One candidate, Jon Huntsman, has staked his entire campaign on such a strategy, refusing to participate in Iowa last week. Meanwhile, former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum who ended just eight votes behind Romney in Iowa is making a final push to persuade voters in the much less conservative New Hampshire.
Supporters both from New Hampshire and flown in from elsewhere are hitting the streets to hand out campaign literature, knock on doors of undecided voters and make calls in support of candidates. Manchester, the state's largest city, has filled with national and international media and television cameras nearly outnumbering residents.
Just blocks away, Romney's campaign headquarters is abuzz with dozens of volunteers, who packed folding tables and used their mobile phones and laptops to contact undecided voters for Romney's campaign. Bob Duffy was spending his afternoon making phone calls, but didn't simply settle on a candidate, instead attending events with some 10 major and minor candidates to give each a chance to sway his views.
"I supported Mitt before, but I believe in hearing what others have to say," he said, stressing the fair shot given to each candidate in the state that prides itself on its independent streak and cherishes its motto, "Live Free or Die." Duffy said he decided on Romney largely because of what he called his honesty and character, but also because of his business acumen to get the country's finances back in order.
"In this case we need a turn-around person," he said. But although Romney leads big in pre-vote opinion surveys here, other candidates and their supporters are far from giving up and everyone thinks they are better poised to serve the party and the country.
Among the most passionate are the young supporters of Ron Paul. The Texas congressman appeals to the state's strong independent streak as a standard bearer for the party's libertarian wing: free market, socially liberal and opposed to US foreign intervention.
Volunteer Jeremey Stull a 21-year-old student who travelled from Connecticut to stump for Paul, said he had supported Obama in the last election but now sees Paul's foreign policy and strict adherence to the constitution as the best option. "I don't think constitutionality is a radical position," he said.
That message may be beginning to pay off, with Paul gaining ground in recent opinion polls to 20 percent, closing in on the heavily favoured Romney with 35 percent, in a Suffolk/7 News Tracking poll. That poll also put Huntsman at 11 percent, followed by former speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich at 9 percent and Santorum with 8 percent.
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