Michael McCord takes a snapshot of a small but important state in this election, New Hampshire:
Early Friday morning outside the Portsmouth campaign office of President Barack Obama, dozens of people lined up to get tickets to hear him speak in Durham [yesterday]. On June 15, hundreds of supporters of Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney made the trek to Scamman Farm in Stratham for a campaign rally to kick off Romney’s six-state “Every Town Counts” campaign bus tour. And on the television airwaves, it seems more like October than the beginning of summer as both the campaigns have had strong and unprecedented advertising presences in this hotly contested state so far ahead of Election Day.
Ground game
The Obama and Romney campaign stops underscore both the up-front and below-the-radar efforts to secure the state’s potentially pivotal four electoral votes in November. Without much fanfare, the Romney campaign has opened offices in Bedford and Nashua. The Obama campaign has been organizing in New Hampshire for months with 10 field offices in operation — including in Dover, Exeter and Portsmouth — and more to open in the coming weeks.
Dueling economic critiques
Romney said in Stratham that “if there has ever been a president who has failed to give the middle class of America a fair shot, it is Barack Obama.” At a campaign rally Friday in Tampa, Fla., Obama took aim at Romney’s record as a venture capitalist. “We do not need an outsourcing pioneer in the Oval Office,” Obama said.
Tight race
Rasmussen Reports released the latest New Hampshire presidential poll of likely voters June 20 and it shows Obama with a 48 percent to 43 percent lead over Romney, with 6 percent undecided. Drake said that everyone expects the New Hampshire race to be close and that the campaigns are taking nothing for granted.
