New Hamspshire Primary Defined

[Luke_Wilbur]

John McCain and Hillary Clinton win the New Hampshire Primary race.

[Guest LAW_*]

The New Hampshire primary is the first of a number of statewide political party primary elections held in the United States every four years, as part of the process of choosing the Democratic and Republican nominees for the presidential elections to be held the subsequent November. Held in the small New England state of New Hampshire, it traditionally marks the opening of the quadrennial U.S. presidential election, although that status was threatened in 2007, as both the Republican and Democratic National Committees moved to give more populous states a bigger influence in the presidential race. This is partly because New Hampshire has so little impact, in terms of delegates, when compared to Super Tuesday. Its real impact comes from the media coverage and momentum that a candidate can attain from a better-than-expected or decisive result in the New Hampshire primary. Several states also sought to move up the dates of their 2008 primaries in order to have more influence and dilute the power of the New Hampshire primary.

 

1952

General Dwight D. Eisenhower, whose previous party affiliation was unknown, was commanding NATO in Europe when his name was placed on the Republican ballot by friends in New Hampshire. He defeated long-time Republican leader, Senator Robert A. Taft. Ike never came into the state during the primary. New Hampshire Governor Sherman Adams became his Chief of Staff in the White House.

On the Democratic side, Senator Estes Kefauver, snowmobiling in his coonskin cap, upset incumbent President Harry S. Truman who was thus discouraged from running for reelection.

 

1956

When Eisenhower was up for a second term and Richard M. Nixon was his vice president, it was commonly known that Ike did not want Nixon on the reelection ticket. On their own, Nixon’s Republican friends, led by Senator Styles Bridges, engineered a vice-presidential write-in effort for Nixon, which garnered 22,936 votes, thus assuring Nixon’s place on the Eisenhower team.

 

1960

The University of New Hampshire had invited Senator John F. Kennedy to be the keynote speaker at a convocation the day before the primary. Kennedy’s only opponent on the Democratic ballot, Paul C. Fisher, uninvited and claiming discrimination, barged into the party and delivered a twelve-minute address on his platform to abolish taxes. Kennedy got 43,372 votes; Fisher garnered 6,853.

 

1964

While Henry Cabot Lodge was serving as Ambassador to South Vietnam, his son and friends mounted a winning write-in campaign on the Republican ballot which defeated both Senator Barry M. Goldwater and New York Governor Nelson Rockefeller, both of whom had stumped arduously everywhere in the Granite State. Lodge, like Eisenhower in 1952, never came to New Hampshire during the primary. Goldwater eventually won the Republican nomination then lost to Democrat Lyndon Baines Johnson in the fall general election.

In November of 1963 President Kennedy was assassinated. The country was in a state of mourning, thus there were no filings for either president or vice president on the 1964 Democratic ballot the following March. Significantly, several thousand people took the trouble to write in their votes. Lyndon Baines Johnson won with 29,317 write-ins, while Robert Kennedy, John’s brother, received 25,094 write-in votes for vice president.

 

1968

Republican Governor of Michigan George Romney launched his presidential campaign from his summer home on Lake Winnipesaukee, only to be washed out when he said he had been "brainwashed" into favoring the Vietnam War.

Incumbent President Johnson did not file, but received write-ins totaling 50% of all Democratic votes cast. Senator Eugene McCarthy, who campaigned actively against Johnson’s Vietnam war policies, was on the ballot. He received an impressive 41% of the vote and gained more delegates than the President. Johnson was so stunned that he did not run for reelection. Twenty-four years later in 1992, McCarthy ran a second time and received only 211 votes.

 

1972

When Republican Richard Nixon was running for a second term as President, many party leaders felt that his Vice President, Spiro Agnew, was not a strong enough candidate for the reelection ticket. Surprisingly, Agnew picked up an all-time record high of 45,524 write-in votes for Vice President - and that settled the matter. Some time later, both men were forced to resign from office in disgrace.

In the Democratic primary, Maine Senator Edmund S. Muskie allegedly sobbed at a rally in front of the Manchester Union Leader building, while reacting to an editorial and letter relating to the Senator’s wife which had been reprinted on the front page of the paper by its publisher William Loeb. Muskie defeated Senator George McGovern, 46% to 37%. Yet the media touted Muskie as the loser because they reasoned that, as a New Hampshire neighbor, his winning percentage should have been greater.

 

1976

Georgia’s Democratic Governor Jimmy Carter entered the New Hampshire primary as a total stranger who was referred to as "Jimmy Who?" With only a quarter of the total Democratic votes cast, he defeated Senators Morris K. Udall and Birch Bayh, and went on to win the presidency. Although Carter- was totally unknown when he came into the state he won the primary, from sheer perseverance in a traditional one-on-one grass roots campaign.

In the Republican contest, with 119,880 votes cast, incumbent President Gerald R. Ford defeated former California Governor Ronald Reagan by 1,587 votes for the closest race in presidential primary history.

 

1980

Republican Ronald Reagan topped George Bush and five other major candidates. Reagan had brought the five other uninvited candidates to what was scheduled as a Bush-Reagan, two-man debate in Nashua. When the host denied the "interlopers" the right to speak, Reagan stunned the crowd by taking command: "I paid for this microphone, Mr. Green!"

Congressman John B. Anderson of Illinois, a Republican, received 9.8% of the Republican vote. He needed an extra .2% to qualify for a delegate, so he called for a recount. The recount did not change the percentage and Anderson subsequently left the party, then ran in November as an Independent.

Running on the Democratic ballot, candidate Lyndon R. LaRouche received .0157% of the total Democratic votes cast. Yet he, too, called for a recount. Obviously, he still didn’t win and his percentage was even less after the recount.

Incumbent Democratic President Jimmy Carter was opposed by Senator Edward M. Kennedy, who received only 10% fewer votes than the President. Carter’s weak support from his own party contributed to Reagan’s victory in the fall election.

 

1984

Democratic Senator Gary Hart bested Vice President Walter R Mondale. Subsequently Mondale scored in the press with his repeated question to Hart, "Where's the beef." Eventually, he fell out of public favor because of his indiscreet relationship with Donna Rice.

 

1988

Republican Vice President Bush prevailed over Senator Bob Dole by his reference to Dole as "Senator Straddle," resulting in Dole’s acerbic post-election response, "Stop lying about my record." Bush beat Michael Dukakis in the general election and New Hampshire Governor John Sununu became his Chief of Staff.

 

1992

Incumbent President George Bush was damaged though not defeated by Patrick J. Buchanan because Bush had defaulted from his earlier campaign promise, "Read my lips. No new taxes." Bush went on to lose to Democratic Arkansas Governor Clinton in the general election.

Clinton found himself in deep trouble when challenged about his relationship with Jennifer Flowers. Yet, as the "comeback kid," he survived the victory of favorite son Paul E. Tsongas from neighboring Massachusetts. Clinton thus became the only presidential candidate to succeed to the White House without first winning the New Hampshire primary.

No incumbent vice president running for reelection has ever taken the opportunity to file separately on the ballot as vice president; rather, they have always relied on the popularity of their presidential candidate to reelect them. Former Democratic Massachusetts Governor Endicott Peabody was irritated that Republican Vice President Dan Quayle did not so file. Peabody, to force a vice presidential confrontation, signed up as a Democratic candidate for vice president and, with a friend dressed in a yellow chicken suit, taunted Vice President Quayle to debate as a vice presidential competitor. Quayle never did. but Peabody got 34,633 votes.

 

1996

A political novice, Republican Steve Forbes allegedly spent an all-time record of approximately $3 million in his New Hampshire campaign, probably as much as the combined expenditures of his principal competitors, only to end up in fourth place. General Colin Powell, who said he would not be a candidate for president or vice president, and for whom no organized campaign was undertaken, received 6,414 Republican write-in votes.

 

Richard E. Nixon holds the record for having won the most New Hampshire primaries: three, in 1960, 1968, 1972. When he ran for president in 1960 only fifteen other states and the District of Columbia had primaries.

Except for Bill Clinton in 1996, no incumbent president running for reelection who faced no significant opposition on the party's New Hampshire ballot has ever been defeated for a second term as President: Dwight D. Eisenhower in 1956; Lyndon Baines Johnson in 1964; Richard E. Nixon in 1972; Ronald Reagan in 1984; Bill Clinton in 1996.

Although several women have participated in the primaries, no woman of national stature has ever filed. In 1992, Lenora B. Fulani, running as a Democrat, qualified for $642,497 in federal matching funds, yet only received 402 Democratic votes.

Former Minnesota Governor Harold E. Stassen is the honorary grandfather of the New Hampshire presidential primary, having been on the ballot six times, beginning in 1948, with a pledged delegate who didn’t win.

Resulting from their primary campaign chairmanships two sitting New Hampshire governors, Sherman Adams and John Sununu, were appointed Chiefs of Staff at the White House.

 

http://www.nh.gov/nhinfo/highlights.html

[Guest Virgo Girl]

Hillary, I don't have any money, but i would work for you. CONGRATULATIONS!! I can't wait to cast my ballot in your name, here in CA in our primary. Looking forward to taking it all on Super Tuesday! We need a female president to break through the ultimate glass ceiling. We need a better education system and better healthcare for all Americans. I know you can do it. You are truly an inspiration.

[Guest Hillary Rodham Clinton]

We Democrats are in a hard-fought, spirited campaign that will continue to widen across the nation in the weeks ahead. All of our hopes, dreams, and aspirations for America are wrapped up in this election. And because I've been able to count on you, we're entering this next phase of the campaign with the wind at our back.

 

In New Hampshire, we stood together and showed them what we're made of. We'll have to do it again and again in the days and weeks ahead.

 

This is a huge moment in our effort to lead America toward a more promising future.

 

But we've got a lot of work to do. So let's roll up our sleeves and get to it. Thanks so much for all you do.

 

Sincerely,

 

Hillary Rodham Clinton

[Guest LAW_*]

Wait a minute! There seems to be a voting irregularities with the optical voting ballots in NH. The election integrity community is abuzz with news that candidate Dennis Kucinich will ask for a recount in New Hampshire, and Ron Paul fans have been pushing him to recount as well.

 

The polls accurately predicted to within 1% error EVERY SINGLE CANDIDATE EXCEPT OBAMA/CLINTON. If you look at the pre-vote polls for ALL other candidates, they match up exactly. I mean exactly. Then, it is as if the Clinton/Obama results are reversed. They're both off by 5+% each.

 

Clinton Optical scan 91,717 52.95%

Obama Optical scan 81,495 47.05%

 

Clinton Hand-counted 20,889 47.05%

Obama Hand-counted 23,509 52.95%

 

Watch this never before seen video of the under-the-radar elections contractor John Silvestro as he tangles with master security expert Harri Hursti. One man's private, sole source company programs 81% of the election in New Hampshire, 100% in Connecticut, almost all of Massachusetts and most of Vermont. All Diebold machines are easily hackable, un-recountable and unverifiable. There is NO WAY to verify these results.

 

 

 

 

New Hampshire District Admits Ron Paul Vote Skew Sutton township reported Congressman had zero votes, actual number was 31

 

NEW HAMPSHIRE ELECTION INTEGRITY ADVOCATE NANCY TOBI IS CORRECT:

 

"We have no control over the ballot chain of custody and we have learned the pain from the 2004 Nader recount, in which only 11 districts were counted, chosen by a highly questionable person, and then nothing showed up. Now all we hear is how the Nader recount validated the machines."

 

As Tobi says, "A candidate asking for a recount may well be a tool used to 'prove' everything was okay and then that candidate will be further discredited."

 

I'll go further than that. The only way a recount makes any sense at all in New Hampshire is AFTER an assessment is made of the chain of custody issues. If the chain of custody isn't intact the recount won't be worth a cup of warm spit. quote:Knowing that the greatest opportunities for election fraud are with insiders, this tells us something about what to examine first. If you are a person with inside access in New Hampshire, because any candidate can ask to recount any location, if you plan to manipulate the election you'll want to make sure you can achieve ballot substitution, ballot removal, or ballot stuffing. You need a strategy just in case someone asks for a hand count.

 

The winner of the 2008 presidential election could be decided by flawed, insecure, and hackable electronic voting machines. We need act quickly to secure our elections with paper ballots and audits before November. Congress is poised to consider a new emergency paper ballots bill next week. We need everyone to take the time an contact them.