They’re Off and Running

January 8, 2012

BY DICK METHIA

 Iowa has spoken. Sort of. Iowa caucus voters’ historically strong voice was a mumble this year with three candidates sharing top honors.  The top Republican vote getters in the farm state left Wednesday morning for even frostier New Hampshire in search of The Mandate. Between now and January 10, Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul will battle it out in the snow banks of the Granite State while also-ran, Newt the Grinch, pelts them all with dirty snowballs. And thus begins the quadrennial circus known as the U.S. presidential election cycle.

For folks who would rather track the Kardashians’ antics than pay attention to this strange process, a word of explanation. Why does Iowa have such a prominent place in the electoral cycle? Simple. The state has more cows than people. When you live within sniffing distance of a herd, you recognize the aroma of manure. Iowa voters are given the task of herding out the candidates whose campaigns don’t pass the sniff test. This year caucus voters (can we call them Caucasians?) sent Rick Perry packing back to Texas and silenced Michele Bachmann, no easy feat.

Now on to New Hampshire. The state’s motto is “Live Free or Die.” Hardly welcoming. New Hampshire primary voters are intolerant of blow-hard politicians. Like Iowans, citizens in the Granite State expect “retail politics” from candidates. No million-dollar TV commercials, no billboards, no robo-calls. They want to shake candidates’ hands and stare into their eyes to get a peek into their souls (or whatever lurks within).

Folks in New Hampshire love their first-in-the-nation primary. It gives stature and influence to a state whose lowly electoral votes (4) would otherwise prompt candidates to snub it. The state thumbs its nose at the Iowa caucus because it doesn’t count. Former New Hampshire Governor John Sununu famously crowed, “The people of Iowa pick corn, the people of New Hampshire pick presidents.”  A bit of an exaggeration.

Remember Presidents Harold Stassen, Henry Cabot Lodge, Pat Buchanan, Estes Kefauver and Hillary Clinton?  Iowans like to remind Gov. Sununu that all these candidates won the New Hampshire primary.

So why New Hampshire? Its population is only 1.3 million, roughly the number of drivers on the Los Angeles freeway during rush hour. The state is hardly a representative sample of America. Its population is 94% white. The only whiter region in the U.S. is the crest of the Rocky Mountains in winter.

What New Hampshire does have is a whopping percentage of independents and massive media attention. The only event that attracts more media than the N.H. primary is a Lindsay Lohan arraignment. A quirk of the state’s primary law is that independents can vote in either party’s primary. Because independent voters are the heavyweights who ultimately decide modern presidential elections, New Hampshire’s primary provides an important insight into whom they favor.  The other reason Granite State voters love all this attention in January is that if they don’t ski or make maple syrup, what else is there for them to do?