While N.H. eyes are on GOP candidates, Obama and Democrats work quietly
While all eyes in New Hampshire are on the Republican presidential primary, the Democratic campaign apparatus of President Obama is quietly gearing up for the general election.
Last weekend, Obama’s grassroots organization Organizing for America had staff and volunteers fan out across 20 cities and towns in the state, knocking on thousands of doors.
With Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick in attendance, the campaign opened its first regional office, in Portsmouth, to complement its Concord headquarters.
There are plans to open an office in Manchester in the next several weeks, and other regional offices thereafter. The campaign already has 20 paid staffers in New Hampshire, mostly devoted to recruiting grassroots supporters.
In addition, Vice President Joe Biden has visited twice since May – once last month to put the president’s name on the 2012 primary ballot. Biden is scheduled to return Thursday for the Nackey S. Loeb School of Communications First Amendment Award event.
While New Hampshire has just four electoral votes, it’s expected to be a battleground state in the unfolding campaign.
“If this is a real tight election, as many are predicting, then New Hampshire’s four votes will matter,’’ said Jim Demers, a lead supporter for the president’s state campaign and co-chair of his 2008 campaign. “I think that New Hampshire will definitely be a targeted state for the Obama campaign.’’
Although Obama won New Hampshire in 2008 with 54 percent of the vote, his victory is not assured this time.
Republican candidates won all the open congressional seats in the 2010 election and took control of the state Legislature. Obama’s approval ratings have dropped from 66 percent in February 2009 to 41 percent in October 2011, according to polling by the University of New Hampshire Survey Center.
“In 2008, New Hampshire was considered a state with a Democratic tilt to it,’’ said Dante Scala, associate professor of political science at the UNH. “Now, all indications are that President Obama’s having an exceptionally difficult time in New Hampshire for a state that voted for him three years ago.’’
A big part of that is dissatisfaction with the economy – which is also hurting Obama nationally.
Scala said the tenor of the national Republican Party, which is more focused on fiscal issues than social issues, fits well with the ideology of New Hampshire Republicans. And Scala said independent voters who disliked President George W. Bush’s high rates of spending have turned against Obama because of the incumbent’s continued deficit spending.
If former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney wins the Republican nomination, Obama will have a greater challenge.
Romney was governor of neighboring Massachusetts and has a summer home in Wolfeboro, N.H. Polls conducted by the UNH between February and October have shown Romney with a slight lead over Obama in a head-to-head matchup – though Obama would likely beat the other top-polling Republicans.
Frank Benenati, regional press secretary for Obama for America, said the campaign will not take the state for granted.
“Were going to be heavily invested in New Hampshire, to make sure we have all the resources necessary to ensure we keep it blue in 2012,’’ he said.
So far, the Obama campaign has focused on building up grassroots support – an area where Obama was enormously successful in 2008.
Benenati said additional days of action, phone banks, house parties, voter registration drives, and canvasses are planned.
“This year is both about building up our camping infrastructure, and drawing a clear contrast between the president’s record of accomplishment and the extreme right wing agenda of the Republican Party,’’ Benenati said.
While the Democratic National Committee and the state Democratic Party have focused on attacking Romney, Obama campaign activists declined to single out the GOP frontrunner before the Republicans have chosen their nominee.
Demers said the message of the campaign will be contrasting Obama’s views with those of all the Republican candidates on issues that could sway independent voters – for example, abortion.
Recognizing the frustration many Americans have with Washington, the campaign will try to pin the blame for inaction on the Republicans in Congress, while deflecting it from Obama.
“There’s a feeling that the Republican candidates and the Republicans in Congress are blocking good jobs legislation for pure partisan reasons, and that I don’t think will play well in the general election,’’ Demers said.
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