CONCORD, N.H. (Jan.8)—Vote for the person, not the party.
That’s the sense Scott Daniels gets from the voters of New Hampshire.
“They take it seriously. They like to be independent and not be influenced by anything other than what they hear from the candidates,” Daniels said.
Daniels, 49, graduated from Pittsford-Sutherland High School in 1986 and is a partner in the law firm Davis, Bujold and Daniels in Concord, N.H. In the area, he said, every candidate has stopped by to meet the voters and make their issues known. “Literally within two blocks of my office I can see every candidate,” he said. “I can meet them, I can shake their hand.”
On primary day, independents in New Hampshire can choose to vote for a candidate in either the Democratic or Republican primaries. As a registered independent, Daniels pays close attention to candidates from both parties.
“Here in New Hampshire, probably more than anywhere else in other parts of the country,” Daniels said, “these candidates have to appeal to an independent voter who will change parties year to year.”
Among the Democrats, Daniels favors Bill Richardson, the governor of New Mexico. Both Richardson and fellow Democrat John Edwards, former senator of North Carolina, have built followings in New Hampshire, said Daniels, because of the comparatively large number of independent voters here.
“I think there’s some sympathy toward them because of the independents in New Hampshire,” he said. “People take a look at those other than the front-runners.”
On the Republican side, Daniels prefers John McCain, partly because of the time and energy McCain has spent reaching out to New Hampshire voters. “John McCain probably considers New Hampshire his second home, other than Arizona,” he said. ‘He’s been here for quite a while, quite a bit more than the other candidates.”
Daniels acknowledges another group in New Hampshire who can swing the vote—those who cross party lines. “In our family here,” Daniels said,
“I know some die-hard Republicans who will vote for a Democrat if they don’t like a Republican candidate.”
Esther Kennedy, 42, of Portsmouth, N.H., is also a registered independent. Kennedy graduated from Marcus Whitman High School in Rushville, N.Y., in 1983.
In this election, she’s leaning toward the politicians who “aren’t afraid to go against the grain.” She cites Republican McCain and Democrat John Edwards as examples. “Edwards has not taken any money from lobbyists from campaigning,” she said. “I might not agree with his thoughts but he’s not swayed by the power of finance.”
But she’s still deciding on which party to align with.
Kennedy, who previously campaigned for city council in Portsmouth, also credited candidates who take the extra effort to make a connection with New Hampshire voters.
“Rudy Giuliani and Fred Thompson are just being kicked around,” she said. “People are angry they’re not going through the process here. People are angry they have chosen to basically ignore the state and Iowa.”
Independents like Kennedy hear from campaigns candidates in every party. “I think yesterday I had 22 phone calls,” she said. “And eight different flyers for Hillary Clinton.” To New Hampshire voters, she said, there’s an obligation to closely review each candidate.
And this year, Kennedy’s parents visited from Canandaigua, N.Y., to experience the primary chaos. She also brought relatives to local campaign headquarters while they were visiting for New Year’s to get them hooked on the process. In one of those New Hampshire political moments, they met Democrat Dennis Kucinich, congressman of Ohio.
“We were eating lunch and Kucinich came into the restaurant we were in,” she said. “He spent time with my niece and her two cousins talking about their interest in a college.”
It’s the personal touch of candidates that gets the vote during the New Hampshire primaries, Kennedy said. “Each candidate,” she said, “just takes on their own personality.”
(Melissa Daniels, a sophomore newspaper and music history major, is covering the New Hampshire primary for the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle.)
-30-
