Primary Leaves New Hampshire Republicans on Sidelines

During the contentious Republican primary in New Hampshire four years ago, Sandra Ziehm kept her garage full of “McCain for President” lawn signs that she doled out to anyone interested.

But this year, with signs hawking Democrats sprinkled across the state’s snowy countryside and no Republican primary to speak of, Ziehm is feeling unarmed, like a supply sergeant with an empty arsenal.

“The signs go up next door for the Democrats, and people call up and say, ‘Where’s my sign?’ ” said Ziehm, a real estate agent and Republican chairwoman for Nashua, just south of here. “I tell them, ‘Not yet.’ ... We’re really kind of out of the picture.”

For the first time since Ronald Reagan ran for reelection in 1984, New Hampshire Republicans have been benched in the state’s version of the Olympics -- the presidential primaries -- as the Democrats fight it out. And while they insist that, with a Republican in the White House, they have the advantage for the November election, some admit to a little jealousy these days, leavened by some smugness.

“It’s not as much fun for Republicans,” admitted Joe Kelly Lavasseur, head of the Republican committee in Manchester. “But it’s a ... lot of fun watching the Democrats [attack] each other.”

For the record, there will be a Republican primary here. Fourteen candidates are on the GOP presidential ballot, trying to steal New Hampshire’s delegates from President Bush. No serious analysts give any of them a chance. Still, Lavasseur said Bush backers will be out on primary day -- Jan. 27 -- with signs urging Republicans to vote for the president.

But it’s not the same as the knock-down, drag-out fights of the past, like the showdown four years ago when Sen. John McCain of Arizona won the primary and briefly stalled Bush’s march to the nomination, or Patrick Buchanan’s challenge to the elder President Bush in 1992.

“It does seem a little bit strange,” said Bobbi Arnold, a former state representative who has run Republican phone banks here for years. “We’re just waiting for our turn.”

For GOP political junkies, this primary season is like going to a horse track but not being allowed to bet.

“The sport is if you can get in on the ground floor of an unknown candidate that goes all the way to the top,” said Dante J. Scala, a political science professor at St. Anselm College in Manchester. “That’s the Holy Grail -- to be the guy who drove the candidate who became president.”

This time, only Democrats get to drive, and many Republicans feel invisible. National news media swing through the state nearly every day, but don’t stop to ask what the Republicans think.

Local news is filled with “Democrat this” and “Democrat that,” and you can’t go anywhere, it seems, without running into a Democratic contender.

“You get the impression there are only Democrats here,” griped William A. Varkas, 83, a former state legislator and retired high school principal.

That’s not the case, though. New Hampshire has more registered Republicans -- 254,000 in the November 2002 election -- than Democrats, with 177,000. The state’s 260,000 undeclared voters outnumber both parties.

The flood of Democratic activists across the state leading up to the primary can feel like an insurgent force for old-school Republicans like former Manchester Mayor Raymond J. Wieczorek, who had lunch earlier this week at the Puritan Backroom Restaurant, something of a social club for party members on the city’s north end.

As Wieczorek described one of his favorite moments of the 1992 primary -- the surprise overnight appearance of thousands of Bush lawn signs just days before the vote -- he interrupted himself to point out two well-dressed men walking past.

“Those guys, they’re Clark’s people,” he said, referring to Democratic contender Wesley K. Clark. Outside, three volunteers for Howard Dean, the front-runner in the Democratic race, had just finished leafleting cars with a notice about a “surprise” announcement planned in Manchester the next morning (the endorsement of Dean by former Sen. Bill Bradley of New Jersey).

Wieczorek, co-chairman of Bush’s reelection committee in Manchester, is taking notes as the Democrats expose each other’s weak points.

“A lot of the things that are being said by the Democrats about each other, you’re going to hear it again,” Wieczorek said. “They’re going to be like Humpty Dumpty trying to put their candidate back together again, and it isn’t going to be easy.”

Scala said young Republicans in his political science classes are feeling the void of activity on their side of the partisan fence, especially since most students earning a four-year degree only get one shot at involving themselves in a primary as a student -- a critical step to gain both experience and contacts in the political world.

While St. Anselm College Democrats have a wide range of campaigns to volunteer for, Republicans like junior Emily Cantin, 20, are out of the game.

“It gets frustrating,” she said. Cantin has made do by attending Democratic events to see how the candidates perform. “It’s interesting to hear their strategies. And then you think in your head, ‘How would I change that to my side?’ Or, ‘How would I counteract that?’ ”

The battles can be entertaining, too, no matter the generation.

“We’re enjoying what’s happening,” said Paul Pappas, 83, a lifelong Republican who also lunched this week at the Puritan Backroom. “We’re having a good time watching those nuts go after each other.”