New Hampshire’s Turn for Week in the Spotlight

Across New Hampshire on Monday night, many voters were glued to their TV screens as they watched the returns from the Iowa caucuses. Campaign workers for the Democratic hopefuls were riveted too, as they geared up for a weeklong blitz here that will end next Tuesday with the nation’s first presidential primary.

“It’s fantastic, it’s unimaginable, and we’re definitely going to be celebrating,” said Colin Van Ostern, press secretary for Sen. John Edwards, after results showed his candidate in second place in Iowa.

Several dozen volunteers were planning to greet the North Carolina senator in the wee hours this morning at the Concord, N.H., airport, but most planned to get a good night’s sleep and hit the phones again at the opening of business today.

Polls suggest that many likely New Hampshire primary voters remain undecided, and some watched to see which campaigns were gathering steam -- and therefore perhaps worth their vote -- and which seemed to be fading.

Others sat nervously to see whether their candidate would emerge strengthened or weakened from what was a bruising Iowa contest.

But Steve Doyle, a car salesman here, said he doubted the caucus results would sway a state full of notoriously strong-minded voters.

“No matter what happens in Iowa, we’re not going to vote for their winner,” Doyle said. “We’re very independent here in New Hampshire. Our results could be completely different.”

Stopping by the local Uno’s to pick up a pizza, Doyle said he nevertheless was eager to monitor the Iowa results from his home in nearby Hillsboro.

“I’m a Republican, but I want to see what’s going on with these Democrats,” he said. He also said he took a certain pleasure in seeing the pollsters confounded in Iowa.

“The polls, I don’t think they’ve ever been right,” Doyle said. “Not here anyway.”

Stocking up for a night of politics and spin, Greg Meyer emerged from a Manchester grocery store Monday afternoon with beer, soda, pretzels and chips.

“It’s not as fun as the Super Bowl,” the 34-year-old said of caucus-watching, “but it’s still a good show.”

But some New Hampshirites, steeped in a process that began a full year ago, preferred other forms of entertainment. At a Manchester pub called P.J. O’Sullivan’s, bartender Jason Michaud reserved the establishment’s big-screen TVs for basketball.

“Politics are getting rather annoying,” the 28-year-old said. “I don’t pay attention anymore. I’m just watching the game.”

Michaud said he was thinking about voting in next week’s primary.

“But I don’t know,” he said. “I just haven’t found anybody I want to cast a ballot for.”

The news and punditry from Iowa had barely quieted when the major candidates hopped on planes for New Hampshire.

Edwards was scheduled to appear first in the Granite State, landing at Concord this morning at 2:30. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean was expected to follow at 3:15 a.m., with a rally awaiting him on the tarmac in the coastal city of Portsmouth.

With his victory in Iowa forecast Monday night, Kerry planned a celebration at the airport here soon after his 6:45 a.m. arrival.

Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, who bypassed the Iowa caucuses, left little time in his 16-hour campaign schedule Monday to muse on the results from Iowa. Lieberman spoke at a New Hampshire town meeting as the first results were coming in, then appeared on “Larry King Live.”

Then Lieberman raced to yet another event and, as the clock ticked late into the night, he stopped by his Manchester campaign headquarters to pump some spirit into his volunteers.

After a quick trip Monday to South Carolina, retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark flew back to New Hampshire and rushed directly to his campaign headquarters to rally his troops.

Clark campaign spokesman Jamal Simmons called the early results from Iowa evidence that “there’s no frontrunner in this race anymore. If these results hold up, all bets are off.”