LYNDEBOROUGH, N.H. -- Secretary of State Bill Gardner is as much of a New Hampshire tradition as the presidential primary he assiduously protects from all challenges. He may not know every voter in the state, but he knows every vote.
So when I called him two weeks ago and told him I was looking for a place to interview voters who mirrored the outcome of the past two presidential races here and the most recent primary, it wasn't long before he came back with the names of four towns that met my criteria.
I picked Lyndeborough, a tiny crossroads a few miles off Route 101, halfway between Manchester and Keene, because I'd never been there. I missed the Saturday Community Day celebration, with its chicken barbecue and live music, where many voters would have been gathered, because I was tracking two U.S. Senate candidates. But on Sunday I found a shady parking place outside the Village Store, near the window sign advertising "AKC Golden Retrievers. Ready Sept. 8."
When people drove up to replenish their beer supplies or buy a loaf of bread, as a steady procession did, I delayed them long enough to ask a few questions. In four hours, I completed two dozen interviews -- not nearly enough to have any statistical validity but providing lots of insights.
In 2000, President Bush carried New
Hampshire by 7,000 votes, and in 2004, he lost it by 9,000 -- barely 1 percent each time. In Lyndeborough, Bush won by 16 votes, then lost by 7. In last winter's primary, John McCain, who won in New Hampshire, defeated Mitt Romney here by 19 votes, with 158 votes out of 424 cast, and Hillary Clinton had a 32-vote margin over Barack Obama, with 156 votes out of 389 cast, on the way to her first victory of the year.
Everything I heard here points to another close finish in November. There are few visible scars left from the primary. Obama has secured most of the Clinton supporters -- though not without some doubts. Like most of the others interviewed, Gordon Starrweather, the owner-driver at an oil-burner company, said that the economy is "pretty bad." He backed Clinton because he thought she had the best ideas for improving things, but over time he has come to think Obama might be the stronger candidate. Still, he wonders whether Obama will really do what he promises.
On the Republican side, those who backed Romney and Mike Huckabee earlier this year have accommodated themselves to McCain without anxiety. Kenneth Young, bearded and ponytailed, was a Romney voter. He finds McCain "a little liberal for me," but he has no interest in Obama and hopes McCain chooses Romney as his running mate.
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