Potential presidential candidate Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) traded Capitol Hill for a book signing at a West Lebanon Borders Saturday that drew over 300 people. The senator is the latest in a series of 13 potential presidential candidates to visit the state this year as the 2008 presidential primary races kick off.
McCain, who also appeared at a Political Action Committee fundraiser serving New Hampshire's Republican state senators, a fundraising event for state Sen. Peter Bragdon (R-N.H.), and a town hall-style meeting with U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass (R-N.H.), signed copies of his latest book, "Character Is Destiny."
He follows other potential candidates such as Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who visited on March 11, and Massachusetts Republican governor Mitt Romney, who visited on March 18 and Feb. 14.
Government professor Linda Fowler, whose research interests include elections, said that early attention like McCain's visit is expected.
"New Hampshire is the first real primary, so the newspapers pay a disproportionate amount of attention to it," Fowler said. "These early visits are all about identifying volunteer coordinators, making contacts with local reporters, and meeting the local political activists, the people who are going to be deciding whose primary campaign to work on. These are kind of like scouting trips."
Other reasons to come to New Hampshire include an efficient media market and a population distribution concentrating most voters in a small band of towns, Fowler said, which makes the state a good place for relatively unknown politicians to become more recognized.
Campaigns for this primary will begin even earlier than they might have otherwise because of the lack of a vice president or an incumbent president running, leaving the campaign more open, Fowler said.
Peter Spaulding, a member of the New Hampshire Executive Counsel and McCain's state chairman in the 2000 primary, said McCain's decision to run hinges on the 2006 midterm elections. Either way, McCain will not spend as much time here as he did in 2000 when he was less widely known, Spaulding said.
"If he does run, it'll have to be a national campaign," Spaulding said. "Six years ago he wasn't a national figure. He probably will be here less than he was before."
The crowd seemed very supportive of McCain, Spaulding said.
"A lot of the people [here] are people that were involved in his campaign six years ago and they're ready to go again," Spaulding said. "There are also a lot of people that I don't know and it's positive, not because I don't knaow them but because I think they're out here to support him too."
Thomas Musser '05, who attended the book signing, said he was not surprised by visits this early.
"We're the state for the primaries, so everyone has to run through us. I think it's pretty forward thinking, a preemptive strike," Musser said.
