Texas con gress man and po ten tial pres i den tial can di date Ron Paul ap peared in Lebanon on Fri day as the keynote speaker for a memo r ial din ner spon sored by the Grafton County Re­pub li can Com mit tee. Be fore head lin ing the din ner, Paul had hosted a "lib erty rally" in Ex eter, N.H., ac cord ing to his web site.

The din ner, which took place at Lebanon's Elks Lodge, rec og nized the con tri bu tions and sac­ri fices of mem bers of the U.S. armed forces, ac cord ing to the Grafton County Re pub li can Com mit tee's web site.

This pub lic ap pear ance promises to be one of many can di date sight ings as the cam paign sea son heats up. Win ning the New Hamp shire pri mary, the first pri mary in the na tion, is widely con sid ered to be a cru cial step ping stone to ob tain ing the pres i den tial nom i na tion for ei ther party. Prospec tive Re pub li can can di dates such as busi ness man Don ald Trump, Sen a­tor Rick San to rum, R-Pa., for mer Speaker of the House Newt Gin grich, R-Ga., Rep. Michele Bach mann, R-Minn., and for mer Gov. Mitt Rom ney, R-Mass., among oth ers, have all al ready started to fundraise and make pub lic ap pear ances in New Hamp shire, ac cord ing to The New York Times.

For mer Gov er nor Gary John son, R-N.M., and po lit i cal con sul tant Fred Karger, both can di­dates for the Re pub li can nom i na tion, have al ready spo ken at the Col lege,
The Dart mouth pre vi ously re ported.