Or maybe this one.
Or perhaps this is more to your liking.
I am ready.
Posted on 01/03/2008 3:07:25 PM PST by pissant
MANCHESTER, N.H. – There's an unspoken rule in presidential campaigns: If the polls show you ahead, you tell anyone who will listen. If they have you behind, you say it's not the polls that matter, it's the voters.
But when you're struggling to reach 1 percent in the polls – and a coffee shop patron asks, “You're a Colorado senator, right?” – it's tough to make that argument.
Especially if you're Duncan Hunter, Republican congressman from Alpine.
Undeterred, Hunter tromps through this frosty state, dutifully shaking hands at bagel shops, passing out campaign literature to anybody who will take it and making the obligatory rounds on radio and TV stations.
He is forging ahead using tried-and-true tactics for New Hampshire, albeit on a small scale given his meager campaign finances. Although he is essentially skipping today's Iowa caucuses and is overshadowed by just about every other candidate here, Hunter continues to talk of placing third – at least – in this state's first-in-the-nation primary on Tuesday.
“It's still a very wide open race,” said Hunter, whose assets include an affable, unhurried manner, but whose liabilities include long-winded policy discussions that reflect his decades of service in Congress.
“The only thing that stands between us and high numbers in the polls right now are media coverage and money,” he said.
Two pretty big things.
With his all-volunteer campaign staff and shoestring budget, Hunter figured that his dwindling dollars – $132,000 as of last count – are better spent here than in Iowa. Overall, he has raised $1.9 million, compared with the tens of millions raised by the top-tier candidates.
“We've got limited ammunition, and we're using it here,” he said of the Granite State, where retail politics is king and the last-minute decisions of independent voters can boost a seemingly obscure candidate into the national limelight.
But Hunter has no real advance operation, no security guys, no sign-waving supporters as a backdrop. In fact, there hardly appears to be a game plan.
While other candidates orchestrate their appearances days or weeks in advance, Hunter phones press aides from a Concord coffee shop to hear what they've managed to schedule from hour to hour. Were it not for the volunteer who accompanies him around the state – a former radio host and father of six who's nursing a bad cold – Hunter would be an entourage of one.
Nevertheless, he visits all the right diners and coffee hangouts. Four of his TV ads run on local and cable stations at the top of the hour (Cost: $40,000). His radio spots run 15 times a day ($15,000). Glossy, colorful pamphlets jammed with pictures of his relatives recently went to Republican mailboxes ($56,000). And yesterday, 63,000 copies of the state's major newspaper, the New Hampshire Union Leader, included Hunter campaign literature.
Still, the most recent poll – released by the Suffolk University Political Research Center – shows Hunter drawing support from less than 1 percent of state voters. So low is his standing that the sponsors of two televised GOP debates this weekend will probably exclude him. People are already talking about his next move and whether he's auditioning for an appointment (defense secretary?) if a Republican wins the White House.
But it's another campaign tradition to keep your game face on to the bitter end.
“My motto in politics is never complain,” Hunter said. “My trademark for 26 years has been, 'Don't whine. Keep working' ”
It's not that Hunter doesn't have a solid message. Other candidates picked up on his push to build a border fence long after Hunter promoted it. His argument that China's policies hurt U.S. trade and jobs can be convincing. And few can match Hunter's credentials as a Vietnam War veteran and former House Armed Services Committee chairman who speaks as fluently about “roadside bomb jammers” as he can about “anti-mortar capabilities.”
But Hunter's problems of low visibility and lack of money are compounded because so many well-known conservatives are in the race, said Alan Abramowitz, an expert on electoral politics at Emory University in Atlanta.
Hunter's issues – or his delivery of them – don't strike an emotional chord the way “family values” do. That could be one reason why former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee has been able to break away from the second-tier candidates and Hunter – a socially conservative Baptist like Huckabee – has not.
“Huckabee has focused a little more on some of the social issues that appeal particularly to the evangelicals, while Hunter has focused more on things such as immigration,” Abramowitz said.
Perhaps more important, Hunter does not share the personal touch exhibited by Huckabee, whose ability to connect with voters has been well-documented.
Fergus Cullen, chairman of the New Hampshire Republican Party, said Hunter may also be hurting because he hasn't been in the state as much as the other candidates.
“To do well in New Hampshire, you have to show up and work for people's support,” Cullen said. “Other candidates who haven't shown up are also suffering in the polls.”
Those rumors have been thoroughly refuted by the Thompson campaign.
This IS crunch time people!!!
Going off to balance my checkbook to see how much more I can donate....
Thank you Lexinom : )
Thank You logic. : )
Or maybe this one.
Or perhaps this is more to your liking.
I am ready.
Won’t be the first time:’) (I’ve been a Republican less than a year)
memo; Anything more than a five second soundbite is long winded!!!
good Lord! Is our counrty REALLY that SCREWED?
I’m a Conservative. I guess that makes me something like a freedman.
As a result of your post, I have just decided that, if Hunter drops out, I will NOT be supporting Thompson. He might have been a consideration before, but not now. Hunter’s tenacity, his experience and his fine character set him well above the rest. I’ll support him until he gives up or wins.
And I’m sending another donation to his campaign.
“But Hunter’s problems of low visibility and lack of money are compounded because so many well-known conservatives are in the race...”
Like who?
Anyway, I’m sticking with Hunter, as are most of you. His perseverence is amazing, so the least we can do is continue with our support!
Can you write him in in your state? I know I’ve been seriously considering it here.
Godspeed to Duncan Hunter.
Just sent him $20, the fifth time I donated to his campaign.
I would be consumed with political guilt if someone as decent and solid as Duncan Hunter were to be in debt for the noble act of running for President. (I support someone else, but they don’t need the money nearly as bad)
I can’t say I’m enthused about Duncan’s chances, but I certainly support his effort and candidacy. And I would certainly be thrilled and right there to help should Duncan suddenly catch fire and win.
I am voting Duncan in the primary and in the general, even if I have to write him in.
I think so. We finally have a state chairman for his campaign and we’re going to be collecting signatures to get his name on the ballot for the primaries. I work in the courthouse. I’ll stop in at voters and see if we can do a write-in in the November elections. Although, I believe we can.
I like that:’)
“memo; Anything more than a five second soundbite is long winded!!!
good Lord! Is our country REALLY that SCREWED?”
Pretty much.
Just the medias way of dissing a good man with a wonderful record. People want movie stars and fluff these days, and have difficulty recognizing a good man when they see one.
What do you expect from a populus that spends its spare time watching Oprah Winfrey and Reality TV, and think they both matter?
Has he been on Dan Rea’s WBZ program? He’d reach all of NH and Rea would love to have him...
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