Free Republic

Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and Rand Paul are in. Donald Trump is out.A total of 14 candidates will participate in the Voters First Republican Presidential Forum on Monday, Aug. 3, at St. Anselm College. The two-hour forum,intended to highlight the importance of the first-in-the-nation primary,along with the Iowa caucuses and South Carolina’s early primary.“I am in the North Country today,” Bush said Thursday,“meeting with voters about my message of reforming the culture in Washington. I’m looking forward to participating in the August 3rd forum. It’s clear it is a great opportunity to engage with Granite Staters about the important issues...

Donald Trump has surged to the lead in the New Hampshire GOP presidential primary and virtually erased Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker’s advantage in the Iowa caucuses, according to new NBC News/Marist polls released Sunday. In Iowa, Walker still tops the field with 19 percent, the poll shows — only two points ahead of Trump, who garners 17 percent. Interviews for the poll began on July 14 — the day after the Walker campaign’s launch event in Wisconsin. The only other candidate in double digits is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 12 percent. Those lagging behind include a number of...

<p>Many New Hampshire "house parties" for candidates, for example, are a logistical hassle for both guests and journalists, who often have to park at a considerable distance and walk the rest of the way. Not at a Trump house party. For Trump's recent gathering in neighboring Bedford, his campaign arranged for the use of a nearby church parking lot, and then rented large white vans (marked "TRUMP") to shuttle the 200 or so guests in air-conditioned comfort. When Trump arrives, it's in one of two matching black SUVs. When he walks, he is surrounded by a phalanx of a half dozen guys wearing dark suits and earpieces—more than the number of real agents typically surrounding Hillary Clinton, who, as the spouse of a former president, actually is entitled to Secret Service protection.</p>

A line of people stretched outside Joey's Diner in Amherst Thursday morning ahead of Scott Walker's first New Hampshire campaign event in more than a month. Call it pent-up demand; call it curiosity; call it a candidate’s emerging base of support. Whatever it was, this much was true: the crowds waiting to see the Wisconsin governor were too big for the restaurant to hold. So the campaign staff improvised, backing up a red pickup truck to the front door. "Were going to try to fit as many people inside the diner, standing-room only, after he arrives," one staffer told the...

Maybe money can't buy happiness, but it sure can buy the framework of a presidential campaign. Just ask Donald Trump. The real-estate developer-turned reality TV star has never formally run for political office before, yet has put together a New Hampshire operation using a pretty simple plan: purchasing one off the shelf, in this case by hiring top staff away from Koch brothers-backed Americans for Prosperity.

Among likely Republican primary voters, former Florida Gov. Bush picked up 14 percent, while the billionaire real-estate mogul Trump grabbed 11 percent. Most respondents—29 percent—are undecided.

Nah, I’m just kidding. This is an outlier. Isn’t it? Carly Fiorina ahead of Chris Christie and Ted Cruz in New Hampshire? C’mon, I … can totally believe that, actually, given the state’s fondness for outsiders and “mavericks. In fact, for a supposed outlier, the only number in this poll that’s strikingly out of sync with other recent polls of New Hampshire is Jeb’s. He’s fully 10 points higher than he was in Bloomberg’s poll of the state last month. Maybe not coincidentally, the other noticeable gainer is Donald Trump, who was at five points two months ago in a...

Condescending Hillary Clinton tells autograph-seeker to 'go to the back of the line' on campaign trail in New Hampshire Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton may be busy with retail politcs on the campaign trail but she expects that her supporters have time to wait in line to get her autograph. The former Secretary of State greeted fans outside an event at the Smuttynose Brewey in Hampton, New Hampshire, when she was approached by a woman asking for her signature on what appeared to be a photo of Clinton.. 'Go to the end of the line,' the candidate informs the woman, who...

U.S. Sen. Bob Smith, Rep. Bill O’Brien, Councilor David Wheeler to Chair Cruz NH Leadership Team of more than 40 conservative leaders across the stateHOUSTON, Texas — U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, today announced more than 40 New Hampshire conservatives to his state leadership team, to be led by former U.S. Senator Bob Smith, New Hampshire Representative and former Speaker William O’Brien, and Executive Councilor David K. Wheeler.“I am thrilled to have all of these courageous conservatives join our campaign in New Hampshire and honored to have Bob Smith, Bill O’Brien and David Wheeler leading this team,” said Sen. Cruz....

When Ted Cruz next returns to New Hampshire, he’ll have a team of at least 42 activists – including a few of the state’s top conservatives – working with him to bolster his showing in the first-in-the- nation primary, where the most conservative candidates have struggled in recent years. Former speaker of the House Bill O’Brien, former U.S. senator Bob Smith and Executive Councilor David Wheeler announced they’d be the foundation of Cruz’s leadership team yesterday in Concord. The big three took the stage in the lobby of the Legislative Office Building in front of a group of the Texas...

As predicted in an article three days ago, before Governor Hassan  had made a definite statement, she says that she will veto the New Hampshire constitutional carry bill.   The bill has passed both the Senate and the House, but not by veto proof margins.  From unionleader.com: CONCORD — Before the House could take a vote Wednesday, Gov. Maggie Hassan said she would veto a bill that would repeal the requirement for a concealed firearms permit. The House passed the measure by at 212-150 margin. Governor Hassan did not explain why the requirement for a permit was necessary, given that...

New Hampshire has always been a state that seemed likely to be one of the first to pass constitutional carry, which allows people who may legally own guns to carry them either openly or concealed without a permit. While attempts have been made in the past several years, various mishaps have resulted in no bill being passed.  Sister state Vermont has the longest border with New Hampshire, and Vermont has had constitutional carry since 1791, and one of the lowest crime rates in the nation. This year House Bill 582 was killed in the criminal justice committee, and it...

MANCHESTER — The father of a Hallsville School fourth-grader wants the principal reprimanded, or fired, for allowing an anti-bullying exercise that asked students to curse in class. Keith Katsikis said he and his wife have pulled their three Hallsville students out of the school after they found out about the exercise he believes is inappropriate for children. Katsikas has started a petition calling for the firing of Hallsville principal Christi Michaud. He also sent copies of his letter to the school superintendent, school board members, the mayor, aldermen and the woman who presented the exercise. “I wanted to make sure...

"...Mr. Walker is the top presidential choice for 24 percent of GOP primary voters, according to the poll out Wednesday from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling. ....Mr. Walker was viewed most favorably by GOP primary voters; 57 percent had a favorable opinion of him, compared to 13 percent who had an unfavorable opinion. He also led among a swath of the potential primary electorate, winning over GOP voters who identified themselves as “moderate,” “somewhat conservative” and “very conservative.”....

Two weeks ago, I noticed that national polling and noted that the media-fueled boomlet for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker might be fading. If that’s true, it’s a phenomenon that is not apparent in a recent poll of GOP primary voters in New Hampshire. The results of a new NH1 survey conducted by the Republican firm Reach Communications from April 8 – 9 suggests that Walker’s appeal to the Republican electorate in this critical Northeaster state continues to grow. The survey found Walker leading with almost 23 percent of the vote, well outside the survey’s 3.0 percent margin of error. Former...

A new poll shows New Hampshire Republicans leaning toward Scott Walker over Jeb Bush, with Rand Paul, who announced his candidacy and visited the Granite State this week, in third place. The NH1 poll released Friday shows Walker, the Wisconsin governor, leading Bush, 23 percent to 17 percent – outside the margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Paul, the first-term Kentucky senator, is at 15 percent.

McDonald’s announced that over 90,000 employees will receive a pay raise effective July 1, 2015. After recent employee protests and slow sales, McDonald’s appears to be raising salaries to solve employee relation problems and improve it’s image with consumers.

Opponents of the bill are fearful that making it easier to carry a concealed handgun will create a charged environment where gun violence could quickly escalate. Zandra Rice Hawkins, Executive Director of Granite State Progress, said that allowing for constitutional carry will simply gut already weak gun laws. "In New Hampshire, it is already easier to legally carry a handgun than it is to legally drive a car," Hawkins told the Union Leader."SB 116 would make that worse. It is reasonable to deny concealed carry permits to those who are a danger to themselves or others."

A new poll of New Hampshire GOP primary voters from the Boston Herald and Franklin Pierce University finds Jeb Bush and Scott Walker are tied at 15 percent support, with a slew of other likely candidates close behind in the first presidential primary of the cycle. Here's the Herald on the implications of the survey: Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush has lost his front-runner edge in New Hampshire, not because GOP voters are sick of the Bush family but because conservatives are roundly rejecting him, a new Franklin Pierce University-Boston Herald poll shows. Bush is tied with Wisconsin Gov. Scott...

Focus group work by Bloomberg Politics suggests both Hillary Clinton and Jeb Bush are vulnerable in New Hampshire. Democrats are questioning Clinton’s use of a private email account while she was secretary of State, while GOP voters question whether Bush is conservative enough, according to the work by Bloomberg Politics and Purple Strategies. While the voters in the focus group say they would still back Clinton, they questioned whether the perception of secrecy surrounding the email account would hurt her and said that they supported a third-party examination of her email server to put the issue to bed. Bloomberg and...