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Ron Paul spoke tonight at Keene State College, and as is being reported nationally, was “mic checked” by Occupy Keeneat the end of his speech. The occupiers said: “We are the 99%! We will be heard! There are criminals on Wall Street who walk free, there are protesters in jail…There’s something wrong with this system. We are the 99%! We will be heard!” He handled it graciously by smiling throughout and then by asking them if they feel better. He was also sure to point out his agreement with the Occupy Wall St. movement, saying, “I’m very much involved with...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney received a coveted endorsement Sunday from New Hampshire Republican Sen. Kelly Ayotte. Ayotte announced her support for Romney at a rally in Nashua, New Hampshire. Ayotte believes Romney is the GOP’s best chance to defeat President Barack Obama. “I have been impressed by the amount of time Mitt Romney has spent in New Hampshire, holding open town hall meetings, answering the tough questions and listening to voters,” Ayotte said in a Romney campaign press release. Ayotte’s popularity in New Hampshire should help Romney, who skipped a conservative Christian forum in Iowa Sunday where several of...

From New Hampshire’s Union Leader: Cain’s decision was made after a video showed him fumbling an answer about Libya during a newspaper editorial board interview in Milwaukee — and right before he was to do an interview with this newspaper, which we wanted C-SPAN to record and broadcast. That wasn’t going to happen, a Cain campaign spokesman said, because “videos are typically used for television and it’s a newspaper. We decided we didn’t want to do the video.” Videos these days are used by everyone, even random people on the street who record candidates with their cell phones. The difference...

NASHUA, N.H. — Newt Gingrich has made his refusal to launch negative attacks on his GOP rivals a point of pride, but he didn't hesitate to lay out why he thinks he's a superior candidate at a speech here Monday morning. Channeling the oft-repeated comments of what Republican primary voters say they like about him, Gingrich held up his experience and debate skills to contrast himself with the other Republican hopefuls. Continue Reading "If you stop and ask yourself: it's October of 2012, President Obama is spending $1 billion beating up the Republican candidate [and] you get to the debates,...

Ron Paul says that Republicans will be punished if they do not hold the line against tax increases in the super-committee negotiations and argued that his campaign was well situated to challenge Mitt Romney for the Republican nomination in a radio interview with Sean Hannity Thursday. "If we capitulate, they will punish the Republican Party," Paul said in response to questions about proposed tax increases. He also said that Republicans needed to be thinking more dramatically about reducing the federal deficit. "Even if they cut a trillion dollars over the next couple of years from the baseline budget it doesn't...

CONCORD — Both sides of a contentious debate on marriage equality will square off in Concord today. The House Judiciary Committee will consider House Bill 437 to repeal same-sex marriage, which became legal just last year. The bill also would allow civil unions for any unmarried adults competent to enter into a contract — including relatives. The bill's sponsor, state Rep. David Bates, R-Windham, told the Herald on Monday the latest push to repeal gay marriage is meant to correct what he said was a mistake made by the Legislature in 2009. "I, and many people in New Hampshire, believe...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has surged among Republican voters in New Hampshire, and Rick Perry is a distant fourth, according to a Suffolk University/7NEWS (WHDH TV) poll of likely voters in New Hampshire’s GOP presidential primary. Romney has opened up a 27-point lead over his nearest rival in New Hampshire, and pundits may have to rethink predictions of a two-man GOP race between Romney and Perry. Front-runners gaining on pack Romney (41 percent) gained 5 points since June, followed by Ron Paul (14 percent), and Jon Huntsman (10 percent). Huntsman and Paul gained 6 percent each since the last...

WASHINGTON - For much of the past year, Mitt Romney seemed to strenuously avoid looking as if he were too closely linked to the Tea Party. No longer. In an apparent strategic shift, Romney will be standing beneath a Tea Party Express banner in New Hampshire on Sunday night, and by Monday afternoon he will be at a Republican gathering in South Carolina hosted by Senator Jim DeMint, the South Carolina Republican and Tea Party kingmaker. What changed?

WASHINGTON - Representative Michele Bachmann has rapidly gained ground in a new poll of New Hampshire voters, tapping her popularity with Tea Party activists and potentially causing problems for Republican front-runner Mitt Romney. The former Massachusetts governor, who has long dominated polls in the Granite State, had his lead cut to single-digits in a new survey done by Public Policy Polling. Although polls taken six months before voters head to the polls can be unreliable, they can also provide a window into a volatile Republican electorate. Bachmann, a Minnesota Republican, would get 18 percent of the vote, according to the...

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney maintains his wide lead among GOP presidential candidates in New Hampshire, according to a poll released Tuesday evening. But in what may be the real race in the state, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) has crept into a distant second. In the poll, conducted by WMUR and the University of New Hampshire, Romney received support from 35 percent of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, down from 41 percent from last month's WMUR-Univ. of N.H. poll. Bachmann was backed by 12 percent of those polled, a 8-point jump since the last poll, before strong debate performance...

Bottom line. This was a New Hampshire debate, but it has serious ramifications for Iowa as well. I have disparaged the idea that Romney is the frontrunner; I continue to think that given the polls no one is the frontrunner. But Romney behaved like a frontrunner tonight, one with confidence and sense of command and with the adroitness to step aside from two major issue challenges (Romneycare, his various views on abortion) he faces. Romney has wisely eschewed the Iowa caucuses this time, leaving as two major competitors there Pawlenty (from next door Minnesota and a genuine religious conservative) and...

Donald Trump's suddenly surging presidential chances got another boost Tuesday with the release of a poll that measured the business magnate as the second-most-popular choice for Republican primary voters in the crucial early voting state of New Hampshire. Trump picked up the support of 21 percent of state primary voters, behind only 27 percent for Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts, according to the survey from Democratic-leaning firm Public Policy Polling (PPP). "He has more support than even we thought," PPP assistant director Dustin Ingalls said in an interview.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A new poll shows Republican Mitt Romney leading all current GOP challengers by more than 20 points in New Hampshire. A Public Policy Polling survey released this week shows Romney crushing other GOP contenders among New Hampshire Republican voters with 39 percent of the those polled. Sarah Palin came in a distant second at 13 percent, while Newt Gingrich and Mike Huckabee tied for third with 11 percent. Ron Paul came in fifth. 13 percent were undecided.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) will travel to New Hampshire to address the Hillsborough County GOP Lincoln-Reagan dinner March 19, the county committee announced today. Pence is considered a long-shot (at this point) contender for the White House in 2012; he's been making moves as if he has higher office in mind--he added pollster Kellyanne Conway to his political team recently--and the Republican dance card appears to be full in the race to replace Sen. Evan Bayh (D-IN). The trip to New Hampshire will be a definite step in the presidential direction.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, a Republican, will be in New Hampshire next month, raising speculation that he is preparing for a presidential run. Pawlenty will be the keynote speaker at a fundraiser for the Republican Senate Majority Committee, which will be held Dec. 16 at the Grappone Conference Center in Concord. . . . . . Mike Dennehy, a former adviser to McCain's 2008 campaign and a political consultant for Senate Republicans, is helping to organize the event, which will cost $50 a ticket."We set the price to attract as many people who would like to come," Dennehy said.

A new presidential poll has former Bay State Gov. Mitt Romney the early favorite of the GOP pack in New Hampshire for the 2012 primary. Romney was the top pick of 50 percent of Granite State Republicans surveyed, while recently resigned Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tied former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, now a Fox News host, at tallied 17 percent each. Former GOP House Speaker Newt Gingrich was fourth with 13 percent, while highly touted Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty garnered a paltry 3 percent. Romney narrowly lost the 2008 New Hampshire primary to Sen. John McCain.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney leads the Republican presidential field in the home of the nation’s first primary, according to a new poll.

BEDFORD – The Republican party needs to rebuild itself from the bottom up, said Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour last night before addressing a gathering at a New Hampshire State Republican Committee reception. "You're in the White House for eight or 12 years, you become a top-down party, I don't care if these are Republicans or Democrats. When you get out, you're liberated to rebuild your party from the bottom up," he told reporters before a reception at at C.R. Sparks, which was closed to the press. Barbour assumed chairmanship of the Republican Governors Association yesterday, following South Carolina Gov. Mark...

JACKSON, Miss. | If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white-male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour - the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor - the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes as the 61-year-old Mr. Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Mr. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors...

If the Republican Party is in danger of being marginalized as a conservative, white male Southern enclave, is Haley Barbour — the longtime Washington power broker and current Mississippi governor — the best person to turn things around? Many rank-and-file Republicans and party leaders say yes, as the 61-year-old Barbour prepares to ramp up his national profile this month with back-to-back trips to the early presidential voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Barbour will headline fundraisers in both states, but says the visits are part of his duties as incoming chairman of the Republican Governors Association. Both states have...