NHCC Feb. 6, 1999

P2000.
Occasional Reports, Notes and Commentaries on the Road to the White House

New Hampshire: Ready for Business
by Eric M. Appleman

Photos

February 1999

With little more than a year to go until the New Hampshire primary, presidential hopefuls have begun stepping up their activities in the Granite State. A recent cartoon by the Concord Monitor's Mike Marland nicely captures the scene. The drawing shows an electronic clock/temperature indicator like one finds on the signs in front of some banks. However, in addition to "Time" and "Temperature" there is a third setting: "Presidential Candidate Visiting the State Today."

It must be admitted that despite all the candidates in their midst, many of the state's 1,173,000 people are not paying attention to the presidential politicking. An ongoing debate over school funding, resulting from the New Hampshire Supreme Court's controversial Claremont decision last year, has raised the likelihood that a broad-based tax, possibly a state property tax, may be imposed. In a state which has no income or general sales tax, a state whose motto proudly proclaims "Live Free or Die," this may be the biggest debate to face the legislature in decades.

Even on the weekend of the big Christian Coalition gala at the Center of New Hampshire in downtown Manchester, February 6, 1999, people here had other matters on their minds. On February 5 and 6, many families came to the Center to visit the NH Farm & Forest Expo 1999. The Expo, which bills itself as "New Hampshire's Greatest Winter Fair," ran in another part of the complex. Among the exhibits of agriculture equipment and services, Smokey the Bear put in an appearance, the Cardigan Mountain Traditional Band performed and the UNH Woodsmen Team, headed by coach A.J. Dupere, demonstrated axmanship and sawmanship to an appreciative crowd. On Sunday the farm expo had been replaced by a bridal show. People in their 20s and 30s streamed in the hall to look at bridal gowns. For presidential candidates making the rounds in New Hampshire, however, the wooing is just beginning. Over the next year, they will traipse across this state seeking to win over the hearts and minds of its voters.