Granite, Gold, and the Presidential Nomination

It was one of those rare and brief moments when I wasn't online. The phone rang, joyfully doing something it hardly ever gets the chance to do, and I was startled, being unaccustomed to the sound. It was the Honorable William Gardner, Secretary of State of New Hampshire. We talked for an hour and a half about the California Plan to reform the presidential nomination process, New Hampshire's historical position as the "first in the nation" presidential primary, and the Granite State's unique political culture.

As one would expect, he presented an impassioned defense of New Hampshire's position. I assured him that while I have argued against Iowa and New Hampshire retaining their preferential treatment, I am open to counterarguments. Secretary Gardner was remarkably persuasive. I pointed out that the California Plan could be modified to keep New Hampshire in its current position as the lead-off state. The California Plan's first round calls for any combination of states and territories counting as a total of eight congressional districts, and since New Hampshire has two districts, other jurisdictions counting as six districts would round out this first set of primaries and caucuses, with New Hampshire leading the others by a week. In any case, this is a compromise to be hammered out in the deliberations of the Democratic National Committee's recently empanelled Commission on Presidential Nomination Scheduling and Timing, which will issue its report at the end of this year.

More importantly, Secretary Gardner and I recognized our common ground in wanting to preserve the door-to-door nature of campaigning in small, early states, with a gradual ramping up of the campaign that allows this "retail politicking" to continue as long as possible before minor candidates get overwhelmed by big-budget campaigns carpet-bombing the air waves in huge media markets. While Secretary Gardner wants New Hampshire to begin the campaign, he doesn't want it to end the campaign as well, as we saw happen last year.

Several times, Secretary Gardner invited me to come to New Hampshire and see for myself how their presidential primary process works and its uniquely intimate venues. The way he described it, it sounded more like interviewing for a job than running for a public office. That must be something to see! I promised him that I'd come to New Hampshire in two or three years... on the campaign trail.