OK, we are ALMOST done with the highest level of State politics – the campaigns have been worked, the primaries run, the elections held, the Speaker of the NH 
House and the President of the NH Senate chosen. Committee assignments have been, well, assigned. Prelim bills have already flowed in, caucuses have formed (and true to form here in prickly, independent NH, multiple caucuses have been formed based on different views on a given subject). The only major items that are still left over are the picking of the respective political party Chairs.
Thus, we are all but done with November 2 and its required follow on events. Other events at the grassroots are STILL in play and still in force with respect to capturing the hearts, minds, and attention – activities at the local level. Like many, I’ve been active at the town level – as a member of my elected Budget Committee. In these latter weeks, much time has been spent as the budgetary season, both municipal and school budgets, is also starting to wind down in anticipation of Town Meeting time here in NH (yeah, I have another post mentally cooking about THAT process as well) that will be in force in a few short months.
Thus, for political wonks, activists, and obsessives…
…, attention will start to turn towards, oh joy, the 2012 Presidential Primary process here in NH. Make no mistake, we are at Ground Zero – already, the Wanna-Bees have been streaming into the State over the last few months and tentative efforts have been made in establishing their ground games.
Ground games? You bet – NH is still, even with the massive amounts, the STAGGERING amounts of money spent on radio ads and TV ads, a hotbed of "retail" politics; that old joke still holds "Don’t know him just yet – only met him three times so far". If you want to succeed here, you have to go to all the nooks and crannies and meet with each and every small group, shake their hand, look them in your eye, and say your speech. Warning: PLEASE – after the 5th time, start changing up the spiel – many of us go to multiple meetings and we can tell the difference between memorized words and real belief in and behind those words (OK, Obama was an outlier – but he fooled the entire country).
We take politics serious here (and in NH) – I remember covering an event on Jan 1 in a blizzard – the room at the local VFW was PACKED. Wind? Cold Temperatures? Blowing snow? Mere nuisances – that’s why the Good Lord gave us Bean Boots, Mackinaws and flannel shirts (OK, I like Rugby shirts better), wood stoves, four wheel drive, plows and shovels.
You’ll be seeing our shift in coverage over the next few weeks – because that’s just what we do. We’ve already talked to Herman Cain, Rick Santorum, Gary Johnson, and Tim Pawlenty. Others have been here, but WE haven’t had the opportunity to get up and get to those events….we gotta work on that!
We don’t know all of the stances of all the folks that have been listed all over the blogosphere at all the usual sites; it will take us a while yet to sort things all out. Unlike the recent elections, we’re not going to be making a decision at any time fairly soon. This last Nov 2 was an absolutely critical one in firewalling the socialism onslaught facing both NH and from DC, thus the ‘Grok endorsed and endorsed early; then, each and everyone of us worked out tails off to help out our candidates. When I look back at our record, we did pretty good in helping out.
This Prez cycle is very important – but the firewall is now impenetrable here in NH. A SERIOUS monkey wrench has been placed in DC into the socialism gears by way of the US House and will be aided in the US Senate (this statement presume that the Republicans don’t muck it up now that they have regained power; after all, they are now all politicians).
The ‘Grok will take its time and evaluate carefully who is running under what flag and which stances before any endorsements are handed out. Sure, we may end up with "the candidate" well before the primary, but we want to hear AND GET feedback from all of them before we pull a trigger.
True – each blogger here may well announce their own favorite(s) earlier than the formal ‘Grok endorsement; we all have that "Go Ahead!" and I expect that it may well be used. Be sure, however, that whoever does may see challenges from the others!
If nothing else, it shall be interesting!
