Primary puts values of retail campaigning to the test

The New Hampshire race promises to be dramatic on the Democratic side as well.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaks during a campaign stop Monday, Feb. 8, 2016, in Hudson, N.H.

For the rest of the Republican field, Tuesday’s results will shed light on which of the more establishment-friendly candidates advance to later contests, including Florida Sen.

Donald Trump is accompanied by his pregnant daughter Ivanka during a New Hampshire rally on Monday.

(Kevin R. Wexler/The Record of Bergen County via AP).

In the week since Mrs Clinton eked out a win in the Iowa caucuses, her campaign has worked aggressively to lower expectations for New Hampshire, where Mr Sanders has maintained a sizeable lead despite Mrs Clinton’s victory there eight years ago against then IL senator Barack Obama. Ted Cruz, who had bested him in Iowa, but against Jeb Bush as well.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich came in second in New Hampshire, but Bush said he doubts his rival will do as well in SC.

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Florida) repeated a line from his stump speech during a Monday-night event in New Hampshire – even after spending the past few days as the focus of attacks for his notable bit of repetition during Saturday’s Republican debate.

The first ballots of the first primary election of -in-the-nation primary were cast early Tuesday in the tiny town of Dixville in northern New Hampshire.

Kicking off the primary in a time-honored tradition, the handful of voters in Dixville Notch, one of three small communities to vote at the turn of midnight, went to the polls. While Clinton remains the favourite in the national race, the win by the Vermont senator could be a springboard into a competitive, drawn-out campaign. A somber New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had dedicated a significant amount of time to New Hampshire, lagged behind and said it was time to “take a deep breath”.

The enthusiasm behind Trump, a real estate mogul who has never held political office, and Sanders, an avowed democratic socialist, underscore the public’s anger with the current political system. Even if neither candidate ultimately becomes their party’s nominee, those who do will have to reckon with the voter frustration they’ve tapped into. For example, a UMass Lowell/WHDH-TV, Boston, poll conducted February 5-7 with 464 likely Republican primary voters and a margin of error of 5.13 percentage points gave the businessman 35 percent support from likely Republican voters.

“We are taking our message to families that are struggling to raise their children in the 21st Century, because as you saw, Jeanette and I are raising our four children in the 21st Century”, Rubio said.

Trump was expressing his surprise that Cruz did not fully embrace waterboarding while they were at a debate last weekend. Still, he closed the final full day of campaigning with a vulgar insult of Mr Cruz.

It was that first ten-minute blitzkrieg, including a vicious broadside from Christie when Rubio fell back repeatedly on his contention that Obama is consciously damaging America, that defined his debate performance, however. The New Jersey governor needled Rubio over his relative inexperience, essentially portraying the first-term senator as a scripted, empty suit married to the same set of talking points. Rival campaigns hoped the moment was enough to give voters pause.

He certainly did in Iowa, where his lead disappeared at the end.

Pace reported from Washington.