Why New Hampshire

Below are excerpts from the preface of WHY New Hampshire? , a publication co-authored by Political Library co-founders Governor Hugh Gregg and Secretary of State Bill Gardner.

“Those of us who live in New Hampshire take the Presidential primary for granted, a sort of birthright which we don't pay much attention to until very third year of our existence. Being first hardly explains its consistent appeal to candidates and the media. More likely, it's our unlimited enthusiasm for politics, the fact that we prefer handshakes and voting booths to political polling, and because it remains the quickest, easiest, least expensive and most effective place to start the presidential contest.

The primary was born not in an attempt to be first, and not for any economic benefit to the state, but simply to give more of its citizens a chance to be heard. It would later become first-in-the-nation, as other states either moved to later dates in the calendar or reverted back to a caucus format. Today it has become an event of national significance, although its reason for being has not changed one bit. This is what the New Hampshire primary was meant to be: Let the people decide.

But there's a lot more to it than that. It's fun. It's an adventure. It's enlightening. It's informative. It's one of a kind. It has a history all of its own. Granted, it's special to Granite Staters. Yet the world participates with the TV sound bite and the Internet. Presidential candidates may not shake your hand or come into your living room, but you don't have to live here to enjoy such a sensory experience offered nowhere else. Just turn on your television and participate in it with us.

It gets back to the fact that we're a small state, otherwise frequently unnoticed, but every four years when national elections roll around this is the place to be. This is where it all starts and sometimes finishes. Adam Nagourney writing in the New York Times sums it up when he says New Hampshire “is the last remaining spot in the nation where a regular citizen can shake hands and converse with some one who might very well be the next President of the United States.”
- Hugh Gregg and Bill Gardner
August, 2003

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