Democrats turn an unconventional cold shoulder to New Hampshire

NORTH CONWAY, New Hampshire — The refrigerator is almost empty.

It’s not that the reporters and editors at the Conway Daily Sun are going hungry. Like every newspaper office, this one always has plenty of food around. But one of the lesser-known but more revealing traditions of presidential politics is that when White House candidates travel to the North Country, they stop in at the paper, discuss their campaigns with the staff and then, with a thick Sharpie pen and often with a flourish, sign the refrigerator.

In the last election cycle, 10 candidates affixed their signatures to the Sun’s refrigerator. This time, only four have done so — and not one of them is remotely a top-tier contender.

That newsroom refrigerator is an unscientific but important indicator of a new development in presidential politics. While New Hampshire prizes its possession of the first-in-the-nation primary, in this election cycle it is in danger of being overshadowed by its political rival Iowa, which holds the first caucus of the presidential race eight days before Granite State voters go to the polls.

It is not that New Hampshire is being ignored; the Democratic candidates scheduled some 16 events here last week, a remarkable number for a state with a population of 1.4 million, about the size of the Bronx. Indeed, without much effort on Sunday you could have seen Sen. Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota open her office in Manchester at 10 a.m. and then scoot over to Stratham (30 minutes away on Route 101 east) to see Marianne Williamson and former Rep. Joe Sestak of Pennsylvania at the Stratham Democratic Harvest Fest.

Read more: https://www.cleburnetimesreview.com/opinion/david-shribman-democrats-turn-an-unconventional-cold-shoulder-to-new/article_0a55c716-f05f-11e9-9532-f3b08144f0d9.html