Across New Hampshire, campaign vigor unavoidable

MANCHESTER, N.H. — You don’t have to turn on the news to know it’s game time in New Hampshire.

With less than three days until the first-in-the-nation primary that will leave a heavy imprint on the GOP race, the air in the Granite State is thick with campaign energy.

“Who are you supporting?” asks the car-rental attendant through a thick accent.

{mosads}“Vote for Ron Paul! He’s the guy!” shouts the woman in the auto-dealer parking lot at anyone who will listen.

Even on the Top 40 radio station, the DJ implores listeners to call in to the request line to weigh in on who they think should win New Hampshire’s support in the Republican presidential contest.

“The eyes of the nation are on us here in New Hampshire,” the DJ says before cutting to a commercial break — which aptly kicks off with a Ron Paul ad lambasting Rick Santorum as a “serial hypocrite” and big-government advocate.

Although some candidates are taking the contest in New Hampshire more seriously than others — Rick Perry has essentially written the state off — all will appear at a duo of debates Saturday and Sunday in New Hampshire, where Mitt Romney has long maintained a commanding lead.

There is no question New Hampshire is a Mitt Romney stronghold; his small, blue campaign signs dot fields alongside roadways at regular intervals like “No Trespassing” signs.

But Romney’s presumed advantage in a state well matched to his even-mannered temperament isn’t keeping New Hampshire voters from giving the other hopefuls a chance to win them over.

Accustomed to meeting their candidates in person — often multiple times — and making a last-minute call about whose box to check on the ballot, voters are turning out in droves to the unending succession of town halls, meet-and-greet appearances and coffee shop drop-bys.

And where New Hampshire voters go, so go the hoards of reporters who have parachuted in by the thousands to document every moment of the mayhem. Reporters outnumbered actual residents on Saturday at some of Rick Santorum’s campaign events.

Among them was 10-year-old Zoe Farley, who like much of the Washington press corps, furiously scrawled on a palm-sized pad as Santorum laid out his approach to healthcare policy. Farley said she was a reporter for the Puppy Post, which she runs with a handful of friends, and proudly noted she hails from Westbrook Elementary School in Bethesda, Md. — the same school Jon Huntsman attended decades ago.

But campaign events, roadside signs and millions of dollars in ads may not be able to convince some New Hampshire voters that any of the contenders deserve a shot at the White House, said Bob Beckett, a business developer from Hollis, N.H.

“This is going to be a tough one. There’s this who-has-the-best-chance-against-Obama argument,” said Beckett, a registered Republican who said he voted for Obama in 2008. “The Republicans aren’t giving me any reason to vote for any of them.”