So, What"s Going To Happen In New Hampshire?

http://reachmorenow.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/America-2016-1024x403.jpg

So, What’s Going To Happen In New Hampshire?

This is Ray Mossholder from the Campaign desk of Reach More Now. My thanks to the writers of ABC News and The Fix: 

The calm before the storm has ended.

Hundreds of sleep-deprived journalists, operatives and curious onlookers arrived in New Hampshire overnight as soon as the Iowa Caucus was over, with another seven-day sprint ahead of them.

Those with momentum hit the ground running almost instantly. Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders, touting their close finishes as victories, were meeting voters as the sun was still rising.

Surprise winner Ted Cruz held a town hall meeting later in the day, while Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton looked to re-set their campaigns.

Make no mistake, the race in New Hampshire is fundamentally different than Iowa. It’s moderate, it’s secular, and 40 percent of its voters are unaffiliated with either party, capable of pulling a ballot for either side. It also has two clear front-runners: Donald Trump has had a double-digit lead for months, while Bernie Sanders has shocked the political world by only seeing his advantage grow.

Behind Trump, a cluster of GOP challengers are in a dogfight for second, including Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio. But don’t forget governors Jeb Bush, Chris Christie and John Kasich haven’t given up.

Despite poor showings in Iowa, they’re very much in the thick of it here, and the gloves have come off between them as they fight for their political lives. Rand Paul is attempting to persuade the independent-minded New Hampshirites to cast their ballots for him, looking to capitalize on what his camp calls a solid performance in Monday night’s Iowa caucuses.

And while Iowa momentum goes a long way, there’s an old saying here: “Iowa picks corn. New Hampshire picks presidents.”

Voters here say they’ll make up their own minds, and that they’ll take their time to do it. Perhaps, they say, a debate three days before the primary could turn the tide. Storylines will grow and develop over the next few days, but Granite Staters will deliver a reality check next Tuesday night.

 

And here’s more from The Fix, a New Hampshire report  By Philip Rucker and Dan Balz 

BEDFORD, N.H. — Marco Rubio’s surprisingly strong showing in the Iowa caucuses reshuffled the already intense competition here in New Hampshire among the Republican establishment candidates, leading some to sharpen their attacks on the freshman senator from Florida ahead of next week’s primary.

The sense of urgency was on display here Tuesday as New Jersey Governor your meal we had last night needs to get on the rest of the list only that but most people do Chris Christie belittled Rubio’s toughness, his intelligence and even his manhood.

“Maybe he’ll do more than 40 minutes on a little stage telling everybody his canned speech that he’s memorized,” Christie said to reporters, mocking Rubio’s tightly controlled campaign appearances. “This isn’t a student council election, everybody. This is an election for president of the United States. Let’s get the boy in the bubble out of the bubble.”

Former Florida governor Jeb Bush, meanwhile, expanded his line of attacks beyond Donald Trump to include Rubio, and Senator Ted Cruz the winner of Monday night’s Iowa caucus. Bush said at a town hall meeting in Rindge that Rubio, 44, and Cruz, 45, did not have the “life experience” to be president and questioned whether either had ever sacrificed his personal ambition for the public good.

For the past six weeks, the four mainstream GOP candidates — including Ohio Governor John Kasich — have looked to New Hampshire as their proving ground. But the calculus of all four was changed by Iowa, where the three with gubernatorial experience each finished in low single digits while Rubio surged to within one percentage point of Trump, who came in second.

Iowa is over, so where do the candidates go now?

The Fix’s Chris Cillizza explains where Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz and other presidential candidates stand after Iowa’s caucus and what’s next going into the New Hampshire primary. (With only one week until the New Hampshire primary and the potential that voters here could effectively eliminate some candidates from the nomination battle, the stakes are high and the tone is increasingly confrontational.)

Steve Duprey, a Republican National Committee member from New Hampshire put it this way: “It is dog-eat-dog, hand-to-hand combat up here,” said Steve Duprey, a Republican National Committee member from New Hampshire. “These guys are going to be scrapping it out until the final minute. At stake is a ticket out of New Hampshire.”

In past election years, New Hampshire Republicans have not followed the lead of Iowa in making their choices. Mike Dennehy, a New Hampshire-based GOP strategist, said the dynamics of the race among the establishment candidates here could be affected by the order of finish in the Hawkeye State.

“I think this year is different,” Dennehy said. “There are so many candidates this year that they are looking for help, and I think Iowa did that last night.”

That puts enormous pressure on Bush, Kasich and Christie.

“The establishment candidates who have gone all in in New Hampshire are making their last stand,” said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt. “Bush, Kasich and Christie have to knock Marco Rubio down in New Hampshire and steal his spot for a rationale for their campaigns to exist.”

So, What’s Going To Happen In New Hampshire?

So, What"s Going To Happen In New Hampshire?