Tagged: N.H. Primary 2012

NHPR's Brady Carlson is on the air with NPR Political Junkie Ken Rudin, and Dante Scala from the University of New Hampshire. 

Speaking to a crowd of 150-300 supporters in Manchester, former PA Senator Rick Santorum says the momentum of Iowa and New Hampshire will take him into South Carolina against Mitt Romney.

Santorum thanked Granite State supporters for listening to his message of faith, family, and freedom.

Afterwards, Santorum and his family shook hands for ten minutes before leaving for a private runway at Boston/Manchester Airport. He'll spend the night in South Carolina.

Santorum campaign officials have told the crowd of 150 supporters here in Manchester that the candidate should take the stage in 10 minutes or so.

The large TV's that have been monitoring the race (which is now between him and Gingrich for 4th) have been switched off.  It will allow Santorum to take the stage without having Gingrich visibly overtake him in the results or a Gingrich speech to overshadow his.

Meantime, Santorum has a private plane waiting to take him to South Carolina as soon as he's done.

Field producer Kevin Flynn snapped this photo of a button being worn by supporters at Rick Santorum's camp tonight. With nearly half of the precincts reporting, Santorum is in fifth place with 10% of the vote.

The ballroom here at the Radisson hotel has yet to get really crowded, but Newt supporters in attendance remain enthusiastic. One supporter, Glenn Fiscus,  is unsurprised with Newt's poor showing in New Hampshire saying, "Romney did a hatchet job on him in Iowa," referring to the attack ads run by a pro-Romney group in that state. When asked how he liked Newt's chances going forward, Fiscus nods knowingly and says, "We'll see in South Carolina." A pro-Newt group in South Carolina has spent $3.2 million on a negative ad campaign in South Carolina. Fiscus said of that campaign, "You gotta do, what you gotta do. You say negative, but you gotta say the truth." 

Huntsman supporters are making full use of the bar in the Black Brimmer and it looks like a predominantly young crowd. Huntsman is holding a comfortable third place position with 17 percent of the vote with nearly half of the precincts reporting. 

Participating in the NH Primary was not something Sean Michael O'Dwyer planned on doing. American-born, reared in Ireland, O'Dwyer heard Rick Santorum's (moral) victory speech in Iowa and was moved.

"When he was talking about looking at his grandfather's large hands," O'Dwyer recalled Santorum's story of going to his grandfather's wake, "he could have been talking about my father...He didn't work in the mines, but my father worked the land and he had these large hands."