Tagged: Primary 2012

The New Hampshire primary is about politics – obviously – but it’s also about economics, albeit in a much smaller way. While the rest of the state was watching vote totals and checking on the mood at campaign headquarters, reporter Amanda Loder of StateImpact New Hampshire was looking at the economic effects of the first in the nation primary. She tells All Things Considered host Brady Carlson about what she learned. 

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The University of New Hampshire poll shows Mitt Romney at 44 percent support, up five points from two weeks ago. Texas congressman Ron Paul stands at 20 percent. UNH survey center director Andy Smith says the race for now – at least -- is for third.

“But because NH voters make up their minds very late that could easily be for second, should Ron Paul slip up and or should some of the support for the non-Paul and non Romney candidate go to Santorum or Gingrich or Huntsman.”

The poll shows Rick Santorum has almost doubled his support -- he stands at at 8 percent -- since late December. Newt Gingrich, meanwhile, dropped 9 points over the same period. About half the poll’s interviews were completed before the Iowa Caucuses, half after.

It’s game on in the Granite State. Every four years, the TV trucks pull in, guys in suits and sunglasses show up in your local breakfast joint, and the opinions of New Hampshire citizens are momentarily considered to be of national importance. It’s the first in the nation primary time!

Half a dozen GOP contenders are taking part in two televised debates this weekend in New Hampshire.

But the field of candidates is quite a bit larger - in fact, there are 30 Republicans and 14 Democrats on the New Hampshire primary ballot this year.

David Mindich and his Media and American Politics students at Saint Michaels College in Colchester, Vermont have been profiling the lesser-known presidential hopefuls.

Professor Mindich talks with All Things Considered host Brady Carlson about what he and the students learned.

The primary trail is busy again, with Iowa in the rearview mirror and just days before Granite Staters cast their votes.

NHPR's Josh Rogers shares the latest from the trail with All Things Considered host Brady Carlson, including what Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum are doing as they hope to build on the results of the Iowa caucuses.

The Iowa caucuses have come and gone, and that leaves New Hampshire the better part of a week to consider the candidates before the primary on January 10th.

Here to help us sort out New Hampshire’s changing role in the political landscape is NPR’s Political Editor Ken Rudin. He talked about the primary with All Things Considered host Brady Carlson. 

If there is a patron saint of modern Republican tax policy, it is economist Arthur Laffer.  Laffer is best known for the  Laffer Curve – a graph of the theory that under the right circumstances, a cut in tax rates produces higher tax revenues.   The Laffer Curve was the keystone of  so called Reaganomics.

Laffer was in Manchester today to present a very different idea – one that so far Republicans have been slow to embrace. 

Arthur Laffer sees all taxes as essentially bad but some are worse than others.  With that in mind, he would like to swap a tax on carbon for our current tax on income.

Today we continue our Issue Tuesday's series continues as we compare and contrast the Republican Presidential Candidates and where they stand on issues of foreign policy.

If it feels like maybe Republican presidential candidates aren’t spending as much in New Hampshire as they did in the run-up to the 2008 primary, you’re onto something. Bob Sanders of the New Hampshire Business Review dug into campaign expenditures thus far, and found:

“The voting results won’t be in until January, but so far this presidential primary has been a bust for businesses in New Hampshire.