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28 March 2024

Romney pounds pavement in New Hampshire push

Published
By AFP

Mitt Romney went door-to-door in high-stakes New Hampshire on Saturday, where voters repeatedly asked him how he would out-run Newt Gingrich, his top rival for the Republican nomination.

Romney, who has seen the spotlight and his frontrunner status fade in a series of recent polls, appealed directly for support in the face of his latest threat -- the steady surge in veteran Republican Gingrich's popularity.

John Merrick, whose home was among about a dozen that Romney stopped by, quipped from the comfort of his front steps to the presidential hopeful, "Newt Gingrich just went out the back door."

The joke highlighted the one question that Romney has to confront -- how he will respond to Gingrich, a former US House of Representatives speaker who is suddenly knocking down the door in the race to take on President Barack Obama.

Gingrich leads in polls in such early voting states as Iowa, which holds its caucuses on January 3, and South Carolina and Florida, who hold their contests in late January, 10 months out from the November 2012 election.

Romney, however, maintains a big lead in New Hampshire, which holds its first-in-the-nation primary on January 10. He was governor of neighboring Massachusetts from 2003 to 2007.

Romney is pitching himself as a successful businessman who knows how to create jobs.

But he has been dogged by criticism that he has "flip-flopped" on key issues and by wariness among some evangelical Christians because of his Mormon faith.

A series of Republican challengers have risen to threaten Romney, only to sputter out. The most recent was former Godfather's Pizza chief executive Herman Cain, who suspended his campaign Saturday in the wake of allegations of adultery and sexual harassment, effectively ending his tilt at the presidency.

But, with the first votes in the Republican nomination battle being cast in just over four weeks, Romney spent the morning at a rally firing up about 200 volunteers to make phone calls and knock on doors.

Asked whether he could win a two-person contest if the most conservative Republicans coalesce around Gingrich, Romney simply said: "Absolutely."

Avoiding barbed criticism of Gingrich, he added: "Over the past year, as you know, there have been various people who surged, and I've been steady throughout the storms. I hope to be the last person standing."

Gingrich got a boost when he received the endorsement of New Hampshire's influential conservative newspaper, Manchester's Union Leader.

A Rasmussen Report poll of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, conducted on November 28, found Romney ahead, with 34 percent, followed by Gingrich at 24 percent, a gain of 16 points in just a month.

Romney, who is airing his second TV commercial in New Hampshire, said his goal for Saturday was for volunteers to make 20,000 calls and knock on 5,000 doors.

"(New Hampshire) is a primary to be won by the person who is willing to put in the effort and use the shoe leather to get the job done," he said.

At the rally, Romney, dressed in jeans and speaking from the bed of a pickup truck, was joined by former New Hampshire governor and backer John Sununu.

Mary Kay Belland, a 62-year-old medical records coder from Derry, N.H., was among rally-goers ready to give Romney her vote and time.

"This will be the first time I've volunteered for a candidate," Belland said. "I really believe he has the best ideas. I like his business background, and I believe he can work with Congress."

Others were undecided.

"We're blessed in New Hampshire to get to see the candidates up close and frequently," said Steven Count, a 48-year-old salesman from Brookline, N.H., who said he's narrowed down his choice to Romney, Gingrich or Ron Paul.

In a sign of his lack of conviction, however, Count, confessed to wearing a Romney knit cap handed out by volunteers only because he was cold.

David Paleologos, director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center, described New Hampshire as "Romney's firewall."

"If he were to lose New Hampshire, there isn't a recovery point, even with all the money he has," Paleologos said.

But Linda Fowler, a politics expert at Dartmouth College, said Romney should prevail over Gingrich, who has far less money and organizational strength, though she noted that voters were still "going from candidate to candidate."

"I don't think Gingrich is the person they'll want. And Gingrich only has five weeks to put together a campaign in Iowa and New Hampshire," she said.