Pollsters eye 'purple' vote up in N.H.

New Hampshire, New England's only "up-for-grabs" state, has been called a purple state for its mix of red (Republican) and blue (Democratic) voters in 2000. Pollsters are watching the Granite State this summer, even though it has four electoral votes. Andrew E. Smith, director of the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, said that President Bush won New Hampshire by only 7,000 votes in 2000, and 22,000 voters went for Ralph Nader. An April poll indicated Senator John F. Kerry at 49 percent, Bush at 45 percent, and 4 percent undecided. Smith said Kerry's favorables declined a bit after that, because of heavy Bush advertising. "This is a Republican state, and it was drifting back to normal," he said. But now that trend apparently has changed; July numbers released last week indicated Kerry at 50 percent, Bush 45 percent, and 5 percent undecided. When Nader is included in a separate question, Kerry shows 47 percent, Bush 43 percent, Nader 4 percent, and 6 percent undecided. Smith also said other research indicates that voters who remain undecided closer to Election Day tend to vote against the incumbent.

AS GOES MAINE: So goes Al Franken. The Air America talk-show host will be broadcasting from the convention and bunking at the Colonnade Hotel with the Maine delegation. Franken's wife grew up in Portland, and Carla Bryson, his sister-in-law, is a delegate. But this is not about Franken family values: "They got better hotel rooms than we got," he said. Franken will arrive at his fourth convention as much a player as a pundit: He's raised $250,000 for Kerry. "My stock's a little higher," he said. "I'm a pioneer, like Kenny Boy" (a reference to Kenneth Lay, the indicted former Enron chairman). Franken is equally adept at raising hell: Recent guests on his radio show included three teenage boys who asserted Bush had made a nasty gesture to them from a campaign bus. "It sounded genuine, because they were jumping up and down laughing, which is exactly what teenage boys would do." So he'll be invited to all the good parties. By the next convention, Franken could be on the floor: The Minnesota native is mulling a 2008 run for the US Senate seat once held by Paul Wellstone, who died in 2002.

MOVIN' ON UP: When Kevin Sullivan became a Democratic National Convention delegate from Connecticut last spring, he was Senate president pro tem; he arrives in Boston as the state's lieutenant governor. Sullivan replaced Republican Lieutenant Governor M. Jodi Rell, who, in turn, replaced former governor John Rowland, a onetime Republican rising star who resigned amid corruption charges. "I used to get kidded from people in Rhode Island who said, 'You're making us look good,' " said Sullivan. "We all had some inkling that our beloved governor would not be long for this world, but we didn't think it would happen this soon." If corruption knows no geographic boundaries, it also lacks a party affiliation. In what has to be one of the weirdest perp walks in the annals of crime, state Representative Christopher P. Asselin of Springfield and several family members were indicted on various corruption charges, in a scandal that began with skimming quarters from a Housing Authority laundry. They probably won't be invited to all the good parties.

MORE THAN A FEELING?: "Whoever wins is going to win by a nose," said psychic Beverly Cromwell, who is 70 and lives in Winchester, N.H. (Cromwell notes that she voted for Howard Dean in the primary.) OK, OK, so who's going to win in November? "If we were voting tonight, I have a feeling there'd be a donkey instead of an elephant in the White House." Caveat: She was wrong about Jimmy Carter. "It's hard to separate my feelings," she said, "Especially about this election, because I'm real fired up."

B.J. Roche, who writes from Western Massachusetts, can be reached at peaks@globe.com.