Pull out your pencils, because this is a quiz.
Question 1. Provide an argument for or against this statement: The New Hampshire primary fills a special purpose in the nominating process that can't be accomplished in any other state.
OK . . . time's up. Stumped?
Perhaps you should sit in on a course at the University of New Hampshire in Durham that intensely analyzes the Granite State primary before you even think of tackling a second question.
When presented with the above edict during one recent class, students didn't flinch - they immediately staked out both sides of the question.
One undergrad, at the back of the class, represented the pro side by asserting that New Hampshire voters are well-educated, and not "Jerry Springer-type" people - spawning a few laughs from his fellow students.
Another, in the front, responded by saying the state isn't representative of the nation racially or socioeconomically. Still another rebutted that, noting that New Hampshire's government is "fairly large and highly representative."
And so, the debate rolls on.
For the past three months, the students have burrowed deep into the state's influential role in the presidential campaign as part of the class "The New Hampshire Primary." Held just once every four years, to coincide with the primary, the course covers the controversy over the months-long, statewide campaign, as well as the voter trends, poll inconsistencies, and political strategies that come with it.
Still, professors insist, the three-hour Wednesday night seminar isn't propaganda for the Jan. 8 primary, which has experienced scrutiny recently for its first-in-the-nation status.
The hope, rather, is to get students excited about the unique position of being in New Hampshire while it happens. "It's an opportunity that no one else in the world has," said Andrew Smith, associate professor of political science, who co-lectures the class with Kurk Dorsey, associate professor of history.
It's one of the only known college courses focused solely on the primary, rivaled locally just by St. Anselm College in Manchester, which offered a near-identical class with the same title this semester. Many other area schools have held courses focused on the overall election. This fall, for instance, Tufts University in Medford offered "Decision '08," and Southern New Hampshire University in Manchester offered "The American Presidency."
Smith, a pollster who heads the UNH Survey Center and does polling for The Boston Globe and other outlets, started the comprehensive course in 2003, and hopes to hold it again in 2011.
An enthusiastic advocate of the primary, he felt there was need for a complete-immersion course that scrutinized it from every angle. Dorsey stressed that as well, saying that the election plays a big part in the state's political image, economy, and, especially, the civic wherewithal of its residents.
"All these other states want it," he said. "Clearly we have something of value."
The professors considered offering the class in nonprimary years, but ultimately voted against it. "I just don't think you can get the same sort of excitement if you don't have the campaign going on," said Smith.
Indeed, many students gushed about the chance to throw themselves into the class during the height of the frenzy.
"It really hits home how important the primary is to the country," said 22-year-old senior Brennan Ward. Many voters, he added, judge presidential hopefuls by the way "simple citizens" respond to them.
A psychology major from Littleton, N.H., Ward aspires to become a pollster. He's intrigued, he said, by the fact that even the smallest of jumps for a candidate in a poll can influence voters elsewhere.
Admittedly, many of the class's 65 students are political junkies - nearly 50 of them are political science majors who hope to go on to careers as campaign managers, analysts, and academics specializing in electoral ebb and flow.
To bolster their experience in the class, many are also volunteering at local campaign offices.
"I love this stuff," said 21-year-old senior Jillian Andrews, a history major from Chichester, N.H.
"If I have to sit for three hours, I'll do it for this."
As part of that large chunk of the evening, from 5:15 to 8 p.m., students learn about campaign messages and the history and development of the primary, which started as a reform act of the Legislature in 1913 but remained relatively unnoticed until the famous "draft Eisenhower" campaign of 1952. They similarly examine the role of interest groups and scrutinize ads and media coverage.
Nearly every class also features one or two speakers, including campaign strategists, political scientists, and fund-raisers. Contributions from UNH alumnus Morgan Rutman, a New York hedge fund manager, help bring in those high-profile visitors.
Author and polling consultant David W. Moore was the guest on a recent Wednesday; amid coughs, whispers, and pen scribblings, he clicked through a PowerPoint presentation comparing several polling systems, including the big guys - Gallup, Zogby, the American Research Group.
"How many stories are being told here?" he asked as he paused on a graph of George W. Bush's lead over John Kerry in 2004.
Lines of white, yellow, green, red, and blue zigzagged up and down like the results of a fraudulent lie detector test. "Polls, during an election, particularly in a primary situation, can fluctuate a lot," said Moore, and the zigs and the zags stood in mute agreement.
Undoubtedly, the class gets quite technical - and students are also privy to the secrets, tricks, and off-the-record tidbits that the media salivate over, Smith noted. (During one recent class, for instance, a reporter was asked to step out during a presentation by Karen Hicks, a Democratic political operative who worked on Howard Dean's campaign.)
Still, Smith noted, candidates themselves are not invited, as that would lead to "stump speech after stump speech."
Even so, students do gain considerable knowledge of the presidential hopefuls, and an intimate knowledge of one in particular. Besides a final exam, most of each student's grade comprises a 12- to 15-page paper and an oral presentation that dissects a past or current campaign (defunct ones included).
As part of that, students research that candidate's background, fund-raising tactics, and stances, and the different ways he (or, rarely, she) tried to reach voters.
Andrews, for her part, is following Chris Dodd's campaign, and she's also volunteering at the Connecticut senator's Portsmouth office.
Sophomore Brittany Weaver, 19, prefers to be "consumed" by Hillary.
The Exeter, N.H., native is interning at the senator's Dover office and is also a member of on-campus groups UNH for Hillary and College Dems.
"I'm definitely pro-Hillary," she said with a laugh as she gathered her books after class. "I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't."
Part of the reason she was interested in UNH in the first place was the active political atmosphere, she explained - and being a native of New Hampshire, she's always been intrigued by statewide politics, too.
"It's so amazing to be in this state right now," she said.
Suddenly, she glanced down at her watch and excused herself. "I have a Hillary meeting."
