N.H. drops plan to draw tourists to primary

Come to New Hampshire to do some candidate-watching! "Sort of like moose-spotting except you don't have to get up so early."

So goes the pitch on the state's tourism website, part of a campaign to draw political junkies to the Granite State with the promise of an up-close-and-personal view of the presidential primary.

Word would be spread by podcasts and other media, like the Division of Travel and Tourism's website, which began providing advice last month to the uninitiated about what to do when encountering a politician.

"Watch how a local does it," the item read. "Just walk up to the candidate of choice, and ask away."

But the novel tourism scheme was abruptly shot down last week by Concord's political establishment, which was concerned that it could give ammunition to the states competing to wrest away New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation mantle.

New Hampshire has been criticized for seeking to retain the first primary because it is a moneymaker and not, as state officials claim, because it is part of the state's historical fabric and heritage.

"This is not what the primary is all about," Secretary of State William Gardner said he told Victoria Cimino, spokeswoman for the Division of Travel and Tourism. "Other people have said it's for the money and that's why we have it, and we've always defended it. We've had it for more than half a century, but it's not for the money."

The controversy underscores the complexity of the challenge New Hampshire faces in the ever-changing primary landscape. Not only must it out-maneuver other increasingly aggressive states bidding to be first, but it must also battle bureaucratic miscues, seemingly small, but significant in the microscopically observed process.

Brainstorming on the primary tourism plan began about a year ago, leading to the first pitch on the website in mid-March.

But after her conversation with Gardner, Cimino cancelled plans last week for a podcast coproduced with Yankee Magazine that would have featured a fictitious candidate named Randolph Rindge talking about the primary and his travels around the state. Cimino is also removing all primary-related information that had been gathered for the website and is transferring it to the New Hampshire Political Library for use on its website.

Cimino, too, distanced herself from comments she made in March at a trade event where the Portsmouth Herald quoted her as saying, "I think there's an opportunity to capitalize on some of these political junkies who hear about the New Hampshire primary."

Cimino said in a telephone interview last week that the quotation was accurate, but misunderstood.

"We are not directly targeting visitors," she said.

She said that one goal of the plan had been to direct media outlets to New Hampshire's most appealing settings and that those stories, in turn, could pique interest in visits to the state.

Cimino said her office had created an itinerary on its website, telling visitors where they have the best chance of seeing a politician, because it receives questions from media and campaign staff, and had hoped to compile information that would aid them in navigating the state.

Cimino also noted that the itinerary is located on the website's media section. It appears under the heading "Story Ideas" and includes pitches to media outlets' pursuing travel stories about New Hampshire.

"But it always goes back to how seriously this process is taken in this state," she said. "It's part of our heritage and history."

Gardner said that the state, to his knowledge, has never sought to make the primary a tourist magnet. While small numbers of political junkies trek through, he said, large groups are rare.

"We've never had a program to try to get tourists to come here," he said. ". . . The primary is not for economic benefit, and we should not ever do anything that would be for that purpose."

Michael Chaney, president of the political library, was with Gardner at the meeting with Cimino, and Chaney said that another concern with promoting primary tourism lies in diminishing the retail politics that makes the state a unique stomping ground.

If too many out-of-staters piled into church potlucks and school cafeteria meetings, local voters could be crowded out and not be able to get face-time with candidates, he said.

"The reason the New Hampshire primary is important is because of our ability [to get] candidates to connect with real voters," Chaney said.

The primary income is a fraction of the state's gross product of $42 billion, Chaney pointed out.

"It's not an economic engine," he said. "It's not a thing that gives rise to a great number of businesses."

A study commissioned by the New Hampshire Political Library and conducted by University of New Hampshire researchers found that in 2000, the economic impact of the primary was $306 million, 50 percent more than the $210 million impact in 1996.

The 2000 impact included $83 million in direct spending by campaigns and reporters, largely going to lodging, restaurant, media and transportation outfits.

The primary also provided the state with $137 million in indirect expenditures, such as purchases made by businesses or households with money earned from campaigns and media outlets.

Ross Gittell, an economics professor at the University of New Hampshire and an author of the study, said the real economic benefit to the state lies in its media exposure both nationally and internationally.

"That can attract visitors and entrepreneurs and investors," he said. "The tourists are here only for so long. They are not insignificant, but not a major contributor to the state's economy."

Maria Saitas -- co-owner of the Merrimack Restaurant in Manchester, a favorite of presidential contenders and the media -- agreed, saying she wasn't sure that a plan to attract more tourists to the state would be terribly effective, since the politicians tend to blow in and out of the restaurant on Elm Street.

"No one is going to stand there and wait all day," said Saitas, who said her business will go up 25 percent next month when Fox News begins a live show from there on weekends.

"We're satisfied," she said. "We're first in the nation, so we get them all."