DOVER, N.H. -- For much of the country New Years Eve celebrations involve friends, fun and Dick Clark on the television.

But as many traditions this presidential primary season have gone by the wayside, so to will be New Years Eve.

Dennis Kucinich and his wife will host a party at the Manchester cable access station.

John McCain will be at New Years Eve party at a home of a supporter in Concord.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich moved at a brisk pace down the street. Like many presidential candidates, he had just held an event at the Merrimack Restaurant. But unlike most candidates he didn't stop in at Lulu's Hungarian Bakery. He didn't stop to shake hands with the lunch-time crowd in City Hall plaza. His right hand was occupied holding his wife Elizabeth's hand.

One Passerby commented that they "seemed to be in their own world". A Democratic state representative crossing the street said the recently married couple reminded him of Ronald and Nancy Reagan except that "it was him looking up longingly to her, not the other way around."

Also unlike other Democratic presidential candidates, he refused to wear a union sticker calling for universal health care because it did not specify whether or not it supports a private or public health care system. (Kucinich supports a fully government-run public system.)

Eventually Kucinich reached the Red Arrow Diner. As he was walking in an aide told him that "you totally own this place". Many others might disagree. He entered with a smile, let go of his wife's hand, and began meeting with diners.

He told one woman "your shirt says DKNY. I am DKUS" referring to his and the country's initials.

As he was about to leave, the same aide announced to the packed diner that the next president of the United States was in the room.

"Oh yeah, what's your name," one diner yelled out.

"Dennis Kucinich," the candidate responded.

"You buying lunch for everyone?" another asked.

"Well, when I am president I'll give everyone free health care," he said.

Three Democratic presidential campaigns will hold official debate-watch parties in New Hampshire for the CNN/YouTube debate tonight.

Hillary Clinton's campaign will hold 10 debate watch parties at homes around the state, Chris Dodd's campaign will hold three, and Barack Obama will hold 11 in total with three organized via his website that will include YouTube video responses.

The John Edwards campaign will combine a debate watch party with a policy discussion on Iraq at their Concord headquarters.

UPDATE: In all, the Edwards campaign will have 20 debate watch parties in the state.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- The top three Democratic presidential candidates are opening offices in New Hampshire and adding staff and interns.

The Globe has learned the first wave of 65 college interns for the Barack Obama campaign has arrived in the state where they will be in one of five offices. John Edwards recently opened his a second office in the state, this one in Concord, and plans are to add up to six new field staffers there. But the largest expansion is coming from the Clinton campaign, which in the process of opening seven new offices.

Besides the Manchester headquarters, the Obama campaign has offices in Concord, Keene, Portsmouth and Nashua.

The Clinton campaign also has their state campaign headquartered in Manchester and will add offices in Keene, Nashua, Dover, Concord, Portsmouth and Berlin.

DURHAM, N.H. -- A new poll by the University of New Hampshire shows Hillary Clinton doubling her lead to 14 points over Barack Obama and John Edwards dropping further into third place compared to the same poll in March.

The poll, taken last week for CNN and WMUR, gave Clinton a 36 percent to 22 percent lead over Obama. Edwards dropped from 21 percent to 12 percent, with New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson on his heels at 10 percent.

The margin of error was a high 5.6 percent.

Television ratings made available to the Globe show that there was only one true contest Sunday night and it wasn’t the Democratic presidential debate in New Hampshire.

Unsurprising to anyone from the region, viewership of the Yankees-Red Sox game on ESPN was tremendously larger than the audience for the debate televised on a local New Hampshire television station and CNN. Indeed, it was more than ten times larger.

Inside the Boston television market, which covers most of the New Hampshire population, 68,000 people watched the debate on either WMUR or CNN, while 779,000 people in the market watched the Yankees-Red Sox game, according to Nielsen Media Researech, which measures TV ratings.

Those numbers were also similar nation-wide, according to Nielson.

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- New Hampshire Democratic Party chairman Ray Buckley told the Foster's Daily Democrat of Dover, N.H., that last night's debate was not "in the New Hampshire tradition" because the candidates did not have equal time.

According to the article, Buckley has already talked about the issue with NBC, which is hosting a debate at Dartmouth College in September.

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- Hillary Clinton just took a look at her positioning on the debate stage with some of her staff members.

Interestingly, she will be positioned at center stage, between Barack Obama and John Edwards, debate organizers say.

For the next hour I will be blogging from inside the debate hall at Saint Anselm College.

The debate hall is filling up with many of New Hampshire's political elite. Governor John Lynch arrived with staff and his daughter wished panelist Tom Fahey luck.

Democratic state senators Harold Janeway, Iris Estabrook, Kathy Sgambati, Dave Gottesman, and Besti DeVries are all here.

Others in the audience are Union Leader publisher Joe McQuaid, former Democratic Party chair Joe Keefe, former Manchester Mayor Sylvia Dupris, liberal activist Roger Goun, former Ambassador George Bruno, Merrimack County Democratic chair Rob Werner, and deputy House Majority Leader Bette Lasky.

GOFFSTOWN, N.H. -- Keep an eye out in this space for several news updates before tonight's Democratic debate in New Hampshire, which starts at 7 p.m.

Hillary Clinton, Bill Richardson, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and John Edwards will all be in New Hampshire next week to address a national convention of fire fighters, organizers said.

The event, chaired by Massachusetts Professional Fire Fighters president Bob McCarthy, will be held in Portsmouth.

Richardson is scheduled address the Federation of State and Provincial Fire Fighters on Thursday while all others will speak on Friday.

In 2004, the fire fighters backed John Kerry.

Tonight MSNBC will host the first Democratic presidential debate in South Carolina. Nearly every Democratic campaign in New Hampshire will hold watch parties inside their state headquarters.

In addition to that the campaign staffs of Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, and Barack Obama will be holding separate "watch parties" in different parts of the state.

Chris Dodd's campaign will have one watch party from their Manchester headquarters, but the national campaign is going to try something unique. Instead of just issuing rapid response press releases they are going to have a live webcam where various campaign staff will rebut their rivals in real time.

They have also reached out to a progressive New Hampshire blog, Blue Hampshire, where members are encouraged to ask the campaign questions during the debate that might be answered on the live feed from the Dodd rapid response team.

Last week, we brought attention to a report that Ohio Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich was thinking about buying a second home in New Hampshire.

He told his hometown paper, the Cleveland Plain-Dealer, that he wasn't serious about it.

He said he was just being tongue-in-cheek when he said it at a New London bookstore. But activists tell the Globe he also said it at a stop in Keene.

Ohio Congressman and Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich told a gathering of New Hampshire residents last weekend that he and his wife are considering buying a summer home in New Hampshire.

Kucinich regularly points out in campaign speeches he still lives in the same Cleveland home he purchased for $22,000 in the 1970s.

The New London (N.H.) Argus Champion newspaper reports Kucinich told a group of supporters at MainStreet BookEnds in New London that he was considering a summer home.

In the 2004 presidential primary Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman and his wife rented an apartment in Manchester's North End. Last year former Alaska Senator Mike Gravel, a Democratic presidential candidate, signed a lease for a house in Manchester for him and his staff.

RINDGE, N.H. -- Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich continued to slam his rivals seeking the Democratic presidential nomination for saying they want the war in Iraq to stop, but refuse to stop funding the war.

"If you are for peace then you don’t continue funding a war," said Kucinich at Franklin Pierce College in a lecture simulcasted to Wartburg College in Iowa.

Wrapping up four days of campaigning, Kucinich said Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, Joe Biden, and former Senator John Edwards weren't serious about ending war because they "voted every time to continue it."

Andy Stern, the president of the Service Employees International Union, was in New Hampshire this week to announce a new initiative calling on presidential candidates to eat a family dinner and spend a day at work with one of their union members in Iowa or New Hampshire.

The project, called “Walk A Day In My Shoes,” is aimed at giving presidential candidates a better understanding of the issues facing average workers.

Stern said both Republican and Democratic candidates will be asked to participate. Former North Carolina Senator John Edwards, a Democrat who has made a strong appeal to union workers, has already agreed to participate.

New York Senator Hillary Clinton will visit New Hampshire next month, her first trip to the state in over a decade.

Clinton is scheduled to be in the state on Feb. 3 and Feb. 4 for events that are still being put together, according to Clinton aide Karen Hicks.

In addition, the New Hampshire Democratic Party announced that Clinton will be the keynote speaker at the party's annual 100 Club fund-raiser dinner in Nashua on March. 10

Clinton announced on Saturday that she was forming a presidential exploratory committee and has plans to visit Iowa this weekend.

Former Iowa Governor Tom Vilasck and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, both Democrats, will be in New Hampshire in coming days hoping to gain more support for their presidential runs.

Vilsack, who left the governorship last week, be in the state Friday for two events in Londonderry and Concord.

Dodd will have a full day of campaigning in the state's Southern Tier on Saturday.

On Friday three conservative Republican congressman said they are exploring presidential runs, further crowding the field at a time when many party activists say they are looking for a true conservative choice.

Ron Paul of Texas and Duncan Hunter of California filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission to form presidential exploratory committees. Tom Tancredo, of Colorado, is traveling to Iowa this weekend and says he is thinking about running for president.

Last fall, Tancredo said he would not run because his pet issue, immigration, was getting attention. If he does enter the race, he is expected to be highly critical of Senator John McCain's immigration position, which allows for a temporary guest worker program and permits those here illegally to remain if they pay fines. They would have to go "to the end of the line" behind those who have applied for citizenship.

Ron Paul ran for president before as a Libertarian.

The first presidential primary debate will be in held in South Carolina on April 26, according to the cable channel MSNBC, which will broadcast the event.

The debate, which will include only Democrats, will take place before the first Republican debate, also scheduled to be in South Carolina.

Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich is scheduled to make his first trip to New Hampshire since announcing last month that he will try running for president a second time.

While many details of his trip have not been finalized, Kucinich will visit New Hampshire Feb. 1-4, the Globe has learned from liberal activists in the Granite State.

In the 2004 New Hampshire Primary, Kucinich finished in last place with just 1 percent support.

Cleveland-area Congressman Dennis Kucinich told the Associated Press he will run for president for a second consecutive time.

Kucinich, the vegan who calls for the creation of a US Department of Peace, struggled in 2004 to garner much support or campaign funds. However, when liberal Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold announced last week he would not run for president many political analysts saw an opportunity for a candidate from the extreme political left.

His official announcement will take place Tuesday in Cleveland.

A new memoir chronicling 24 years of New Hampshire presidential primary stories from a Massachusetts college professor is about to be released, the Boston Globe reported on Sunday.

Richard Padova, a Northern Essex Community College professor of history and geography, has been involved somehow in every New Hampshire Primary since 1980 when he volunteered for Ted Kennedy. Considering every candidate he worked for lost (except the unopposed Bill Clinton in 1996) this book probably won’t be giving trade secrets away to 2008 campaigns, but it should provide a few good stories.

Read the Globe story by Russell Contreras here.

NASHUA – Republican John McCain and Democrat Hillary Clinton came out on top of their respective parties in the first straw poll taken in New Hampshire for the 2008 campaign.

In the straw poll, the 450 attendees at a Nashua Chamber of Commerce dinner Tuesday night chose either the Democratic or Republican ballot.

Chris Williams, president of the Nashua chamber, said the poll gave an early indication of what community leaders in the Nashua area are thinking about with regard to 2008.

What might be more interesting in the poll is who didn’t fair well. John Kerry didn’t finish in the top three.

Results:

Republican
McCain 37 percent
Giuliani 27 percent
Romney 21 percent

Democrat
Clinton 28 percent
Obama 26 percent
Edwards 21 percent

The signs of fall in New Hampshire are in nearly every yard. Signs like “Lynch for Governor” or “Jeb Bradley for Congress” are planted along roadways for all types of visitors to enjoy. This weekend even politicians come to enjoy the peak of fall colors. On Saturday alone Senators John Kerry, Chris Dodd, and retired General Wesley Clark will be in the state.

Senator John Kerry returns to New Hampshire this Saturday to campaign for a local candidate.

Kerry, the Massachusetts Democrat, will be in Portsmouth campaigning for Bev Hollingworth, a candidate for the Executive Council.

This is the third time in three weeks Kerry has been to the state as he considers another run for president.

For years Senator Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat, has been chided for liking to hear himself talk and being quoted in the press. But, finally, those who braved Biden’s soliloquies have an answer to the pressing question: What would get this guy to be quiet?

The answer is former Gov. Mark Warner.

During an informal press conference in New Hampshire this past Monday, Biden was interrupted in mid-sentence by his vibrating Motorola Razr phone. He immediately excused himself leaving the press to talk with Democratic Congressional candidate Paul Hodes. When Biden returned he confirmed it was indeed Warner, who dropped out of the presidential race last week. Biden said last month he is running for president.

“He wasn't calling about an endorsement he just wants to meet up,” Biden said.