On N.H. trail, bigger is better

MANCHESTER -- New Hampshire has long cherished its role as the place where presidential hopefuls test the political waters by campaigning in diners and living rooms. This year, the candidates are choosing instead to go for the big splash.

The huge crowd that showed up to see Senator Barack Obama of Illinois in December -- an event that helped mark Obama as a political phenomenon -- may have pressured other hopefuls to prove their own appeal by drawing standing-room-only crowds.

Following big-extravaganza appearances last month by onetime senator John Edwards of North Carolina and a former New York mayor, Rudolph Giuliani , Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York is scheduled to speak today at a gymnasium-sized "town meeting" in Concord -- an event that filled up two days after it was announced and drew so much advance media attention that Democrats this week offered up interviews with people making signs for the event.

Meanwhile, Obama's town meeting scheduled for Monday in Durham is at capacity, with 2,500 free tickets handed out in eight hours. About 850 standby tickets have been given to those hoping to take the place of no-shows.

By contrast, Clinton's husband, former president Bill Clinton, drew small crowds during his early visits to the Granite State in late 1991 and was so unknown that he could stretch before a morning run outside a Manchester hotel without attracting much attention.

It may be partly the celebrity status of some of the candidates, fueled by an unusually high vigor among voters eager to find a winning candidate for 2008. But with almost a year to go before the first votes are cast, candidates in both parties are campaigning as though the primary were next week, not 11 months away.

"This is a campaign on steroids," said Peter Fenn , a Democratic consultant not affiliated with any of the presidential candidates. "These are things you do in the closing days of a primary or caucus, not a year ahead. It's like the arms race."

New Hampshire party officials and activists say they are pleased that so many voters are interested in seeing the candidates, a factor some said is pushing the contenders to hold huge events. But they worry that the trend could undermine the special nature of the primary, which has historically served as a testing ground by weeding out candidates who cannot win over voters by answering direct questions in small, intimate settings.

"Nothing can replace the small-town feel New Hampshire offers," said Representative Paul Hodes , Democrat of New Hampshire. Granite State voters take their role in the election process very seriously, preferring to meet candidates several times before making a decision, he said, and "you don't reach those people through advertising and hype. You reach them by talking to them."

Kathy Sullivan , chairwoman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, acknowledged that the party itself is promoting some big event s where candidates are invited to speak, including a large dinner next month. But she said she is concerned about the way the campaign appears to be changing.

"It's no way to elect a president," Sullivan said of the big-ticket appearances. "The thing about New Hampshire is that people really do want to take the time. They really do want to see all of the candidates."

Representative Carol Shea-Porter , Democrat of New Hampshire, said she cannot fault the candidates for wanting to connect with as many voters as possible. But she said candidates will eventually have to do the diner and barbershop circuit. "That is what has been such a good vetting process" for presidential hopefuls, Shea-Porter said.

In previous presidential cycles, candidates sat in New Hampshire living rooms discoursing, often in mind- numbing detail, about their plans for a host of problems. Former president Clinton and former senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska were adept at citing nuances of their plans for universal health insurance. Former senator Paul E. Tsongas , a Massachusetts Democrat, would read from his treatise "A Call to Economic Arms," which laid out his approach to global economic competitiveness.

The current crop of candidates has focused largely on touting standings in the polls and the endorsements snagged -- a message Sullivan said would not be enough for New Hampshire voters.

"If I actually was going to ask [a candidate] a question, I would not ask, 'How are you going to win?', and '[Do you] have enough money?' " to campaign, but " 'Why do you want to take this job, considering how bad things are and how much worse they will be a year from now?' " Sullivan said.

Such questions may get asked at a large event, by one of the few attendees lucky enough to reach a microphone after the candidate has stopped speaking. But they don't trigger the kind of conversations that Arkansas' former governor, Mike Huckabee, whose campaign for the Republican presidential nomination has gotten little media attention, was having yesterday at the Merrimack restaurant in Manchester, a traditional setting for retail politics.

"What's good about New Hampshire is you're not going to let someone buy themselves the presidency," Huckabee said between chats with diners.

Spokesmen for the campaigns planning the big events said they have been driven by unusually high interest from the media and the voters. The novelty of a female candidate and an African-American candidate has also attracted attention, they said, making it harder to keep events small.

Clinton, for example, is attending several "house parties" tomorrow, and just a few reporters will be permitted inside.

But even at a large town meeting, voters can ask questions, fulfilling the Granite State's tradition, said Jim Demers , a New Hampshire-based adviser to Obama. And the candidates say they plan to move on to smaller crowds after the initial flurry of post-announcement campaign activity wanes, their spokesmen said.

"There's tremendous energy among the grass roots" that is attracting huge crowds early on, said Phil Singer , a Clinton spokesman. But "Senator Clinton wants to get up close and personal," conducting a more traditional New Hampshire-style campaign, he said.