Campus Voices: New Hampshire Voters

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Campus Voices: New Hampshire Voters

By Kate Phillips
Campus Voices: New Hampshire


By Jon Noronha and Athena Katsampes
Jon Noronha, 18, San Mateo, Calif., Class of 2011 and Athena Katsampes, 18, Houston, Class of 2011
Video

A few of the students at Harvard’s Institute of Politics dropped into New Hampshire again on Saturday as part of their Campus Voices project. This time, they talked to undecided voters.

CONCORD, N.H. — We spent the morning in this quaint and beautiful city, surprisingly temperate despite the fresh snow that had just fallen, leaving a fluffy blanket of white across the town. We were looking forward to an opportunity to gauge the public’s reaction to a personal encounter with Mr. Edwards, considering that he has not had as much media exposure as Senators Clinton and Obama.

When we arrived, the venue, a hotel conference room with white plastered walls and garish chandeliers, was quiet, with the only sign of the excitement to come a limp John Edwards ‘08 banner hanging over the stage.

As the start of his town hall meeting drew closer, that changed as supporters and undecided voters began to trickle in.

Rob Spencer sat behind us at the event, chatting up a fellow Democratic primary voter he had just met minutes before. The subject, of course, was politics. We overheard them trading opinions and predictions, and when we heard the word “undecided” we just couldn’t resist. A middle-aged anesthesiologist with a wife and kids, Mr. Spencer was the consummate New Hampshire voter: deeply informed, familiar with the process, and eager to familiarize himself with each of the candidates.

“When you live in New Hampshire, you can be within 20 feet of any candidate at any given time,” Mr. Spencer said. This was his first personal encounter with Mr. Edwards, and he hoped to get a better sense of the candidate in this more intimate setting.

To Mr. Spencer, gatherings like these are an integral part of the decision-making process. “When you meet candidates in living room settings, the voters ask better questions and the candidates give more sincere answers without the media around,” he said. He said he believes that the media and paid advertising provide only manufactured sound-bites that don’t offer voters enough useful information about the candidates.

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http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/12/10/campus-voices-new-hampshire-voters/#more-3242