Seeking a candidate to love, voters find Hillary Clinton one to like
Inside the arena, the roar was deafening when Hillary Rodham Clinton took the stage at the annual convention of the New Hampshire Democratic Party, with thousands jumping to their feet to welcome the party’s White House front-runner. Outside the hall, a far less joyous conversation was taking place. “She kind of turns me off,” said Marsha Campaniello, a 63-year-old real estate appraiser from Concord. “But I’d rather have a Democrat in there as opposed to a Republican.” At ice cream shops and book stores, at summer fairs and fall festivals, Clinton is running into voters such as Campaniello. They’re Democrats, and some independents, too, weighing a desire to keep control of the White House against the deep ambivalence they feel toward Clinton. The Associated Press interviewed nearly 70 Democratic and independent voters in the past two weeks, all at places where Clinton has campaigned in the first-to-vote states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Those voters expressed a litany of concerns. Many said they simply feel they lack a connection with Clinton, often for reasons they cannot seem to articulate. “She certainly could manage the country,” said Jim Gallagher, a 61-year-old, real estate investor from Manchester. “But she just rubs me the wrong way. But, hey, you don’t have to like her, right?” Such tepid reactions have led Clinton, once a commanding favorite for the nomination, into a fall campaign in which she will have competition, be it from Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders or the possible late entry of Vice President Joe Biden. Clinton is the odds-on choice still. No candidate in either field has as sophisticated a campaign operation or depth of support from the party establishment. But the unenthusiastic reaction her candidacy receives from some Democratic voters underscores a central issue facing her campaign: Despite her decades on the public stage, Clinton struggles to inspire the kind of personal passion that catapulted Barack Obama into the White House. “I like Hillary. I fell in love with Obama,” said Sabrina Chen, 47, from Pelham. Clinton appeared to acknowledge the challenge in a recent interview with the comedian Lena Dunham, saying of voting in presidential elections, “if you can’t get excited, be pragmatic.” The public’s opinion on Clinton has steadily grown more negative since she returned to partisan politics, after a period of high ratings while she was secretary of state. Most Democratic voters say they would back Clinton in the general election. But some said Clinton is trying to co-opt Sanders’ message, hoping to woo liberal voters by focusing on issues such as campaign finance and wage inequality. “It just seems like the longer the campaign goes on the more she tries to emulate the popular things that Bernie is going for,” said Spencer Jackson, 25, from Sunapee. Aides stress the fundamentals of Clinton’s campaign — steady fundraising, detailed policy positions and a national organizing strategy — are strong. “Things don’t happen overnight in the New Hampshire primary, but we will have done all the important groundwork,” said Mike Vlacich, Clinton’s New Hampshire state director. For some, the rebranding has been convincing. Few doubt her competence, with many citing her extensive experience in Washington as an asset. “I think in 2008 she was more standoffish and this time around I think she’s very warm, very engaged,” said Marilyn Lieto, 75, from Groton. Voters do say that Clinton’s handling of her use of a private email account and server have undermined her message, as have months of Republican attacks casting her as untrustworthy. “People get stuck on the past and they don’t want to give her a chance to move on,” said supporter Marta Morse in Des Moines, Iowa. This month will offer Clinton a series of high-profile opportunities to confront those issues, first at the opening Democratic debate on Oct. 13 and then in public testimony before the House Select Committee on Benghazi nine days later. Speculation about Biden’s plans swirls. Splitting an ice cream sundae with his son in Derry, Michael Thiele, 33, said he hoped the vice president could rekindle the enthusiasm he felt for Obama’s campaign. “If Biden decided to run tomorrow, I’d be in his campaign office signing up,” he said. “I think he’s really sincere.” In spite of their doubts, Thiele and other Democrats believe Clinton remains the best candidate their party has when it comes to winning next November. “She’s going to make a fine president,” said retiree Susan Richards, 65, walking out of a Portsmouth bookstore, where Clinton greeted voters just two weeks earlier. “I don’t think she’s ideal, but I think she’ll be good.” Republished with permission of the Associated Press.
Can independent Bernie Sanders get on NH Democratic primary ballot?
From his run for mayor of Burlington to numerous campaigns for Congress, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has for more than three decades eschewed traditional party labels in his pursuit of political office, winning election after election as an independent. As he seeks the presidency as a Democrat, that unwillingness to be pigeonholed could be a liability in New Hampshire. To get on the ballot in the first-in-the-nation primary state, candidates must fill out paperwork that requires them to identify as a registered member of a political party. “I don’t know if it will be a problem,” New Hampshire Secretary of State Bill Gardner said when asked whether Sanders’ independent status could keep him off the ballot. New Hampshire officials won’t take up a case against Sanders without a complaint, Gardner said. A formal challenge to Sanders’ eligibility would likely make its way to the state’s Ballot Law Commission, the arbiter of such questions. Former Republican U.S. Rep. Charlie Bass raised the issue of Sanders’ eligibility in a recent Washington Post opinion piece. “In short, Sanders is not a Democrat, has not been elected as a Democrat, has never served as a Democrat and cannot plausibly claim, at least in New Hampshire, to be a Democrat,” Bass wrote. Sanders’ campaign isn’t worried. “We think it will work out,” Sanders’ spokesman Michael Briggs told The Associated Press. “The senator has said that he’ll do whatever it takes that he can do to qualify for the ballot.” Although New Hampshire’s form asks candidates to declare their party registration, Vermont is one of a number of states where voters do not register with a party. Candidates, however, must consent to run in a specific party’s primary, said Chris Winters, Vermont’s deputy secretary of state. In Sanders’ 2006 and 2012 elections to the U.S. Senate, he consented to run in the Democratic primary. After getting the most votes in that contest, Sanders then rejected the nomination and ran as an independent in the general election, Winters said. In the past, Sanders often has said he doesn’t see enough daylight between Democrats and Republicans, arguing that both are too aligned with moneyed interests. During an unsuccessful 1986 race for governor as an independent, Sanders said, “It is time to stop the Tweedledee, Tweedledum politics of the Republican and Democratic parties.” It’s not as if his home-state Democrats are pining for a national party standard-bearer: Vermont Democrats including Gov. Peter Shumlin, former Gov. Howard Dean and Sen. Patrick Leahy are all backing former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2016 campaign. In Congress, Sanders caucuses with Democrats and is the party’s ranking member on the Senate Budget Committee. State and national Democratic officials don’t think the paperwork question will affect Sanders. “He is a Democratic candidate for president,” said Ray Buckley, chairman of the New Hampshire Democratic Party. He said the state party would immediately go to court to have Sanders’ name placed on the ballot if there is a challenge. So far, other Democrats expected on the ballot are Clinton, former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, former Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley and former U.S. Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia. Clinton’s campaign says it is prepared for a competitive primary and fully expects Sanders to be on the New Hampshire primary ballot. Gardner, a staunch protector of the state’s primary, said the wording about being registered in a party is included to help ensure integrity in elections. In New Hampshire, a voter must register with a particular party to vote in that party’s primary. “What applies to the voters, applies to the candidates,” he said. But, Gardner said, it’s too early to speculate on Sanders’ political fate. “It’s a whole series of hypotheticals,” he said. Republished with permission of The Associated Press.
