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Monday, November 9, 2015

Establishment GOP Candidates Not Named Rubio are all in NH

Yep-that's Jeb, Kasich, and Christie.

Jeb Bush rolled across this state last week in a bus, chomping on turkey jerky and ducking into diners, general stores and town halls to plead his case to voters.

Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, was not far behind, mingling with beer-sipping students at a pub near Dartmouth College and chatting with a 3-year-old in the State Capitol about what he wanted for Christmas. And Gov. John Kasich of Ohio swung a golf club at a driving range in Portsmouth after fielding questions from Rotary Club members on topics ranging from climate change to whether deceased people are somehow casting ballots in some states.

“You don’t win here, in my opinion, by just running television ads,” Mr. Kasich said in an interview before meeting with editors at The Portsmouth Herald. “You’ve got to be here; you’ve got to be on the ground. People want to see you. And they want to know who you are.”

All three men are staking their Republican candidacies on an idea that seems increasingly quaint: that campaigning one on one in this small state can set you on the path to becoming president.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/us/politics/gop-candidates-lagging-rely-on-new-hampshire-to-get-close.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=first-column-region&region=top-news&WT.nav=top-news&_r=0

None of these establishment GOPers are doing particularly well in NH right now.

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2016/president/nh/new_hampshire_republican_presidential_primary-3350.html

It's true that it's not just where you stand in the polls but your ground game-are you able to mobilize the people who love you in the polls to actually vote for you on caucus day?

But this all NH strategy can also look like a desperate Hail Mary throw. When all is lost, throw all your chips in the one state you seem to have a prayer in.

Christie's whole campaign is staked in the Granite State. If he or Kaisch loses here it's not clear where they have to go next-after all they've given up even trying in other states.

Jeb for his part is predicting he will finish first. However, this can be read more as how urgent it is for him to do well here-ie, how desperate he is-than that he's for some reason supremely confident of victory in NH.

The polls certainly suggest that this race in NH is like the race nationally: between four men-Rubio. Cruz, Carson, and Trump.

If this establishment trio of Jeb, Kasich, and Christie can't place in the top four I suspect at least a few of them go home after that.

UPDATE: Jeez! I forgot to point out that comparing the polls and the number of visits follow something of a negative correlation.

The Very Serious Trio have all been in NH a lot, while Trump, Carson, Cruz, and Rubio have all been there less than 10 times.

This again underscores the Hail Mary Theory.


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