The battle for New Hampshire
Posted: Monday, January 07, 2008 9:20 AM by Domenico Montanaro
So where’s the bounce? Well… The USA Today/Gallup poll has Obama leading Clinton, 41%-28%, with Edwards at 19%. In the GOP race, it’s McCain 34%, Romney 30%, and Huckabee 13%. More from the poll: “McCain narrowly trails Romney among Republicans but leads him among independents by almost 2-1. They can vote in either primary. In a USA TODAY poll in December, Romney had led McCain by seven points overall. Obama leads by eight points among Democrats and 23 points among independents. Women split between them evenly; he owes his lead to his edge among men, 49%-20%. Obama also leads narrowly among seniors and by an overwhelming 3-1 among voters under 35.”
The newest CNN/WMUR poll, meanwhile, has Obama leading Clinton by 10 points, 39%-29%, with Edwards at 16%. The day before, Obama and Clinton were tied at 33% each. In the GOP race, it’s McCain 32%, Romney 26%, Huckabee 14%, Giuliani 11%, and Paul 10%.
The Wall Street Journal: “After candidates who portrayed themselves as agents of change won the Iowa caucuses, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney -- the Democratic and Republican stalwarts defeated there -- embraced the lesson, swiftly and drastically changing their campaigning styles… After rarely taking questions in the final days of her Iowa campaign, Mrs. Clinton opened the floor to two hours of queries in place of her prepared stump speech over the weekend. And she ramped up her attacks on Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic victor in Iowa, even as she tried to soften her image to address concerns about her likeability. Mr. Romney … was suddenly flanked by a massive ‘to do’ list of campaign promises and an illuminated sign declaring, ‘Washington is Broken’ -- an attempt to tar his leading opponent here, Arizona Sen. John McCain, the candidate with the most Washington experience in the Republican field.”
In a telephone conference call last night, NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports, the Clinton campaign accused the Obama camp of violating New Hampshire law by having automated calls to people who've signed up for the do-not-call list -- to rebut a Clinton attack on Obama's record on abortion rights.
NBC/NJ's Aswini Anburajan adds that the call in question, recorded by Wendy Frosh of Planned Parenthood of New England, defends Obama against a mailer sent by the Clinton campaign that says he voted “present” seven times on legislation related to women’s reproductive rights. “Barack has a 100% pro-choice record and has always been a champion for women’s rights. Hillary Clinton’s last minute smears won’t protect the right to choose,” the ad says. It asks voters to support Obama and Tuesday, and it ends by identifying itself as paid for by the Obama campaign.
Clinton’s campaign says that two to three of their supporters in New Hampshire who are on the federal Do Not Call List received a robocall from Obama’s campaign. Normally, federal law makes exceptions for political phone calls and non-profit groups, but according to the Clinton campaign New Hampshire law prevents robocalls going to voters on the list. The campaign also says that the message left on voters’ machines violates the 30-second time limit in which the sponsor of the call must be identified. The call identifies the sponsor at 38 seconds, per the Clinton campaign.
The Obama campaign, responding through a statement from New Hampshire co-chair Ned Helms, says that their vendors “scrubbed” the list to confirm that no voters were on the Do Not Call List. “However if this call went to someone who should not have received it, we will make sure the vendor takes every step to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Helms’ statement read.
It is unclear if the people the Clinton campaign said were called were actually on the Do Not Call List. It has publicly identified just one woman who has received the calls. For its part, the Obama campaign has not denied that the woman in question was not on the Do Not Call List. They have also said their disclaimer, which identifies the sponsor of the ad, complies with federal law.
In the latest update on this controversy, Anburajan notes, Obama campaign spokesman Bill Burton sent an email saying that the Clinton campaign had forgotten a special exception under the state law that may permit campaigns to contact voters on the "Do Not Call List." Here's the provision: "The provisions of this chapter shall apply to all state primary, general, and special elections, but shall not apply to presidential preference primaries."
