Note: This transcript was adapted from a radio script. It may contain grammar errors and format quirks that certain readers find offensive.
From NHPR, this is Stranglehold, a podcast about the New Hampshire primary. I’m Jack Rodolico.
MUSIC IN
Lately, our team of reporters has spent a lot of time in this one office in the statehouse. This office -- it’s about the size of a large bedroom. Dark carpet, whitish walls. A couple desks where state employees work. A book shelf covered with dated phone books.
Normally, this office ... it’s not a place to be.
But -- that all changed about two weeks ago. That’s when the 2020 campaign wormed its way right through the doors - and turned this office into an all-but-necessary campaign stop - just like it does every four years.
BIDEN: Reporting as ordered. [Welcome back.] Good to be.
Vice President Biden stopped by this office. So did Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders, on down the line...
BIDEN: It’s an honor to be able to come to New Hampshire again and ya know this is … this is the ultimate democracy.
As I speak, we’re in the final hours of what’s known as the filing period: it’s a deadline for candidates who want to get their names on the primary ballot here in New Hampshire. And this office is where that all goes down.
Really, filing for the New Hampshire primary is the smallest of bureaucratic hurdles - sign a form and cut a check to the Secretary of State for a thousand bucks. Candidates don’t even have to do it in person - they can just mail in their paperwork. But most candidates DO show up in person. It’s a photo op - one of many on the campaign trail.
But it’s an even bigger opportunity for the man they’re all coming to see. This is a chance for New Hampshire’s Secretary of State, Bill Gardner, to take the stage for a moment too.
GARDNER: Perfect opportunity to let them know the tradition here, how it happened, why and /// but I’ve always done that over the years when candidates have come in.
ROGERS: Once every four years this two-week period is really were Bill Gardner’s going to get uninterrupted time in front of the national press, in front of a potential president.
Josh Rogers is the political reporter I go to when I don’t understand something about politics. He’s covered the New Hampshire statehouse since 2000. And this is his fifth primary. He’s seen a lot.
And Josh says, when it comes to Bill Gardner and this filing event that happens in his office every four years, it’s a chance for Gardner to define the primary as he sees it.
GARDNER: It’s a story of inclusiveness and helping to keep the American dream that anyone’s son or daughter can grow up to be president.
New Hampshire does make it easy for candidates to get on the ballot here. There aren’t many hoops to jump through. And the reasons that they show up in person to do just that -- well that speaks to how much sway this little state has in the 2020 race.
But this cycle, not every candidate is making the trip. And that reasons they are skipping out might tell us something about how the race to the White House is changing.
LET MUSIC PLAY OUT A BIT AND FADE
Gardner has held his office for 43 years, making him the longest serving Secretary of State in the country. Our whole first episode was about Gardner - how he built his power, how he uses that power, and how some would say he misuses it. Go check it out.
But for now all you need to know is that he’s in charge of the state’s elections and that means he’s been holding these public filings in his office for decades. There is a stagecraft to what happens here.
It starts in the hallway that leads to the Secretary of State’s office. Often hours before a candidate arrives at the statehouse, supporters start lining that hallway. And at the moment they catch their first glimpse of the candidate, everyone starts chanting .
Pete chant
The candidate walks down through the corridor, slapping backs, shaking hands.
Andrew Yang chant
They take selfies. There are campaigns signs everywhere.
Tulsi chant
ROGERS: I mean I wouldn’t say walking down the aisle exactly but they’re walking down the corridor, often being presented to the Secretary of State, to the officiant of the primary.
The bigger the candidate, the bigger the crowd that tends to greet them. This mass of people pushes down the corridor, with the candidate in the lead, and then it kind of narrows and funnels through a pinch point - the door to the Secretary of State’s office.
ROGERS: When a candidate enters the Secretary of State’s office, the Secretary of State is typically standing at the door. He greets them.
BUTTIGEIG: Hello. Sir.
In there, sometimes a staffer has to stand on her desk just to glimpse the candidate, who’s maybe ten feet away.
ROGERS: He’s ya know kind of a clerical looking man… and he has props that he’s using to make this case why what we do here in New Hampshire is special in his estimation.
That prop might be a desk - a really old desk, used by the lawmaker who created the primary.
GARDNER: ... who sponsored the legislation.
KLOBUCHAR: This guy, well this is his desk?
GARDNER: And this is his desk.
Another prop Gardner likes - ballot boxes. He points out that some towns in New Hampshire have been using the same ballot boxes for 100 years.
YANG: These things look very hard to tamper with or hack.
GARDNER: You can’t hack a pencil.
YANG: Yeah you can’t hack a pencil and wood ballot box.
ROGERS: He’s in front of a bank of cameras. News organizations are streaming this live. Remember we’re in a room where the walls are decorated with photos of past primaries, sometimes shots from within this office. So there’s this kind of hall of mirrors effect in a way.
RODOLICO: He seems to be making the case to the cameras through the candidate that New Hampshire is a great place to have the first primary because we’ve got this history here and because we take it so seriously.
ROGERS: Absolutely.
MUSIC
So the image Gardner is creating for the press is the master imparting a teaching to a presidential disciple. This whole scene is great for him politically. He’s standing next to EVERYONE. They’ve all come TO HIM.
And these candidates - senators and governors and mayors and vice presidents - they go along with it.
Do they really care about the history of the New Hampshire primary? Maybe. Do they care about appearing to be deferential to the New Hampshire primary? Probably.
GABBARD: Ooooh ok.
Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard punctuated each of Gardner’s lessons with a superlative. Incredible.
GABBARD: Incredible.
Amazing.
GABBARD: It’s amazing history.
KLOBUCHAR: Uh huh. Uh huh. [GARDNER: So in 1952…]
Senator Amy Klobuchar delivered a steady stream uh huhs.
KLOBUCHAR: Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh. Uh huh.
Uh huh.
KLOBUCHAR: Uh huh.
South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg kept repeating this little zinger. “How ‘bout that.”
BUTTIGIEG: How ‘bout that. / How ‘bout that. / How ‘bout that.
So the cameras are clicking away, Gardner takes each candidate through the history of the primary from 1913 to today. And then, they hand over the money, sign a form - and it’s official...their name will be on the New Hampshire ballot.
And what exactly are the candidates getting out of this...beyond the photo opp? Like I said, they don’t have to do this in person. They can send their check in the mail. But if they did it that way, they wouldn’t get Gardner’s public seal of approval.
GARDNER: You’re all set. You’re official. You’re officials. [Cheers]
///
ROGERS: They may have been running for mo nths or even years, but at this moment, it is new again.
MUSIC
Maybe this sounds to you like some kind of parochial tradition that candidates just grin and bear through. Or maybe you see some kind of deeper meaning here. Either, let me tell you something indisputable.
There is a leveling effect at play here. By recreating this moment again and again, Gardner is knocking big candidates down a peg - and he’s giving a little lift to the candidates whose campaigns are flailing.
Not in a way that will swing or even nudge the race. It won’t. But the imagery he creates is powerful. Every candidate who chooses to walk through Gardner’s door - they all seem to stand shoulder to shoulder - just for a moment. And that’s by design.
GARDNER: This primary has always been about the little guy. /// And we make it as easy as we can and it gives the person who doesn’t have the most fame or fortune to have a chance.
New Hampshire does make it easy to get on the ballot. And that means Gardner’s doors are open to not just the little guy, but also the littlest guy. What does that mean? I’m not talking about a congressman who isn’t polling high enough to make the debate stage. I’m talking about candidates on the fringe.
DE LA FUENTE: You do not know how difficult it is, ballot access United States. New Hampshire is the easiest state in the country.
Like Rocky De La Fuente, a California man who says he got rich selling cars. He’s gonna be on the Republican ballot in the New Hampshire primary - listed there with Donald Trump. And when De La Fuente had chance to bend Gardner’s ear, he spent a chunk of time talking about this picture of him that he didn’t like on Wikipedia.
DE LA FUENTE: And he put the stupid picture for two years in a row and I couldn’t do nothing to remove it. I would remove it from Wikipedia, put it back in, remove it….
There are a lot of guys like De La Fuente - candidates with no real campaign or supporters, who come into Gardner’s office prepared to spend a thousand dollars of their own money, just to be listed on the ballot.
And some of these fringe candidates are fringier than the rest. Like the conspiracy theorist who showed up just before Joe Biden filed and insisted on being listed on the ballot as “Rod Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself Webber.”
WEBBER: R-o-d, Epstein, didn’t, d-i-d-n-t, kill, k-i-l-l...
REPORTER: Roderick or Rod?
WEBBER: I go by Epstein didn’t kill himself...
Gardner did not let him on the ballot. Can’t use a multi-word nickname. That’s state law.
These moments in the Secretary of State’s office can be absurd. I mean, a dozen T.V. cameras waiting for Biden, filming this instead...
WEBBER: If you turn me away a second time I will file a lawsuit! I filed a lawsuit against Trump...
But they are proof that Gardner keeps his doors WIDE OPEN to anyone who wants to run for president. And once they’re through his doors, and they’ve signed the forms and paid the fee, he directs the candidate to a back room. Gardner has national reporters stand while local reporters get prime seats at a table with the candidate.
NHPR is almost always at that table too. We play the game. And often the first question, inevitably from a local reporter, is some variation on, so, you gonna win the primary?
DISTASO: So mayor, are you gonna win the NH primary
BUTTIGEIG: We’re counting on it. Well I think it’s all about speaking to New Hampshire voters about … FADE
And then, they’re done. They leave. They’re on the ballot.
If they’re lucky and they’re riding high in the polls, the chaos follows the candidate outside, where campaign staff have spent hours preparing a stage for a rally.
That’s a really great photo op - cheering supporters, with the capitol’s gold dome looming above them.
BUTTIGEIG: We've been at it for a good year or so, but this this feels different. We are officially a candidate in the New Hampshire primary for President of the United States.
MUSIC SWELL
So we've been talking about the candidates who made the trip to Bill Gardner's office. But there are a few who've skipped the pilgrimage this time around. Senator Kamala Harris and former HUD Secretary Julian Castro, they are running for president. They got their names on the New Hampshire ballot, but they did it by mail or having a staffer drop it off. They skipped the Gardner show. So if it means something when candidates show up, what does it mean when they don't?
JOSH ROGERS: The notable thing about Castro is he's not filing here, not doing terribly well in the polls here or in Iowa. But he's making the case that, you know, perhaps Iowa, New Hampshire have had a good run being the leadoff states. And, you know, we ought to move to states that are more demographically and ethnically diverse.
JULIAN CASTRO: We can't say to black women, oh, thank you, thank you. You're the ones that are powering our victories in places like Alabama and in 2018 and then turn around and start our nominating contests in the two states that have barely any black people in them.
JOSH ROGERS: It’s an argument we're familiar with. It's interesting to hear it out of the mouth of a candidate in the heat of a campaign.
JACK RODOLICO: Why is that interesting?
JOSH ROGERS: Well, you know, maybe it's a sign of desperation, but it's somebody willing to go there who still hopes to win support of voters in Iowa and New Hampshire. And, you know, there is a diversity issue here in his mind.
JACK RODOLICO: Castro makes these comments in Iowa and immediately it gets a reaction here in New Hampshire. There are local politicos who play the role of primary defenders and they felt the need to push back. Let me just read you these quotes. Here's one from Ray Buckley, longtime chair of the New Hampshire Democratic Party.
Quote, “I can imagine he,” - Castro - “is frustrated, but blaming his campaign's challenges on the voters of Iowa and New Hampshire is a bit much.” Now, here's a Republican. This is Tom Rath, a bit of an elder statesman in New Hampshire politics, as you know, Josh.. Quote, “It is not geography or demographics, but your lack of relevance that brought you” - Julian Castro - “to where you are or aren't.”
JOSH ROGERS: I mean, you could see these comments as being protective of the primary of, you know, kicking somebody when they're down, of taking offense at something that they believe besmirches the state's reputation. But it's also hard not to see it as, you know, a warning to other candidates. You know, watch your step if you're going to go there.
JACK RODOLICO: So what is the risk to New Hampshire in that scenario?
JOSH ROGERS: Well, I mean, the demographics of the state are the demographics of the state. And, you know, if you have a candidate running in a Democratic primary, I mean it’s less of an issue for Republicans, frankly. But if you have a candidate running the Democratic primary making that point and that argument takes hold and becomes more regularly vocalized, particularly by candidates, you know, that could be bad news for New Hampshire.
JACK RODOLICO: So, Josh, to your point, what we've had here is Castro makes a comment that's not exactly complimentary of the New Hampshire primary. The New Hampshire defenders sort of send a shot out over the bough and then reporters start going to the top polling Democratic candidates and asking them, hey, what do you think about New Hampshire and Iowa?
PETE BUTTIGIEG: Well, you know, I think that the role of all four early primary states really creates that balance and makes sure that candidates have to visit different kinds of states and speak to diverse constituencies.
JOE BIDEN: They are first. That's what they are now. It's not going to change. I've got to win them both.
REPORTER: But should it change?
JOE BIDEN: No, I don't think so. I'm I'm not going to get into that discussion.
ELIZABETH WARREN: Let me just before you finish. Are you actually going to ask me to sit here and criticize Iowa and New Hampshire?
REPORTER: No, I'm asking about the order.
ELIZABETH WARREN: No, that is what Iowa and New Hampshire are all about.
JOSH ROGERS: Well, Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden, Elizabeth Warren are all doing pretty well in New Hampshire. And Buttigieg is rising in the polls? I mean, he was perhaps had the most nuanced argument about, you know, an overall balance between the four early states, meaning Iowa, New Hampshire, and then a little bit more diversity in terms of Nevada and South Carolina.
PETE BUTTIGIEG: But I'd really valued, especially in the context of this bus tour, the special role that New Hampshire plays.
JOSH ROGERS: And Joe Biden. He's certainly not going to, you know, say anything critical of New Hampshire.
JOE BIDEN: The people of Iowa are extremely informed as other people in New Hampshire. Are they representative of historically and practically based on race and creed and color of the nation? No, they're not. But that doesn't mean they don't they shouldn't play a major part. Look, one of the reasons why…
JOSH ROGERS: And you know Warren. She's riding high in the polls. She's from a neighboring state, she stands to benefit here.
ELIZABETH WARREN: I'm just a player in the game on this one and I am delighted to be in South Carolina. Thank you.
JACK RODOLICO: So, Josh, putting all that aside, here's another person who will not be coming to New Hampshire to file for the New Hampshire primary. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg. What do we know about him?
JOSH ROGERS: Well, we know that he said to be looking very seriously at a run.
REPORTER: Now, new reporting says Bloomberg plans to skip the first four states Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, and instead focus on March 3rd, known as Super Tuesday.
JOSH ROGERS: Certainly the idea of a vastly wealthy candidate deciding I don't need to go through the states to get elected and I have the means to potentially run a truly national campaign. You know, that's another threat to life as we've known it in New Hampshire. We have no idea what the threat is meaningful at this point. But certainly conceptually.
JACK RODOLICO: You know, anyone who's listened to this podcast for a while knows that there are a couple things that come up again and again throughout history in terms of the threats or the perceived threats here in New Hampshire and early states. One is the idea that a national primary would be very bad for a small state like New Hampshire, that we wouldn't get the recognition from presidential candidates. Also, the idea that New Hampshire doesn't have a very good answer to the question, what about diversity? Right. Both of those things are at play in an active way in the presidential campaign right now.
JOSH ROGERS: I mean, it's when the candidates stop showing up in my mind, is it true is barometer of whether New Hampshire has lost any relevance? And, you know, we're in no position to know that right now. But we do have candidates who didn't show up to file. And we now have at a potential candidate who's saying his plans don't include New Hampshire, period. And we don't know where he's going to end up running. But it is the failure to show up that will ultimately determine the relevance of New Hampshire. As soon as candidates don't see the need to come here and to participate and to honor the traditions of the primary. That's going to be a problem for the future of the primary.
MUSIC
This episode of Stranglehold was produced by me, Jack Rodolico.
Stranglehold is edited by NHPR’s Director of Content, Maureen McMurray, and News Director, Dan Barrick.
Additional reporting and editing in this episode by Casey McDermott, Josh Rogers and Lauren Chooljian.
Sound mixing by Rebecca Lavoie. And Sara Plourde made our beautifully aggressive podcast graphics.
Original music composed and performed by Jason Moon and Lucas Anderson. Additional music from Blue Dot Sessions.
Stranglehold is a production of New Hampshire Public Radio.