2008 Woodie Awards
The north 'poll'
Christopher DeFillippi
Issue date: 10/27/04 Section: News
It's a sign of the politically turbulent times when New Hampshire, the last bastion of conservatism in New England, has become a swing state - particularly when pollsters are beginning to suspect that it's swinging left.
"We were the first poll that had John Kerry comfortably ahead in New Hampshire," said Director of the Suffolk University Political Research Center David Paleologos.
The research center, headed by Paleologos, with much of the polling done by his students, has gained greater clout and prominence in recent years. The center has been doing polling for Channel 7 news since 2002 and received much positive attention for its accuracy following its predictions of the January 2004 New Hampshire primaries.
Over half a year later, Paleologos and his students have returned to making phone-calls to Granite State residents and, just as Kerry was in January, he seems to be pulling the lead today as well.
"Traditionally, New Hampshire has always been unkind to people from Massachusetts," Paleologos said, citing that the state voted for such Massachusetts politicians as Michael Dukakis and John F. Kennedy at rates far below the national average.
"But now, there're a lot of Massachusetts operatives trying to get out the message in an eyeball-to-eyeball framework," Paleologos said. "They're winning over a lot of people with good old-fashioned shoe leather and door knocking." He also cited that the media coverage of Kerry in Massachusetts often spills over into New Hampshire border towns, familiarizing them with the candidates and increasing their opinion of him.
When jokingly asked if something such as a Red Sox victory could effect the election, he responded, "Well, it's kind of like the Minnesota Twins."
"Minnesota hadn't been a baseball contender in a long-time and for the first time in a long-time, Minnesota was a battleground state," he said of the once Democratic stronghold. "How the hell can you focus on Iraq or anything else when you have the Twins?"