Joe Biden to file re-election paperwork Thursday

Updated 5:41 p.m. Eastern Time

Vice President Joe Biden will file paperwork in New Hampshire Thursday to inform state officials what pretty much everyone already knows: He and President Obama are running for re-election.

The White House announced Tuesday that Biden will file the paperwork with the secretary of state at the New Hampshire State House in Concord on Thursday, following a speech at Plymouth State University on jobs and the economy.

The campaign filed paperwork with the Federal Election Commission in April declaring that Mr. Obama would seek reelection. Thursday will mark the first official paperwork being filed with a state official marking his plans to run.

The re-election campaign is planning similar events in other states, though nothing has been scheduled yet. Such events will at least temporarily take the focus off of the GOP candidates, who have been harshly attacking the Obama administration as they've sought their party's nomination.

Mr. Obama won New Hampshire by four points in 2008, taking the state's four electoral votes. The Granite State is expected to be hard fought in the 2012 cycle, particularly if Mitt Romney, the former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who has a summer home in the state, is the Republican nominee.