Rivals move to make Romney earn win in New Hampshire

DURHAM, N.H. -- Snow is on the ground from Bedford to Berlin, yard signs are competing for dwindling space along the roads, and the airwaves are about to come alive with familiar-sounding campaign ads.

Secretary of State Bill Gardner announced Wednesday the New Hampshire primary will be held Jan. 10, kicking off the final 10-week window of opportunity for the other Republican candidates to challenge Mitt Romney's longstanding dominance in the polls here and make things interesting in the first-in-the-nation primary state.

Romney holds a massive 22-point lead in the latest RealClearPolitics average of New Hampshire polls, and his campaign appears content to try to run out the clock in the state that remains the cornerstone to his electoral strategy.

Romney will come to the Granite State for a town-hall meeting Thursday in Exeter,where he will preview a major speech in Washington on government spending and is likely to return to the state next week, according to his campaign.

But Romney's trip here this week will be a one-day affair, and he has thus far avoided the kind of jam-packed public schedule he maintained in the state during his last White House run. It's a lower profile this time that befits his almost universal name recognition here.

The former Massachusetts governor has not yet aired advertisements in New Hampshire, instead choosing to conserve his resources for a potentially lengthy primary fight. But Romney's campaign is leery about being lulled to sleep here, and several other candidates seem poised to give him at least some reason for concern.

Though Michele Bachmann's New Hampshire campaign remains on life support after the defection of her entire statewide staff, several viable GOP contenders are set to boost their efforts here.

Rick Perry remains mired in the low single digits in state polls, but his campaign has shown no signs of giving up here despite growing questions about whether he should devote most of his resources to Iowa and South Carolina -- the two early-voting states that appear to be his most likely vehicles for a national comeback.

The Texas governor is launching a New Hampshire TV and radio advertising campaign on Wednesday, as he joins Ron Paul as the only candidates to air ads here thus far.

Perry's wife, Anita, will campaign in the state on Friday and Perry himself will likely return by the end of the month, according to aides.

"He's going to be campaigning hard in New Hampshire, and he has been campaigning hard," said Perry's New Hampshire strategist Paul Young.

Though the three-term governor may be able to survive a poor showing in New Hampshire if he exceeds expectations in the other early-voting states, the same cannot be said for Jon Huntsman. The former Utah governor recently moved his national campaign staff to New Hampshire and has banked his underdog candidacy on pulling off a surprise victory here.

Huntsman drew a crowd of almost 200 mostly college-age voters on Tuesday for a speech at the University of New Hampshire on energy policy. In it, he vowed to eventually eliminate all energy subsidies and called for an end to the oil "monopoly as a transportation fuel."

Though Huntsman was able to fill a big room for that speech, his frequent events here have typically been much more intimate affairs, as he has struggled to generate much discernible traction, despite his commitment to the state.

But Huntsman continues to hope that his conventional, understated style of campaigning will pay off once voters start to pay more attention.

"We're about to put that to the test," Huntsman said of his strategy in a brief interview following a recent town-hall meeting in Dover. "In the end, it really comes down to a message and one's ability to present that message in a believable way that is consistent with the aspirations of the people. I still think that's done the old-fashioned way. You've got to grind it out."

One candidate who has run a decidedly non-traditional New Hampshire campaign is Herman Cain, who has risen to second place in recent polls, despite making only sporadic visits here.

As he braces for potential fallout from past accusations of sexual harassment, Cain is slated to return to New Hampshire by the middle of this month. His campaign has not yet determined whether Cain will engage in the town-hall meetings that have been a mainstay of New Hampshire presidential politics for decades, or if he will continue to take a different tact heading into Primary Day.

"There are no firm decisions," his New Hampshire operations director, Charlie Spano, said of the campaign's strategy down the stretch. "Bus tours have been discussed. It may be a combination, or it may be one or the other."

One candidate who appears likely to benefit if Cain loses steam in the state is Newt Gingrich, whose campaign is opening five new field offices here over the next two weeks.

Gingrich is scheduled to come to New Hampshire for two full days of campaigning next week and plans to return later in the month for town-hall meetings and events at private homes.

Gingrich's recently assigned New Hampshire state director, Andrew Hemingway, said that he will helm a decidedly unconventional campaign in the state over the next two months and is banking on the vast swaths of still undecided voters to make things interesting.

"I think people are really still not sure at this point, and I think there's a tremendous amount of angst among voters," Hemingway said.

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