January 10, 2012
The Good (and Not So Good) Moments from Covering the N.H. Primary
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 2 MIN.
More than one person over the last few days has asked me what it is like to cover the New Hampshire primary from your hometown. Well, here is an overview of some of the good (and not so good) moments from the campaign trail in the Granite State.
- Running into a former University of New Hampshire classmate at the Republican presidential debate at St. Anselm's College on Saturday night.
- Attending a pre-primary town hall with "Morning Joe" co-hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski in Manchester on Sunday night, and attending a portion of their show at JD's Tavern at the Radisson Hotel in downtown Manchester the following morning.
- Five cups of coffee before 9 a.m.
- Scarfing a banana and a bag of almonds for lunch in between events on Monday afternoon.
- Attending former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum's town hall meeting at the Derry-Salem Elks Lounge in Salem on Monday, and frantically searching for free wifi to file my story on it.
- Spilled coffee and old banana peels carelessly thrown onto the car floor.
- Spending quality time with my parents, sister and 9-month-old nephew in between events, writing and interviewing local voters.
- Watching political theater in Veteran's Park in downtown Manchester on Sunday afternoon.
- Waking up at 4 a.m. on Monday, and not going to bed until midnight.
The New Hampshire primary is anticlimactic as a fellow journalist said over coffee at Republic on Elm Street in downtown Manchester earlier this afternoon. The Queen City becomes the center of the political universe in the days leading up to the first-in-the-nation presidential primary; but the quadrennial spectacle and all of the inconveniences and indignities that come with it suddenly come to an end the morning after. The endless robo calls and political advertisements on television and radio cease. The media trucks that occupy downtown parking spaces leave. And the candidates move onto the next contest.
It will be good to return home to Dupont Circle on Wednesday morning, but this Queen City native relishes the opportunity to cover the political process in action on my home turf.
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
