COVER STORY

Victoria Cimino addresses a large group during the morning sessions of the sixth annual Tourism Summit held at the Sheraton Harborside. Cimino's speech focused on the N.H. primary and how it will impact the New Hampshire tourist industry. Amy Root-Donle photo

Sen. Eugene McCarthy once said more people die in New Hampshire than win its first in the nation presidential primary. Of the campaign trail, he quipped, "New Hampshire is like a suit of long underwear frozen stiff on a clothesline."

Former House Speaker Tip O'Neill called New Hampshire an "odd-ball" state.

Peter Kaye, an aide to President Ford, remarked, "A hell of a state to walk in, because you go 40 miles outside a city, there's nothing but bears and trees."

But for all the naysaying, cynicism and tongue-in-cheek slights of New Hampshire, the primary produces a ton of positive news about the state. Now, as the campaigning gains steam, the state Division of Travel and Tourism plans to promote the primary and the state's coveted role.

Victoria Cimino, a spokeswoman for the state's travel and tourism agency, said tentative plans would market the New Hampshire primary to political junkies and to presidential campaigns and their supporters.

"I think there's an opportunity to capitalize on some of these political junkies who hear about the New Hampshire primary," Cimino said during the March tourism summit in Portsmouth that was underwritten by Seacoast Media Group, publisher of Seacoast Ventures. "If we're able to market our product creatively I think there's an opportunity to tap into some new folks."

New Hampshire voters take their job of vetting the candidates very seriously. But a study of the 2000 primary shows it is also a serious moneymaker. The campaigns and news reporters alone spent $83 million in the state in 2000, according to a study conducted for the New Hampshire Political Library. The total economic impact was an estimated $306 million. The study estimated 22 million people received positive messages about New Hampshire, what would have cost $6.6 million to buy that kind of media exposure.

Cimino said she knows from experience how seriously New Hampshire voters take their privileged role. She said nearly 20 percent of all residents have attended a campaign event, one indicator of the primary as part of the state's culture and heritage. At the tourism summit, she spoke of how businesses could work to leverage good media attention.

"We know that wherever the candidates go the media will follow," she said. "The media cover the candidates, the issues and the state."

Cimino came up with another unique idea to showcase the colorful campaign trail. She proposed a podcast, in partnership with Yankee Magazine, which would follow a fictitious presidential candidate as he or she meets voters.

There are enough candidates on the road to the White House that the real voters might not have too difficult a time meeting the real candidates. B.J. "Doc" Noel, president of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce, said the state is wise to promote the primary for its economic importance as much as for its critical role in the presidential nominating system.

"It's incredible," he said. "The earned media, the word of mouth. It's all a plus."

Dick Ingram, president of the Greater Portsmouth Chamber of Commerce, which hosted Republican Rudy Giuliani on April 3 at the Wentworth-by-the-Sea Hotel in New Castle, said the state's marketing takes into account that New Hampshire's image may need an update.

"Sometimes we get lost in the image of the New Hampshire primary," he says.

In other words, the Granite State is not all snow banks, pickup trucks and natives wearing plaid shirts.

Ingram says the primary helps show off New Hampshire's history and its continued pastime of decentralized state government, a place where the average person has access to the candidates and to incumbent local and state leaders.

Cimino, at the New Hampshire Division of Travel and Tourism, worked during the 2000 primary as a hair stylist. She was 21 at the time, and just out of college.

"It was unexpected," she says of the experience. "I didn't realize the magnitude of the primary until I was in it."