Amanda Loder was StateImpact’s multimedia reporter until the project merged with the New Hampshire Public Radio site in July 2013. She now serves as a reporter and Weekend Edition Host for NHPR. You can continue to follow her work at @AmandaLoderNHPR, at nhpr.org, and on New Hampshire Public Radio.
The 2012 Republican presidential candidates just aren't investing as much in the New Hampshire race as usual. StateImpact scours political coverage to find out why.
There’s been a collective notion swirling among New Hampshire politicos and pundits that this year’s Republican primary just doesn’t stack up to past events. Candidates aren’t as anxious to go to town hall meetings and shake hands at nondescript diners. By and large, they’re not throwing astronomical sums of cash into unending TV ads. Yes, they’re here, touting the importance of the early New England vote. But they’re not entirely here, mentally and spiritually grounded in the Granite State, outwardly embracing its quirks, touting its special place in electoral politics (except for Jon Huntsman, that is) .
In short, there’s a well-documented sense in the media that somehow, somewhere along the line, New Hampshire’s First In The Nation primary has fallen off its granite pedestal.
The problem with nebulous sentiment, however, is that it’s tough to quantify.
So instead, we’re going to take a look at some of the latest coverage concerning political spending and the decline of retail politics to get a more solid sense of what this perceived shift could mean for New Hampshire. Continue Reading →
Pollster Andy Smith helps StateImpact dig into NH voter psychology after the jump
Given the national atmosphere, it’s difficult to overestimate the importance of each presidential hopeful’s economic blueprints as the New Hampshire primary draws closer. (Our cheat sheet of the GOP candidates’ positions on the economy is available here.)
This year, longtime NH pollster Andy Smith, who directs the University of New Hampshire Survey Center, says it’s far and away the economy that will determine candidates’ vote counts.
That may seem kind of obvious on the surface. But not once you start drilling down into the key questions — the whys and the hows. Why’s Mitt Romney doing so well in New Hampshire (besides the fact he’s got a summer home here)? And how, exactly, is the economy affecting voter perceptions and behavior?
So after reviewing the UNH Survey Center’s recent WMUR Granite State poll, we talked voter psychology with Smith. And that discussion yielded our list of six surprising things about New Hampshire voters and the economy: Continue Reading →
We've got the weekly roundup of the StateImpact posts you loved most!
It’s late Friday afternoon. And we wouldn’t blame you for feeling a bit fidgety at your desk. So in the spirit of combating pre-weekend restlessness, we bring you this week’s roundup of our most popular posts–the stuff people are talking about, and you just might’ve missed in the mid-week bustle.
1. The Ultimate NH Primary Cheat Sheet: Where The Candidates Stand on Economic Policy: This is by far our most popular post of the week, in terms of both clicks and comments. We break down the Republican presidential candidates’ economic plans into easy-to-read roundups of their views of personal taxes, corporate taxes, and government spending.
2. The States With The Best And Worst Wage Laws For Home Health Workers: Our top post of 2011 is still drawing a respectable number of clicks (and reams of comments). This color-coded map illustrates which states have minimum wage and overtime provisions for home health workers, which have neither, and which fall somewhere in between. Continue Reading →
“Two dollar Powerball tickets will mean more prizes and more million-dollar winners, New Hampshire Lottery Executive Director Charles R. McIntyre said Wednesday.
The last drawing for $1 Powerball tickets will be Saturday, Jan. 14; the $2 tickets will go on sale Jan. 15.
‘It’ll be easier to win, the odds are lower, there will be more $1 million winners throughout the country and hopefully in New Hampshire,’ he said. Continue Reading →
Despite NH's vaunted retail politics atmosphere, not everyone's up to shaking a candidate's hand over breakfast
It’s pretty much a given that when presidential candidates want to chat up the citizenry, they include a hearty portion of local restaurant stops in their schedules. That’s especially true in an important early primary state like New Hampshire. Footage of politicians smiling, shaking hands, and chowing down wings served by smiling waiters at Any Diner, USA, is a staple of TV political coverage.
With the Iowa Caucus wrapped-up, the focus is on New Hampshire's First In The Nation primary
After months of political debates, ad buying, and hand-shaking, the New Hampshire Republican primary is finally upon us. And not surprisingly, the latest WMUR Granite State Poll from the University of New Hampshire Survey Center shows that the economy/jobs is the top issue for about 60 percent of the state’s voters.
The Iowa Caucuses have winnowed the field ever so slightly, with Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann suspending her campaign. Texas Governor Rick Perry took a night to reassess his path forward and decided today he’s continuing on to South Carolina, despite a fifth place showing.
That still leaves a lot of research to be done for undecided voters. Continue Reading →
Since we launched last summer, StateImpact's picked up some serious steam. Here are our 10 posts that drew the most eyes in 2011
It’s hard for us to believe, but StateImpact New Hampshire launched just five short months ago. During that time, we’ve worked to bring you data-driven reports and analysis focused on how business and the economy in New Hampshire work. Our goal is to bring you original journalism, to dig deeper into the big stories of the day, and to bring you the stories you didn’t even know were there. And, we’ve tried to do it in as interesting and as accessible a way as possible.
We’re going to do more of the same in the New Year.
But, as we move toward wrapping-up 2011, we just couldn’t resist a little retrospective–This Year’s Essential Stateimpact:
The States With The Best And Worst Wage Laws For Home Health Workers: By far our most popular post this year was a map we generated based on data from the White House on which states do–and don’t–offer home health workers overtime and minimum wage under the law. This map provides a quick and easy way to find out how individual states–and regions–compare.
How Junk Mail Is Helping To Prop Up The Postal Service: Our quest to find out how much companies like Fingerhut really pay to send us catalogs we never asked for led us deep into the arcana of postal rates. There are numbers (this is a StateImpact piece, after all!), but it’s also one of our lighter-toned stories…an economic news “dessert piece,” so to speak. Continue Reading →
Here's our roundup of five big trends that shaped NH's economy in 2011
With Christmas and Hanukkah wrapped-up, we’ve officially reached the pre-New Year’s lull. This brief respite from the regularly scheduled holiday cheer is when many people take the opportunity to consider their accomplishments and failures over the past year, and resolve to do better in the future. Other people just go to work for a few days and get really, really bored at their desks as they countdown to their next party.
Either way, it’s a bit of a restless period, isn’t it?
So here at StateImpact, we’ve decided to combat this inter-holiday malaise with a list. We’ve been watching a lot of economic forecast presentations lately, and reading a lot of white papers. So we took that information, along with some of our previous coverage, tossed it into the metaphorical pot, and boiled it down into a quick list of five essential trends that shaped the Granite State’s economy over the past year. While it’s certainly not exhaustive, it provides some food for thought looking toward 2012. Continue Reading →
Recreation--both summer and winter--is a huge driver of NH's second home market
Working on a site that deals with business and the economy, we look at a lot of reports. Economic reports, financial reports, government analyses…it goes on and on. So when we heard about the importance of second homes to New Hampshire’s economy, our first instinct was to reach for a report.
We came up empty-handed.
And when that happened, we decided to try to get our arms around how important vacation homes really are to the state’s economy, what this market looks like during The Great Recession, and what it could mean for the Granite State’s future.
This topic was a rich one for us, spawning a series of posts, interactive maps, and even a show on NHPR’s call-in show, “The Exchange.”
We ran with these posts shortly following the launch of StateImpact. So if you missed the coverage (and the cool maps), we’ve got you covered! Continue Reading →
Meanwhile, the Project On Student Debt recently reported that New Hampshire state school students who graduated in 2010 carry the highest average debt load in the country.
So StateImpact decided to parse the data a different way, looking at the average debt load for each of the state’s public and private schools, and situating those figures in the context of New England as a whole. We also delved into the particularly high student debt rate at the University of New Hampshire, and looked into why Dartmouth College actually boasts the lowest average debt in the state.
These posts have proved to be among our most popular features.
So if you missed an installment, or would like to check out the whole series at once, you’re in luck! Continue Reading →
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