New Hampshire

New Hampshire's secretary of state says that it is "up to Nevada" whether his state is forced to move its presidential primary into December, with that vote possibly coming in just less than eight weeks. Bill Gardner, who by state law has sole authority to set the date of New Hampshire's contest, also says in a memo released Wednesday that his state will not surrender its traditional first-in-the-nation position. "Several aspiring Americans likely would not have become president if they weren't first able to make their case door-to-door, face-to-face, eye-to-eye with New Hampshire voters," Gardner writes.

Mitt Romney won all five Republican presidential primaries Tuesday, effectively ending the GOP nomination battle. The Associated Press called New York for the former Massachusetts governor not long after the polls closed at 9 p.m. EDT. Earlier, Romney was declared the winner in Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware and Pennsylvania. Tuesday marked the biggest day of voting in the Republican primaries since Super Tuesday on March 6, but there was no suspense. With former Sen. Rick Santorum out of the race, Romney faced only Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul, both of whom are well behind Romney in polls.

Reporting from Manchester, N.H. -- Defending his turf in a state where he has long held a commanding lead, Mitt Romney returned to New Hampshire on Saturday, joining hundreds of volunteers who set out to knock on 5,000 doors for the former Massachusetts governor less than six weeks before the Jan. 10 primary. Vowing to earn a victory in the first-in-the-nation primary state where he has a summer home, Romney ignored his Republican rivals during a morning rally with former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, instead mocking President Obama for taking a vacation over the holidays.

What a difference four years makes. Tuesday's primaries throughout the Northeast are expected to give President Obama enough delegates to officially clinch the Democratic nomination for a second term. The milestone comes more than a month earlier than it did in 2008, when Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton battled each other until the final primary contests in early June. This time, Obama faced no significant primary challenger. Instead his Chicago-based campaign operation has been building a massive field and digital operation to prepare for the general election battle.

No matter what happens in the New Hampshire primary Tuesday, Mitt Romney should be grateful that his opponents didn't force him to play the expectations game. All available evidence suggests that Romney, with twice the support of his nearest rival in the latest polls, will roll to a solid victory. But a candidate can win and still fall short of expectations, dampening enthusiasm and giving rival campaigns encouragement for the next round of voting. That's why raising the bar for an opponent is a time-honored tactic in politics.

For any Democrats unhappy with President Obama, Darcy Richardson says he's your man. The Jacksonville, Fla., native is one of 11 Democrats whose name will appear along with Obama's on the New Hampshire primary ballot next January. In 2008, 21 names were on the Democratic ballot, a contest ultimately won in stunning fashion by Hillary Clinton. Though the state fashions itself as one in which even the biggest of underdogs can compete and win, few are expecting anyone other than Obama to prevail.

Jon Huntsman Jr., struggling to gain traction with voters and donors alike, is uprooting his White House campaign and shifting most of its resources to New Hampshire, a state that now becomes make-or-break for the former Utah governor. Huntsman launched his campaign in June with a headquarters in Orlando, Fla., where his wife had roots and which, more important, is centrally located in an early-voting state he had hopes of winning. According to the campaign, that national headquarters will shift to Manchester, N.H., though it will maintain offices in Miami and South Carolina.

Most of the Republican presidential hopefuls had a light schedule Saturday, preparing for two nationally televised debates in a 14-hour span. Not Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator had six stops on his schedule before Saturday's 9 p.m. debate at St. Anselm College, including one inside a barn in the southern New Hampshire town of Hollis. "I'm doing debate prep with the people of New Hampshire," Santorum said. It was another overflow venue for the suddenly surging candidate, who is riding the momentum of a neck-and-neck finish with Mitt Romney in Tuesday's Iowa caucuses.

In the world of New Hampshire politics, the Union Leader newspaper still packs a punch. And on Friday there's no better way of judging just how Sarah Palin's visit obscured the Mitt Romney campaign launch than by looking at its front page. The former Alaska governor gets the biggest splash with the headline, "Palin hits the Seacoast. " Her bus tour showed up for a clambake in the Portsmouth area, just a dozen or so miles away from where the putative GOP frontrunner made his candidacy official.

Fresh off a near-victory in Iowa's caucuses, Rick Santorum is forecasting a surge of support in New Hampshire. But he's also doing his best to keep expectations low. The former Pennsylvania senator, starting his first full day of New Hampshire campaigning since arriving in the Granite State late Wednesday, said his goal here -- and down the road when the GOP presidential contest heads South -- remains the same: He's out to solidify his position as...

MANCHESTER, N.H. - With victories expected in five Northeastern primaries, Mitt Romney prepared to claim the mantle of Republican presidential nominee - though he has not officially clinched the race - and turn his focus to a general election showdown with President Obama. Update, 6:32 p.m.: Romney won primaries in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware, and was expected to win New York - contests whose outcomes seemed all but assured two weeks ago when his chief rival, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, suspended his campaign.

Is it just me, or are you too starting to feel a little left out of this presidential race? Because, The Times' Mark Z. Barabak reported Sunday, California -- heck, for that matter most of the states -- won't count in November. Instead, President Obama and, presumably, Mitt Romney will battle over -- and the race will be decided by -- voters in about half a dozen states, including (sigh, again) Florida, plus Ohio and such stalwarts as Nevada, Iowa and New Hampshire. COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS: Presidential Election 2012 Isn't democracy great?

The gunman suspected of shooting five police officers in a small New Hampshire town -- including the police chief, who died just days from retiring -- was found dead in his home early Friday after a police robot was sent into the house, ending an overnight standoff. The state's attorney general, Michael Delaney, said the alleged gunman's girlfriend also was found dead of a gunshot wound in the house and that police believed they died in a murder-suicide or a double-suicide. He said two of the injured officers remained hospitalized with serious injuries; two others were treated and released.

NEW YORK - Michael Maloney was just eight days from retiring as police chief of the tiny town of Greenland, N.H. - just eight days from leaving 26 years in law enforcement for the freedom to golf, fish, enjoy his family and maybe find another job. But there was one thing he needed to do. It was a thankless task: helping to serve a warrant on a man with a rap sheet that included assault and drug charges. And it was the kind of job Maloney insisted on doing himself rather than leaving to others, say those who knew the chief, who was killed by a bullet to the head as he carried out his final mission Thursday.

Five police officers in New Hampshire were shot as they tried to serve a search warrant in a drug investigation Thursday night, and local media reported that one of them, the Greenland police chief, had died from a bullet to the head. Officers may have interrupted a drug deal at the house, the Union Leader of Manchester reported.  Early Friday, state Atty. Gen. Michael Delaney confirmed that Chief Michael Maloney had been killed, the Associated Press  reported.  The incident began around 6 p.m. in the quiet seaside town of 3,500 residents.

The New Hampshire House of Representatives has rejected a bill to repeal the state's 2-year-old law allowing same-sex marriage, dealing a blow to activists who had hoped to make the Legislature the first in the country to repeal a gay marriage law. Lawmakers in the House voted 211 to 116 against the bill, which would have repealed gay marriage and replaced it with a preexisting civil unions law, according to the Associated Press. It also would have made the issue a nonbinding question on the November ballot.

New Hampshire is still Mitt Romney country, but Herman Cain is rising fast, according to two new surveys of Republican voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state. A poll released Monday from the Institutes of Politics at Harvard University and St. Anselm College shows Romney at 38%, followed by Cain at 20% and Ron Paul at 13%. Tightly bunched behind them are Newt Gingrich (5%), Jon Huntsman (4%), Rick Perry (4%) and Michele Bachmann (3%). A University of New Hampshire survey released on Friday found a similar order, but included some candidates who will not or have not yet entered the race.

What a difference a week and 1,300 miles make: Rick Santorum, the Sleeveless Wonder who nearly took the Iowa caucuses out from under Mitt Romney, Tuesday came crashing back to Earth, as he was projected to finish fourth or fifth in New Hampshire. With about two-thirds of the vote counted, Santorum was neck-and-neck with Newt Gingrich at 10%, far behind Romney, and trailing Ron Paul and Jon Huntsman. Santorum had hoped that his near-win in Iowa would give him a bounce in the Granite State and that his northeastern background (he's the former senator from Pennsylvania)

In the past 100 years, technology has drastically changed most things in our lives. But one crucially important part of our political system has remained mired in the last century: the way we choose our president. America's current nominating system dates to 1910, when the first presidential primary was held in Oregon. At the time, this was a radical step, aimed at taking the nominating process away from political bosses. Now, a century later, we're overdue for another radical step.

Will the Golden State matter to Republicans after all? After Rick Santorum's strong Super Tuesday showing, and Newt Gingrich's win in Georgia and his vow to press on through the Texas primary in May and the California vote on June 5, it's possible that this state may finally enjoy the clout it deserves. But don't hold your breath. Mitt Romney may not have sealed the deal, but he is inching closer. By the time it's our turn to vote three months from now, chances are we'll just be going through the motions.