New Hampshire

Tom Ridge, the former governor of Pennsylvania who went on to become the nation's first secretary of Homeland Security, on Friday endorsed the  campaign of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, who is running back in the pack for the GOP presidential nomination. Perhaps more significant than the endorsement itself, was where it was announced: at  St. Anselm College in New Hampshire. Huntsman has spent much of September campaigning in the nation's first primary state, where he needs a strong showing next year.

Rick Perry says he was just being himself when he gave a speech in New Hampshire last week that became a web sensation, and that he wasn't under the influence. In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Perry was asked about the speech, which featured a wilder-and-crazier governor than national audiences have seen. He said the talk was "pretty typical" for him. “I've probably given 1,000 speeches,” the Texas governor told the Chronicle. “There are some that have been probably boring, some that have been animated, some that have been in between," he said.

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.

As the Republican candidates prepared for their first of two back-to-back debates, Mitt Romney's campaign deployed hundreds of volunteers for a final weekend push - with the goal of making 150,000 additional voter calls and knocking on 10,000 doors before Tuesday afternoon.   As hundreds of local volunteers and about 500 from other parts of the country fanned out across the state, Romney campaigned Saturday on the eastern side of Rockingham County, the second most populous county in New Hampshire, in Derry, where he beat John McCain by 330 votes in the 2008 presidential race.

Mitt Romney is holding on to what seems like an insurmountable lead in New Hampshire a new poll finds, meaning any drama surrounding Tuesday's voting in the first presidential primary is likely to be about who claims runner-up status. In the final University of New Hampshire survey before the contest, Romney is the top choice of 41% of likely Republican primary voters, 24 points ahead of Texas Rep. Ron Paul. Rick Santorum and Jon Huntsman are knotted at 11%, followed by Newt Gingrich at 8%. Rick Perry musters just 1% support.

MANCHESTER, N.H. - President Obama kicked off a renewed push for the Granite State's four electoral votes Thursday, cautioning the state's fiscally minded voters not to accept Mitt Romney's “sketchy deal.” The president's rally on a postcard fall afternoon in New Hampshire's biggest city was his first in the state since he campaigned here immediately after the Democratic National Convention. In the intervening weeks, he and his campaign have dedicated much of their energy toward states that have early voting, such as Iowa and Ohio.

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.

Her body has not been found, but an actor and martial-arts instructor was charged with second-degree murder Monday in the disappearance of New Hampshire college student Elizabeth “Lizzi” Marriott. Seth Mazzaglia, 29, of Dover, is accused of either strangling or suffocating the 19-year-old marine biology student to death sometime after she disappeared after class last Tuesday night, according to charges read against Mazzaglia by a Dover District Court judge on Monday. How the authorities reached that conclusion is less clear, as searchers still haven't found her body, and investigators remained tight-lipped on what evidence led them to Mazzaglia.

There is a general-election feel to President Obama's trip to New Hampshire today, with GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney and state conservatives mobilizing to greet him on his first visit there in nearly two years.   Obama's trip is the latest in a string of visits to key swing states to sell his jobs program. Today he'll urge Congress to renew the payroll tax cut and provide new relief for small businesses. Romney, a former governor of neighboring Massachusetts who owns a home in the Granite State, is using the president's trip to launch his first paid advertising of the 2012 race (see video below)

CONCORD, N.H. - President Obama's campaign isn't just nostalgic for 2008. As it blew through New Hampshire 48 hours from election day, it was pining for the '90s. Former President Bill Clinton, the only Democrat since Franklin Roosevelt to be elected to the office twice, joined Obama on the stump for what would be only the second - but the last - time of the campaign. The two men with the short and choppy history focused narrowly on the future. “I'm not ready to give up on the fight,” Obama told the crowd as he asked for their vote one last time.