As the meetup coordinator for New Hampshire, I wanted to update everyone on the efforts of the campaign to make sure the election is free from any fraud, and votes are counted accurately. There are a lot of posts and e-mail going around about this, so I thought it would be good for people to hear something from the folks on the ground and closest to the campaign. I have been talking to the NH campaign manager about this issue, and he has in turn been discussing it with national. They are taking the issue quite seriously, contrary to the rumors floating around the internet.

First, I have done hand counts here in NH in the past, with my kids sitting by my side. I know the folks in my town take the accuracy of the count quite seriously, and we normally have numerous volunteers to count the votes. Each table has two people so they can double check each other. The hand counts are a very transparent process, and this is what is used in about half the communities.

The other half use scanning machines, NOT the all-electronic machines. A paper trail is required in New Hampshire. So the person will fill out a paper ballot, and insert it into the machine to be counted and registered. If there is an error, it is spit back out, giving the person an opportunity to fix the mistake. All the paper ballots are put into a box and kept on file for 60 days (see RSA 659:95 - http://www.sos.nh.gov/rsa659.htm) for possible recounts. It is my understanding that many communities go ahead and hand count that night to double-check the scanning machines. These machines are NOT hooked up by modem.

The campaign has plans for the day of the primary that will help ensure a clean vote AND maximize the number of people that turn out. The best thing supporters in New Hampshire can do is to volunteer with the campaign to work the day of the primary, all day and into the evening. Working for other groups rather than the campaign will only dilute our efforts and risk destroying all the hard work us NH residents have made starting as far back as March. There are hundreds of polling locations - we need everyone's help if we want to cover as many as possible. Having half the people work for the campaign, and half for other groups will mean we can only cover half the polling locations.

There have been a lot of nasty things said about the official campaign. Having worked closely with the campaign since they began in NH, I find this extremely frustrating. Several of these people I worked with prior to the official campaign starting, and they are great hardworking people who want Dr Paul to win. In NH, the grassroots supporters and the campaign have had a great working relationship, and there is no need to destroy that.

I wanted to post an update of what is going on in New Hampshire, since all eyes seem to be focused on us. I’ve seen e-mails, posts, blogs, etc, about the campaign in New Hampshire that seem to bear little relation to reality, so I wanted to try to provide a counterbalance to those posts.

As a Meetup coordinator in New Hampshire, I've had a lot of people contact me wanting to help in this state. The outpouring of support and offers to help have been truly outstanding and gratifying. However, there has also been some help that has been undesirable, and downright harmful to our efforts here. I’ve said several times that Ron Paul's best asset is his supporters. But they are also his biggest liability. There can truly be "too much of a good thing".

Current Status of the Campaign

I’ve worked a lot with the official campaign. Many of the hired folks are people I worked with on the grassroots level before they got hired. Although many are young, they are smart and extremely motivated. Several of them gave up high paying jobs with no hope of going back in order to get Dr. Paul elected, so their dedication is not to be questioned. It’s a small staff (10) but they have worked extremely well to leverage the energy of all the supporters. They tend to keep very quiet about what they are doing since they don’t want the “competition” to know what they are up to, and therefore they get far less credit than they deserve. Things that have been done, and my perception of them:

• Direct Mail: The direct mail is easily the best of any Republican's, if not the best of anyone's on both sides of the aisle. They have probably sent out a total of 10-20 direct mail pieces, all of high quality. Many of these pieces were targeted to the recipient. For example, homeschoolers all got a flyer on homeschooling, and Dr. Paul’s protection of their rights. Those that care about sovereignty got a nice flyer on that, etc. The one that went to all Republicans was a beautiful 8-page beautiful piece.



• Radio: I have heard as many or more ads for Dr. Paul on the radio as any other candidate. It’s blasting the airwaves. A day won’t go by where I won’t hear several radio ads on several popular stations.



• Phones: Our phone banks are almost always constantly manned, and we don’t let up. Also, the campaign has done a lot of targeted auto-calls with some great messages. We have tons of coverage over the phones.



• TV: I have to admit, I don't watch much TV. People didn't like the original ad, but the more recent ones are very good. The one that came out today, I thought was great.



• Canvassing: We are getting a lot of people knocking on doors, largely thinks to Operation Live Free or Die. But we can always use more people!



• Visits: Dr. Paul has spent a lot of time out here over the last month. We will never get enough of him, and unfortunately have to share him with Iowa, S.C., Michigan, etc. But he is definitely working hard, and shaking a lot of hands. And the people that meet him love him.
  

As you can see, the campaign is hitting things very hard. They are serious about New Hampshire.

Too Much Help

With as much as the campaign, local supporters, and Operation Live Free or Die folks are doing in the state, it is very easy to get “too much help”. Some examples:

Some folks outside the state have decided to do "auto-calls" on their own. Given the amount of auto-calls the campaign is doing, this is getting on peoples nerves. Also, someone forgot to take the time zone into account, and people were getting calls in the middle of the night!!! You can’t imagine how painful it is for us to hear "I was supporting Ron Paul, but all this calls are pissing me off, and I won't vote for him". This has happened several times, and is really a problem. If you know who this is – STOP IT. In fact, this is hurting so much, I wonder if it is coming from one of our opponents.

Some folks have come into the state, and handed out flyers for marijuana, or 9-11 truth. That's help we DON'T need. No matter what your opinion is on these things, you don't hand this stuff to someone you don’t know well! We almost had a die-hard meetup member drop out because of this. The key to winning people over is to find out THEIR issue, and speak to that. Don't push your issue. If you come out to NH, please keep this in mind.

Many people, including myself, are concerned about vote-count, voter fraud, etc. Many third party organizations are talking a lot about this. But I have talked to the campaign and sincerely believe that the campaign's plans should handle this. Third parties coming into New Hampshire, who are not familiar with what goes on here, could actually hurt us. Please leave this to the New Hampshirites, and the campaign. We've got plans we can't talk about.

Might Help, Hopefully Won't Hurt

Letter Writing: I know there are some campaigns to write letters to NH. I think this is pretty unobtrusive and could help a bit, and shouldn't really hurt. The important thing is to have a good message on the letters. Stay away from anything controversial. Maybe just say that you support Ron Paul, and hope that the folks in NH will consider him. Don't focus in on issues that they may disagree on.

So How Can People Help?

• Work on your own state. It's looking likely that this will be a brokered convention, and we need to get delegates wherever we can get them. With the hugely successful fundraising, this is going to be a national campaign, and the eggs are no longer in one basket (NH). There are 20+ states that will have caucuses and primaries on Super Tuesday. With the large grassroots we have, we can compete in these if people start working now. A good site for canvassing training and other ideas is www.ronpaulreveres.com



• Come out to NH ASAP as part of www.operationlivefreeordie.com. If you can’t come out, please donate to that effort (using the donate tab on their site).



• Donate to the campaign. The next effort is New Year's Money Bomb The $4.3M, and $6.0M has really gotten people talking in NH, and taking Dr. Paul seriously. Breaking $20M will as well.



• The blimp has also created a lot of buzz. Reporters in NH are dying to ride on it. Make sure it gets to NH by donating at Ron Paul Blimp.

I hope all this information helps. I am so happy that folks from around the country want to help us win New Hampshire!

Events on Friday afternoon have been dropped, unfortunately. Here is the revised schedule. The events to get undecided voters to are the Berlin and Conway Town Hall meetings. There is no need for supporters to be at any of these events. It's far more important to encourage undecided voters to go. But this is getting posted in case you know people in these areas and want to let them know to show up.


Thursday

• 8:45 AM-10:00 AM,Concord,Radio Interview NHPR,The Exchange with Laura Knoy


• 1:15 AM-12:00 PM, Plymouth, Walk Main Street, Downtown Plymouth


• 12:35 PM-2:00 PM, Plymouth, Lunch and chat with locals, Main Street Station, 105 Main Street


• 2:15 PM-2:45 PM, Plymouth, Chat with local doctors, Tenney Mt. Internal Med, 251 Mayhew Turnpike Brit


• 7:00 PM-8:00 PM, Berlin, Town hall, Tea Bird's Cafe and Bistro, 101 Main Street

Friday

• 9:00am-9:15 AM, Jackson, Chat with locals, J Town Deli and Country Store, 174 Main St


• 9:35 AM-9:45 AM, N. Conway, Chat with locals, Zeb's General Store, 2675 Main St


• 10:30 AM-11:30 AM, Conway, Town hall Majestic Theater, 36 Main Street

The Tea Party is officially underway...



Over 33,000 people have pledged to donate $100 each. That would be $3.3 million in one day!!! Of course the real question is, can his supporters break their own record of $4.3 million set on November 5th? Only time will tell. So far the campaign has taken in over $270,000 in the first 30 minutes. If you want to track today's progress, go to Ron Paul Graphs.

Also, there will be a Freedom Rally in Boston, MA today starting at 1:00PM. For details, go to the Freedom Rally Website.

UPDATE #1:
As of 4:30 PM EST, Ron Paul has raised over $3.6 million today and has eclipsed $15 million for the 4th quarter.

UPDATE #2:
As of 6:30 PM EST, Ron Paul has now raised over $4.3 million, breaking the fundraising record set on November 5th. The buzz is starting to hit the media...

Paul Raises Millions in 24-Hour Effort [Associated Press]

Ron Paul meets -- and exceeds -- 4Q fundraising goal two weeks early [USA Today]

Ron Paul's tea party for dollars [Boston Globe]

UPDATE #3:
What a day!!! Based on the Ron Paul website, the tea party has generated $6,000,000 plus another $350,000 that was contributed by the campaign. Even Ron Paul's own fundraising director got in a last minute donation...



The media attention keeps on coming...

On Tea Party Anniversary, Ron Paul Raises Millions [Washington Post]

Bookmakers Hit Mark With Ron Paul Money Bomb Bet [Gambling 911]

Ron Paul White House bid raises $4.5 million [Reuters]

Reinventing the Revolution [New York Times]

Dr Paul is coming back to NH! He'll be on Wed, but that part of the schedule has not been confirmed. The rest of the schedule is below. Now, time is getting short, and the important thing is for Dr Paul to spend time with undecided voters. So if you are a loyal fan, your job is to get undecided voters to go see Dr Paul, and let them ask the questions. The events to push are the Berlin Town Hall meeting on Thursday, and the Conway Town Hall meeting on Friday.

Thursday
12/20 9:00 AM 10:00 AM Concord Radio Interview NHPR
12/20 10:00 AM 10:30 AM Concord Chat w/locals Hair Biz Salon, Autism fundraising
12/20 7:00 PM 8:00 PM Berlin Town hall Tea Bird's Café and Bistro
Friday
12/21 9:00am 9:15 AM Jackson Chat with locals J Town Deli and Country Store
12/21 9:35 AM 9:45 AM N. Conway Chat with locals Zeb's General Store
12/21 9:50 AM 10:25 AM N. Conway Ed Board Conway Daily Sun
12/21 10:30 AM 11:30 AM Conway Town hall Majestic Theater
12/21 12:00 PM 12:15 PM Madison Chat with locals Madison Community Market and Deli
12/21 12:30 PM 1:30 PM Ossipee Lunch (private) Whittier House
12/21 2:30 PM 3:30 PM Center Sandwich Town hall Benz Community Center
12/21 3:45 PM 3:55 PM Moultonboro Chat with locals Old Country Store
12/21 4:30 PM 5:00 PM Wolfeboro Business tour Hampshire Pewter Shop

PBS will air a piece on The Ron Paul Phenomenon Friday, December 14, the same day as the inaugural launch of the blimp. You can see a preview here. Times vary by area, so check local listings and look for the NOW program. In New Hampshire, it will be on WGBH at 8pm.

The Boston Tea Party Freedom Rally is set for Sunday, December 16 at 1pm. The organizers of the rally had to do some last minute maneuvering and could use some financial help to get their media package out. For details, click here. There are over 28,000 pledges ($2.8 million) for the Tea Party so far, which will easily set Ron Paul over his Q4 goal of $12 million. There's speculation that he could surpass ALL of the Republicans in fundraising this quarter. Not bad for a guy who doesn't take a dime from special interests.

WMUR spotlights Ron Paul in a video . The best part is what he'd do if he had three wishes. I think that says it all.


Other good articles of the day...

Ron Paul Revolution: It has just begun to fight [Chicago Tribune]

A Paul on Paul Supporters: 'Crazy in a Good Way' [Washington Post]

Paul's pals move to N.H. to cast votes. [The Hill]

Ron Paul Support Climbing in Presidential Race [KMEG 14, IA]

Ron Paul goes after the Fed for rate cut [USA Daily]

ABC Exiles Ron Paul Interview to the Web. [The Huffington Post]

I wanted to update folks from out of state on how they could help the grassroots in NH.

1) Come to New Hampshire with Operation Live Free or Die as soon as you can. We have about 400 people signed up so far, but we need more.
2) If you can't come out, then donate to Operation Live Free or Die to help sponsor housing for someone.
3) We could use more DVDs. There is a chip in here to get some out ASAP. But longer term, donate here to get money to get us a large block of DVDs.


4) Donate on Dec 16th to the campaign, by joining the Tea Party. The publicity from this should really help us out.

Thank you for the outpouring of support for NH!

Rand Paul (Ron Paul's son) is in town. If you haven't met him, you should. He's a chip off the old block. Here's his schedule:

Monday, 10, Dec
7:35-8:00 am: On the Radio, WSMN, 883-9900
10:00-11:00 am: Concord Birth Center
3:00-3:45 pm: On the Radio, Against the Grain, 107.7, libertyconspiracy.com/
5:00-6:00 pm: Colby Sawyer, New London
7:30-8:45 pm: St Paul's School, Concord

Tuesday, 11 Dec
10:00-11:00 am: Hampton High School, Hampton

The big news of the day is that with a 36 hour rush of support, the Ron Paul Blimp is go for takeoff. There were some doubts after the slow financial start and the speculation of false pledges, but as usual, Ron Paul supporters rallied and came through in the clutch. Without lifting a foot off the ground, the blimp has already started to generate a buzz, with lengthy articles from ABC News and the Washington Post, and more from Reuters, the Boston Globe, Politico, USA Daily, and Associated Content The blimp will launch from North Carolina on Dec. 10 and travel to Washington DC and New York, before flying over Boston on December 16th for the Mega Money Bomb Boston Tea Party. From there it is expected to spend the next three weeks flying over New Hampshire. To do so though, will require another $175,000 in donations by December 21st.


In other Ron Paul news today...

- Recent news has demonstrated why Ron Paul is the only candidate that has the intellegence and foresight to understand the problems facing our country. This week alone, he was was proven right about Iran, reckless abuse of taxpayer money to fund an unconstitutional war, and the consequences of economic intervention via the federal government.

- Thanks to lots of supporter emails, John Stossel of ABC is doing an interview series with Ron Paul.

- Good articles on Ron Paul's fundraising prowess and ability to bring together a diverse group of people in the name of freedom.

- Ron Paul gives John McCain a history lesson.

- Why Ron Paul could surprise in Iowa.

Here's a decent article in the Post on Paul's December run at New Hampshire. If nothing else, I think it hits home the resolve and dedication of supporters in NH.

We made a big push to get people to canvass this last weekend, and it was hugely successful. We had folks come from New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Connecticut, etc. Many of these folks were brought to NH through the Operation Live Free or Die project, which really needs your donations. Saturday morning, we informed all the volunteers to come to Murphy's Taproom to be personally thanked by Dr Paul! About 100 people showed up, who had been canvassing all day. It's pretty great when you have to restrict a crowd from being too big by only allowing volunteers to come! You could tell that Dr Paul was floored by all the work that we are doing. And so was the Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and Salon magazine, who all sent reporters to the event. One reporter said they had never seen a campaign have this much energy. You can see Salon's excellent write up here.

Make sure to head over to Operation Live Free or Die, to see their blog posts on this event. There are pictures and video posted.