Mitt Romney has been hanging out in New Hampshire for years, building up support and racking up endorsements. But when it came time for it to get behind a candidate, the Granite State’s biggest paper went with the guy who just returned to the GOP’s good graces weeks ago.
The headline in the New Hampshire Union Leader Sunday: “An Editorial: For President, Newt Gingrich”.
How big a deal is this? Potentially very big, according to the AP:
[Poll] numbers could shift based on the backing of The Union Leader, a newspaper with a conservative editorial page that proudly works to influence elections in the politically savvy state, from school boards to the White House.
That’s the best thing Gingrich — who’s seen his moment in the frontrunner seat come just as actual presidential primary voting is getting close — could possibly hear. He’s lagging in money and infrastructure thanks to the months he spent wandering the desert after he called the House Republican budget plan “right-wing social engineering.”
To be sure, Romney’s still very much in control in New Hampshire. He’s got the endorsement of current Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) as well as the public backing of many prominent Republicans in the state. A poll last week showed him leading a field of eight with 41% support.
Beyond that, it’s not likely the Romney campaign was betting on snagging the Union-Leader endorsement. The paper attacked Romney several times back in 2007 when he ran for president the first time, and chose to endorse eventual nominee John McCain.
The silver lining for Romney in all this is that the Union-Leader editorial board does not make a habit of getting behind the candidates Republicans eventually choose to be their nominee. The Wall Street Journal‘s David Wessel tweets:
“Union-Leader track record; just two nominees since ’76: Reagan in 76 & 80, DuPont 88, Buchanan 92 & 96, Forbes 00, McCain 08.”
