A Knack for Foresight in a Political Town

HUDSON, N.H. —  As Hudson goes, so goes New Hampshire.

With uncanny prescience, this small town near the Massachusetts border has consistently picked the primary winners for both parties in New Hampshire since 1952. Twenty other towns in the state can claim success in choosing the winning candidate for one party or the other. But only Hudson gets it right each time for both.

State political analysts are stumped for an explanation of Hudson’s persistently on-target powers of prognostication. Many residents are equally perplexed. But Town Clerk Cecile Nichols said the answer’s easy: “Because we’re good.”

In fact, this community of 22,000 does boast an unusual level of political sophistication, said Bob Clegg, a property manager who represents Hudson in the state Legislature.

“We’re a small town, we’re truly independent and we search high and low for the best candidates,” Clegg said. “We take our time, and we make sure we know who we’re voting for.”

Four years ago, Hudson voters were on the money in favoring Patrick J. Buchanan, who defeated Bob Dole by a razor-thin margin statewide in the Republican primary. Hudson was part of the wave that Democrat Gary Hart caught in winning the 1984 Democratic primary over Walter F. Mondale. And the town backed victorious write-in candidate Henry Cabot Lodge over Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller in the 1964 GOP race.

This year, folks here expect Al Gore to carry the day among Democratic voters, which is in line with current polls. But on the Republican side, the town’s reputation could be at risk. The betting is that George W. Bush will win in Hudson, even as most polls show John McCain with a small lead.

Given its track record, savvy candidates make a point of visiting Hudson early, and in some cases often. Steve Forbes helped launch his New Hampshire campaign last spring with a meeting at Hudson’s Chamber of Commerce. Bush showed up four days before Christmas. Gore regularly stops by the local newspaper.

The attention continues even as the vote nears. Bill Bradley visited Hudson last week. John McCain held a town meeting here Saturday. Bush returned Sunday, and Republican Alan Keyes also dropped by.

What the candidates find is vintage 21st century New Hampshire: a once-rural enclave now dotted with shopping centers and high-tech enterprises. Many residents are commuters who loathe state income tax and long for a rustic setting; they happily make the hourlong drive between work in Boston and home in Hudson.

Hudson enjoys a comfortable socioeconomic profile. The median annual family income is $62,000 (the statewide figure is about $41,000). The average Hudson home price is $120,000. Wealthier people also choose to live here, as do a handful of homeless people who reside in the woods.

With spiffy subdivisions mixed with century-old homesteads, Hudson hugs the heart of the so-called golden triangle, the voter-rich area of southern New Hampshire that in primary season becomes a magnet for White House hopefuls. Party registration reflects the statewide tilt, with about 5,500 independent voters, about 4,300 Republicans and around 3,400 Democrats.

Numbers notwithstanding, Hudson is “pretty much a Republican town,” said retired pressman Leon Hammond. As assistant town moderator, the 89-year-old Hammond still works the polls at each election, handing out ballots. Like many others in Hudson, Hammond often grabs his morning doughnut at Connie’s or Kay’s, two coffee shops where political discussion is served along with bacon and eggs. At T. Bones and Stevie P’s Yacht Club--a restaurant with a boat on the roof--after-work bar talk also leans heavily toward politics.

“I don’t know why it is, exactly, to tell you the truth, but there’s a very strong political feeling here,” said Hammond, a Republican who nonetheless cherishes his memory of shaking hands here with President-to-be Franklin D. Roosevelt.

As co-owner of the Hudson-Litchfield News, the weekly paper here, Fidele Bernesconi believes his town’s voters “seem to be more educated. I don’t mean intellectually. I mean political-wise.”

Hudson voters have no compunction about telling the candidates “to take a walk” if they don’t like what they hear, Bernesconi said. Or they may challenge the contenders on specific issues, such as when Bernesconi contacted each candidate this year to ferret out their positions on support for special education.

Hudson voters insist on face-to-face contact, said Clegg, a Republican. They abhor security forces. They disdain pretension.

“We’re not afraid to ask questions about anything,” he continued. “And we don’t allow candidates to plant set-up questions. That would never happen in Hudson.”

By all accounts, county Commissioner Rhona Charbonneau, who is also a town selectwoman and former state representative, is Hudson’s political hostess-with-the-mostest. The fortunate Republican who earns her blessing--this election, it’s George W. Bush--can expect her to open her home to an evening reception for up to 200 people.

Charbonneau had a party featuring her trademark three-dimensional White House cake for Bush’s father, then-Vice President George Bush, as he sought the GOP presidential nomination in 1988. When the younger Bush was her guest just before Christmas, “I had to refuse people. I could have gotten at least another 100 in.”

She added: “I tell the candidates they have to come to Hudson.”

And they do.