Edwards Accentuates the Positive to Northerners

MANCHESTER, N.H. —  In his populist campaign for president, North Carolina Sen. John Edwards has taken the issue directly to New Hampshire voters: namely, he sounds different than they do.

As he crisscrosses the Granite State, where the natives speak in a clipped New England inflection, Edwards has sought to turn his easy-rolling Southern drawl into a political asset. When asked if he can beat President Bush, Edwards tells audiences that to win back the White House in November, the Democratic nominee will need to harness a broad nationwide appeal.

And most critically, the party standard-bearer must win key votes south of the Mason-Dixon line.

“I can win in the North, in the West, in the Midwest and, talking like this,” he says, pointing to his mouth, “in the South.”

While some Democratic candidates have historically done well in New Hampshire -- including Jimmy Carter, who won in 1976, and Bill Clinton, who finished second in 1992 -- the state is littered with the graveyards of would-be Southern presidential campaigns.

Edwards got a big boost in momentum in the Iowa caucuses this week, finishing second among four major contenders. But to win over voters in New Hampshire, he may have to exorcise the ghosts of some Southerners past.

For liberal New England Democrats, Edwards’ Carolina drawl may summon such disparate images as the Bible-belt South and conservative politics to NASCAR, a Southern-bred sport, according to Harrison Hickman, an Edwards pollster from North Carolina.

“People hear it as the voice of gentility or the voice of an imbecile,” he said. New Hampshire focus groups, Hickman added, have mentioned Edwards’ drawl but do not pass judgment.

Still, Edwards’ New Hampshire campaign has avoided using poll callers with Southern accents. Hickman said: “I’m sure Northern candidates won’t have New Englanders calling in the South either.”

From Iowa to New Hampshire, Edwards has used his Southern charm to win voters. When he became aware that a woman had passed out during an event in Iowa, the candidate stopped his speech.

Asking about her welfare, he walked to the edge of the Drake University stage. “Let’s just make sure she’s OK,” he repeated. “Is she OK?”

As the woman was helped to her feet, Edwards leaned toward her: “Thank you, darlin’,” he said. “Thank you for bein’ here.”

New Hampshire resident Jessica Eakin, who attended college in North Carolina, says regional attitudes could clash in Edwards’ campaign here.

“When I went there, I had the attitude that everybody was a bit dimmer,” she said. “Society is very closed in New England, and we don’t take to people who are from somewhere else.”

Waiting with 300 people for Edwards to speak at Dartmouth College on Wednesday, Eakin drew a cultural contrast between the regions: New Hampshire natives are known for blunt reticence, while Southerners tend to be more social, which can translate here as a less-than-serious attitude.

“Howard Dean, for example, is much more in your face,” she said. “John Edwards comes across as more laid-back, and that can be seen as untruthful.”

Yet the unemployed librarian likes the boyish North Carolina senator. “Edwards is charming. He’s very presidential. He has a presence.”

New Hampshire residents insist they have rolled out the political red carpet for many Southern candidates. Campaigning in his coonskin cap, Tennessee Sen. Estes Kefauver won the state Democratic primary in 1952 and 1956.

Jimmy Carter, then an unknown former Southern governor from Georgia, won here in 1976 and four years later beat out next-door native son Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts. Rather than travel from hotel room to hotel room, Carter appealed to New Englanders by staying in private homes across the region and establishing a populist, grass-roots base.

“That’s why he won,” said Michael Chaney, director of the New Hampshire Political Library. “He campaigned the way that’s required here. He was an outsider-of-Washington candidate promising to bring change.”

Sixteen years later, Bill Clinton emerged as the “Comeback Kid” here in 1992 following a solid second-place showing behind Massachusetts Sen. Paul Tsongas. The primary came at a time when Clinton was dogged by questions about marijuana use and an alleged affair with singer Gennifer Flowers.

“New Hampshire gave Bill Clinton a second chance,” said Terry Shumaker, Clinton’s campaign state co-chair in 1992 and 1996. “Regular Joes approached him on the street and said ‘Governor, you’re a good man, hang in there. You’ve shown everybody you can take a punch.’ ”

But some Southerners -- Democrats and Republicans alike -- haven’t been so lucky in New Hampshire.

In 1980, while Carter won big, Republican John Connally failed to register a pulse, garnering only 1.5% of the vote and finishing a distant sixth. Politicians such as South Carolina’s Fritz Hollings and Florida’s Reubin Askew both finished with single-digit percentages here in 1984, ending their campaign bids.

Republican Pat Robertson of Virginia in 1988 drew 9.4% of the vote, while Democrat Al Gore fared even worse, winning 6.9%, or 8,400 votes.

“Southerners talk funny to New Hampshire ears, that’s the problem,” said Kentucky native Craig Crawford, a columnist for Congressional Quarterly Magazine. “Those who failed here came with a chip on their shoulders and didn’t work hard enough, and that’s a death sentence to any politician, no matter what their accent.”

New Hampshire Republican strategist Tom Rath says it’s really not the accent that influences how people vote, but a candidate’s positions on issues.

“They lose not because of their accent, but their policies,” he said. “John Edwards won’t have that problem.”

But Democrat Arnie Arneson, a talk-show host who once ran for governor, predicts Edwards will have problems here that have nothing to do with his drawl.

“His accent doesn’t offend me; it’s his thin portfolio,” she said. “Democrats are looking for a winner, and this man looks like Opie -- he’s spent only [five] years in the Senate.”

Arneson says she knows lots of “attractive young men who want to be president.”

“I’m just nervous about his youth,” she said. “To be honest, no Democrat is going to win the South [in the general election]. I just can’t figure out which states John Edwards is going to win -- even with his accent.”

Still, New Hampshire resident Leslie MacNeil likes what she hears in Edwards.

“He’s the most positive, and I believe him when he says he can do it,” she said after hearing the candidate speak at an appearance in Portsmouth.

The accent? That doesn’t bother her. But her spouse disagrees.

Said MacNeil: “My husband calls it the Southern speech impediment.”

The cross-regional cultural phenomena may be repeated when the primaries move south from New Hampshire to states such as South Carolina and Tennessee, where voters have declared distaste for such candidates as former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean and Massachusetts Sen. John F. Kerry, who have been written off as “those New Englanders.”

“There are still Southerners who think Abraham Lincoln was a killer and call the Civil War the war of Northern aggression,” Crawford said.

“If John Edwards faces a Northern bias in New Hampshire, John Kerry will face it in reverse when he goes south.”

Times staff writer Robin Abcarian contributed to this report.