Tennant: Money key for victory

LYNN – Local political gurus like Barack Obama’s and Mitt Romney’s chances of winning today’s New Hampshire primary even though polls fall short of anointing a clear winner.A poll taken Monday giving the Illinois senator 35 percent of the vote compared to 34 percent for Hillary Clinton was well within the margin of error for the 7News/Suffolk University sampling.By contrast, a new USA Today/Gallup poll had Obama taking 41 percent of the vote compared to 28 percent for Clinton and 19 percent for former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards.On the Republican side, Arizona Sen. John McCain had 34 percent, up from 27 percent in mid-December in the USA Today sampling, while former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney had 30 percent, down from 34 percent. Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee was third with 13 percent.Both surveys had a margin of error of 4.4 percentage points, a small enough gap to consider the GOP race tied.Mindful of Obama’s lead, Clinton took to the airwaves with television interviews in which she questioned the substance behind the Illinois senator’s soaring rhetoric.She said Obama “is a very talented politician” but “if he’s going to be competing for president – and especially to get the Democratic nomination and go up against whomever the Republicans put up – I think it is really time to start comparing and contrasting him as I have been scrutinized for all of this year.””Undeclareds” make up the majority of registered voters in New Hampshire, and those independents are free to vote in either primary on Tuesday. Romney aides hoped for a surge in favor of Obama, denying McCain the independent votes that catapulted him past Bush in 2000.Marblehead anti-tax crusader Barbara Anderson went to New Hampshire over the weekend to bolster Romney’s campaign and long-time Swampscott political operative Alexander Tennant underscored his support for Romney and former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.Tennant said the candidates’ ability to raise money to fuel their campaigns becomes crucial as they battle over the next month for supremacy in the multi-state Feb. 5 primary.Tennant met and even advised Obama several years ago and said the newcomer to the national political stage is a fund-raising force to be reckoned with.”He raised more money than anybody as an unknown. Now he’s known.”Tennant thinks Arkansas Gov. Michael Huckabee’s popularity coming out of last week’s Iowa caucuses will fade over the next month. With McCain and Romney dueling for Republican frontrunner status, Giuliani is fighting for political survival through February, Tennant said.Huckabee has downplayed the pressure on him to score a repeat win in New Hampshire.”If we come in anywhere in the third and fourth slot, we’re going to do great. I’d like to do better than that, but you have people who have had a lot more money spent here,” he told CNN.