By Mary Clare Jalonick
Congressional Quarterly

Electoral votes: 4

Delegates: 29

Co-chairmen: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen

Hotel: Sportsmen's Lodge (818) 769-4700

1996 Election:
Clinton – 49%
Dole – 39%
Perot – 10%

When Vice President Al Gore steps to the podium to accept the presidential nomination on the last night of the Democratic National Convention, he will spot many friends among the 4,000-plus delegates on the floor of Los Angeles' Staples Center.

But one of the greatest concentrations of faces familiar to Gore will be in New Hampshire's relatively tiny delegation. Because of the intense "retail" campaigning that preceded New Hampshire's first-in-the-nation primary Feb. 1, Gore and his wife, Tipper, almost certainly have met most, if not all, of his Granite State delegates.

"Virtually every delegate from New Hampshire is on a first-name basis with the vice president and Tipper," says delegate Raymond Buckley, a state representative who was a senior adviser to the Gore campaign this year.

Gore won the New Hampshire primary by 52 percent to 48 percent over former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley, but it was enough. That rather modest outcome for the front-runner was overshadowed by the big doings on the Republican side, where Arizona Sen. John McCain upset his party's favorite, Texas Gov. George W. Bush.

Bradley's failure to get the crucial "bounce" he needed out of New Hampshire enabled Gore to take command, and the contest for the nomination was effectively over a little more than a month later.

Gore ended up with 23 of the state's 29 delegates to the convention, with Bradley receiving the rest.

The Bradley backers say they have now rallied around their party's standard bearer. "We're supportive. The primary is over, and it's time to win," says Bradley delegate Chris Sullivan.

Gore needs a united party if he hopes to keep New Hampshire's electoral votes in the Democratic column after two consecutive victories by President Clinton.

The sturdiest holdout for New England's longstanding tradition of Yankee Republicanism, New Hampshire has undergone something of a Democratic trend in recent years. Democrat Jeanne Shaheen this year is seeking her third two-year term as governor, and her party has a narrow majority in the state Senate.

New Hampshire is hardly a sure thing for the Democrats, though. Both of its U.S. senators, both of its U.S. House members and the state House are in Republican hands. Although Clinton carried the state, he did so both times with pluralities: 49 percent to 39 percent over Republican challenger Bob Dole in 1996, and 39 percent to 38 percent in 1992 over President George Bush, with independent Ross Perot pulling off 23 percent.

As recently as 1988, the elder Bush dominated the state for the GOP by 62 percent to 36 percent over Democrat Michael S. Dukakis, then governor of neighboring Massachusetts.

Shaheen, who is heading the state's delegation to Los Angeles, is concerned with more than the presidential contest. Although she cruised to re-election with 66 percent of the vote in 1998, Shaheen has been burdened by disputes over state education funding and her veto of a bill that would have barred capital punishment in the state. She faces not only serious Republican opposition this year, but also a Sept. 12 primary challenge from state Sen. Mark Fernald.

The delegation also includes state Rep. Marcia Fuller Clark, the Democrats' longshot challenger to 1st District Republican Rep. John E. Sununu.

The delegation is relatively diverse for a state with a population that is only 1 percent Asian-American, 1 percent African-American and 1 percent Hispanic. It met the diversity requirements set for it by the national party, and party members say those headed to Los Angeles have a wide range of economic backgrounds: Many are wealthy donors, while one of the delegates is raising money from party members to make the trip.

The state delegation also has six openly gay delegates, after a concentrated effort by party members in coordination with the Washington, D.C.-based National Stonewall Democratic Federation, a Democratic gay and lesbian organization. According to Mike Colby, a New Hampshire delegate and executive director of the foundation, New Hampshire has a higher percentage of gays and lesbians in its delegation than any other state - edging out California and Maine.

NEW HAMPSHIRE NOTABLES: Gov. Jeanne Shaheen, the delegation chairman; state Democratic Party Chairman Kathleen Sullivan; state Democratic National Committeeman Joseph F. Keefe, the party's unsuccessful 1988, 1990 and 1996 nominee in the 1st Congressional District; state Democratic National Committeewoman Anita Freedman; Mary Rauh, a Bradley delegate who was the unsuccessful Democratic challenger to 2nd District U.S. Rep. Charles Bass in 1998; state Rep. Raymond Buckley.