As they say in New Hampshire, campaigning for the next election starts the day after the last one, and now that our town elections are in the rearview mirror it's time to turn to the national stage for our political fixes.

Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and Sen. John McCain, D-Ariz., were both in the state over the weekend with Dodd in Hampton and McCain in Exeter.

The campaign for the White House began in New Hampshire months ago and it is certain to heat up as our weather grows warmer. The jockeying to keep New Hampshire's primary the first in the nation could have us at the polls, believe it or not, in January -- about 10 months from now.

The ever-growing presence of money in presidential campaigns and at times over the top, even oppressive national media coverage of the candidates is threatening to kill what made New Hampshire's primary so special. Even the politically indifferent among us could probably tell you the front-runners -- 10 months before the first primary in the nation and 19 months before the general election. Hillary and Obama for the Democrats, right? Rudy Giuliani and McCain for the GOP. Maybe John Edwards is in the room somewhere for the Dems and our southern neighbor Mitt Romney may make some noise in the Republican race.

The challenge to Granite Staters is to be as passionate for learning more about Gov. Bill Richardson, D-New Mexico, and Sen. Dodd for the Democrats instead of simply hanging on every prepackaged word of the front-runners. That's not a personal knock on Clinton and Obama, but instead, front-runners tend to work diligently to protect their status, which often results in the repetitive canned speeches and blaring theme songs.

Obama's not a "rock star" and Hillary is not her husband. And there's plenty more to know than their oratorical skills.

On the Republican side, voters should resist jumping on a candidate's bandwagon without really knowing if and how they will work to reclaim the Grand Old Party from what the Bush administration made of it, or for that matter how the southern evangelicals skewed its moderate positioning.

And of course, Granite State voters must weigh carefully their ability to cross party lines to cast those negative ballots. The state in some regards never fully recovered its reputation for being politically sophisticated after picking Pat Buchanan over Bob Dole in the 1996 New Hampshire primary.

In the end, the true value of the first in the nation primary is in keeping the rest of America watching and interested as the candidates come through. If Granite Staters send the message that the race here is over by July then so is the interest. Those secondary candidates keep the race alive and interesting. Besides, who can ever forget how a little-known governor from Arkansas did not win the 1992 N.H. primary, but did surprisingly well, picked up the nickname the "Comeback Kid" and was propelled to victory in later primaries and of course the presidency.

-- The Exeter News-Letter