How The Granite State Went From Blue To Red

How New Hampshire went from Democratic blue to Republican red and what other sates are swinging in 2012.

On Point is broadcasting live this hour with NPR from the Comfort Inn in Manchester, N.H.

For years, New Hampshire was known as rock-ribbed red Republican.  In the last decade, it turned bright blue Democrat.  Until 2010.  When the Tea Party/GOP tidal wave hit Capitol Hill and Congress, it hit many state's political profiles even harder – and none harder than New Hampshire’s.

A massive blue to red, Democratic to Republican shift.  If that big swing holds in 2012 in New Hampshire and across the country, it will be tough sledding for President Obama’s re-election.

This hour, On Point:  blue to red, red to blue… swinging states in 2012.  We’re live from New Hampshire.
-Tom Ashbrook

James Pindell, political director of WMUR.com at WMUR-TV in New Hampshire, where he writes the “Political Scoop” blog.

Ron Brownstein, editorial director and columnist for the National Journal. Author of The Second Civil War: How Extreme Partisanship has Paralyzed Washington and Polarized America.

Neil Levesque, executive Director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at St. Anselm College.

Jack Beatty, On Point news analyst.

The New York Times "Undeclared voters can vote in the primaries for either party, and between 35 and 40 percent of them are expected to turn out for the New Hampshire primary on Tuesday, according to separate analyses by Andy Smith at the University of New Hampshire and David Paleologos at Suffolk University in Boston, both of them longtime students of New Hampshire voting patterns."

Boston Globe "Of all the states swept up in the Republican wave that washed across most of the nation this month, New Hampshire may be the most surprising. After trending Democratic for several election cycles, the Granite State was inundated by the great GOP tide."

The Washington Post "Republicans picked up at least 675 state legislative seats Nov. 2. As with the increases in the House, that gain is the biggest any party has made in state legislative seats since 1938 and is far larger than the GOP's tally in its 1994 landslide. Given the distribution of those gains, Republicans have the power to work their will in the states in ways they can't begin to think about doing in Washington."