Hilary Rodham Clinton, who was born in the Chicago area, won the New Hampshire primary over the rest of the candidates for the Democrats. John McCain won among the Republicans.
With the turn out of the Iowa caucuses this turn of events, it left various people in the press as well as people who had just been following the elections surprised. Whereas Clinton was in third when the polls closed in Iowa on Jan. 3, she came in first in New Hampshire. McCain also got quite a boost through his success in New Hampshire when, earlier in the month, he came in fourth out of the Republican candidates in Iowa. The win for both of them put them back on track with their bid for the presidency.
Obama, though finishing first in Iowa, finished second in New Hampshire but expressed no interest in bowing out. John Edwards came in third this time around and Bill Richardson came in fourth.
On the Republican end of the race, Mitt Romney came in second though he spent millions already expecting a better turn out for Iowa and New Hampshire. Mike Huckabee came in third. Rudy Guiliani actually jumped up in the polls in comparison to Iowa by coming in fourth. Ron Paul came in fifth.
Dennis Kucinich (Democrat) and Albert Howard (Republican) filed for a recount of their respective party’s primary. Secretary of State William Gardner said, “Mr. Howard has satisfied the requirements for initiating a statewide recount of the Republican primary.” It is a similar case with Kucinich who cited “serious and credible reports, allegations and rumors” regarding the primary results in his request. He noted that he does not expect a significant change to his vote total through the recount. Gardner accepted their requests and tallied the amount due from candidates for their respective recounts. Howard owes $57,600 and Kucinich owes $69,600. This will be the first time since 1980 that New Hampshire has held a statewide recount for a presidential primary. The costs were figured at 24 cents per ballot. For the Democrats 290,000 ballots were cast. For the Republicans 240,000 ballots were cast.
The Republican race now turns toward Michigan where Romney and McCain are already campaigning, and Huckabee is expected to start up campaigning in the state soon. As for the Democrats Edwards has voiced no decision on dropping out of the race but has started looking to South Carolina, the state he was not only born in but also where he claimed his own primary victory in the race for presidency four years ago. The South Carolina primary takes place on Jan. 26.