MDAA spent two full days in New Hampshire this week. The goal of the trip was to take the pulse of NH voters and their views on Missile Defense and communicate those views to the Democrats running for President.

The trip was a dramatic success. MDAA was able to surround the Democratic Candidates for President with our pro missile defense messages. We made presentations before civic groups, print, radio and TV media, as well as NH opinion leaders. In each case, we encouraged them to push the issue with the candidates and ask them where they stand on missile defense. We also conducted direct meetings with the presidential candidate’s senior staff as well as the Chairmen of both the New Hampshire state Republican and Democratic parties to communicate New Hampshire’s support for missile defense.\r\n\r\n

Our key messages over the two days included:
– 75% of NH voters support a missile defense system
– 66% of likely voters in the Democratic Primary support a missile defense system
– 64% of likely voters in the Democratic Primary support the current deployment plan proposed by the President and Congress.
– Voters in NH support Missile Defense because of three reasons
– Public Safety – A threat to our country – (73% Believe in the Credibility of the Threat, 92% believe in Significant Economic Impact)
– Affordability (69% Money Well Spent)
– The Technology Works (76% Technology Works)
– Voters in NH want the system deployed and they want to vote for candidates who support deploying a missile defense system.

The Candidates for President

We met with all of the major campaigns for President and the Chairs of the NH Republican and Democratic Parties. In each case our meetings were with Senior Staff of the campaigns in New Hampshire and extremely substantive. The citizens of New Hampshire take their first-in-the-nation primary responsibility very seriously. Therefore the candidates are very eager to understand how NH voters feel about important issues like Missile Defense.

We briefed the following campaigns and political parties:
NH Republican State Committee
NH Democratic State Committee
Bush-Cheney Campaign
Dean Campaign
Clark Campaign
Liberman Campaign
Kerry Campaign
Gephardt Campaign
Edwards Campaign

Civic Groups and Opinion Leaders
Lunch Speech – Manchester Rotary Club – Manchester is New Hampshire’s largest city and a key base of support for Democratic Presidential candidates.

Dinner Speech – Capitol City Rotary, Concord, NH’s capitol, is the state’s third largest city.

Legislative Briefing, Concord The briefing was co-sponsored by the Senate President and the Speaker of the House. It was also attended by Republican and Democratic legislators from across the state.

Meeting with NH Director of Emergency Management who is also in charge of New Hampshire’s Homeland Security effort.