The Newsroom

I'd been in the business 23 years by the time the 2000 New Hampshire presidential primary rolled around, but it's an experience that reawakened me to the power of civic engagement and the role a newspaper can play in promoting that.

At a time when we're hoping - hoping - that voter participation could reach 60 percent nationwide, New Hampshire considers it a bad year if fewer than 80 percent of registered voters turn out. They take their politics seriously in the live-free-or-die state, which is why Barack Obama and John McCain continue to pay their respects in the waning days of this election despite New Hampshire's four otherwise-insignificant electoral votes.

I'd been hired on as editor of the Lawrence, Mass., Eagle-Tribune the year before, and with our strong New Hampshire edition, we'd become an important stopping point for candidates from both parties seeking an endorsement.

That year, they all came by to visit our pre-primary endorsement board, which was made up of some members of the newspaper's regular editorial board and a number of our New Hampshire readers. We wound up endorsing the eventual winners - Al Gore, who narrowly defeated fellow Democrat Bill Bradley; and John McCain, who trounced George W. Bush.

Interestingly, McCain also wound up with more than 3,000 write in votes on the Democratic side. That's New Hampshire, a state where independence is No. 1, and expressing it on Election Day a close second.

The people of New Hampshire believe in the process. They're also fiercely loyal newspaper readers, and won't hesitate to pick up the phone and tell you what they think. They won't cancel a subscription if you write an editorial they don't like or endorse a candidate they don't approve of. They'll just make your life miserable for daring to do so.

It's civic engagement at its best - and the funnest place in America to cover politics.