"Do you think the New Hampshire primary will retain the influence and importance it lias had in years past?"

Linda Fowler, director of the Rockefeller Center, political pundit, and pollster, makes a call. "I think that the New Hampshire primary will remain an important element for the Presidential election in the year 2000. The Gore campaign is counting on the governor to deliver the state for the Vice President, so there is little pressure on the Democratic side to change the rules. The Republican candidates are unhappy with the entire primary process, but they do not have a plan for something better, so each candidate is trying to make the best of a bad situation by visiting New Hampshire early and often. Other states may try to move to the head of the line by challenging New Hampshire's 'first-in-the-nation' status, as Louisiana did in 1996. But unless they do it quickly, the candidates will have too much invested in New Hampshire to switch, and may boycott the upstart primary as they did last time. What all this means is that we are gearing up at the Rockefeller Center for a steady stream of candidates."