Bill Gardner

So [sighs] people-- The, the fundamental misunderstanding at the national level is sort of like, "Oh, uh, New Hampshire's gonna try and do this again?" It's like, "No, this is what New Hampshire has done for decades." And [chuckles] and, and it became, you know, part of the culture as well, that, you know, that you were really going to, um, not just have the first primary, but defend it.

And we'd be remiss not to mention Bill Gardner, the longtime secretary of state, who took Jim Splaine's law and really turned it into, you know, a tool, a weapon.

He, he used it for whatever he needed to, a negotiating tactic.

It really became the thing that, um, over the years helped New Hampshire stay ahead of all these other states that, uh, started to say, "Hey, wait a second.

And so there was this res-reservoir of goodwill that helped get him over the hump when he e-eventually was on the ballot as the nominee coming back to New Hampshire.

But th- again, New Hampshire voting first, it, it's more than just this sort of, like I said, a temper tantrum or we just-- we demand this.

Uh, a point that Bill Gardner would always make, the secretary of state, is, um, you know, no one is asking, uh, New York or New York City to saw down the Statue of Liberty and move it to a different state-

[chuckles]