WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, UPDATE: PAUL TAKES BREAK, RETURNS FRIDAY. Ron Paul's spokesman said today that the third-place finisher in the Iowa caucuses is taking a quick break from campaigning today and Thursday “to spend a little time with his family before coming to New Hampshire to push through to the primary.”

Kate Schackai said Paul, who is running a distant second to Mitt Romney in recent New Hampshire polling will return to the state at 2 p.m. on Friday for a rally at Jet Aviation at the Nashua Airport before heading to Durham for a town hall meeting a the UNH Memorial Union Building at 7 p.m.

After participating in the New Hampshire debates on Saturday night and Sunday morning, Paul will hold a town hall meeting a the Church Landing at Mill Falls in Meredith on Sunday at 3 p.m.

On Monday, he will have breakfast at Moe Joe's in Manchester before stops in Hollis and Concord.

On primary day, Jan. 10, Paul will visit numerous polling places before heading to his primary party at the Executive Court in Manchester.

(Earlier updates and the Dec. 22 follow.)

WEDNESDAY, JAN. 4, UPDATE: BACHMANN OUT; PERRY RE-ASSESSING. After a last place finish among those who competed in the Iowa caucuses, Minnesota U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann today dropped out of the presidential race.

“I have decided to stand aside,” she said, urging her supporters to “rally around” the eventual nominee.

Bachmann, who had been viewed as a Tea Party favorite and who had decided not to campaign in New Hampshire, said she will “continue to be a strong voice and fight for our country and our freedom.

“Although I will not be continuing in this race, my faith in the Lord God Almighty, this country and our republic is unshakeable,” she said.

“I have no regrets, none whatsoever. We never compromised our principles,” Bachmann said during an Iowa announcement moments ago.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry, meanwhile, has returned to Texas to re-assess his campaign.

(Earlier updates and the full Dec. 22 Granite Status follow.)

TUESDAY, JAN. 3, UPDATE: HERE THEY COME. Brace yourselves, New Hampshire. The final push to first-in-the-nation primary day has begun.

After the results of last night's Iowa Republican caucuses were announced, and after the candidates gave their speeches and thanked their Hawkeye State supporters, all of the national and much of the international political attention shifted to New Hampshire.

While the New Hampshire first-in-the-nation primary campaign shared attention with Iowa throughout 2011, for the next week, it's New Hampshire's time in the spotlight as Granite Staters get ready to cast the first true votes of the 2012 presidential campaign on Jan. 10.

Beginning today, national network television crews will be setting up shop here. Journalists from across the country and from overseas will scour the state following candidates and likely GOP primary voters, seeking opinions on the candidates and the issues.

Volunteers will flock in from across the country. Diplomats from other nations will tour the state taking in the proceedings.

But most importantly to those Granite Staters who are likely to vote in next Tuesday's Republican primary, the candidates will be here looking for you and asking for your support.

Except for Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann, that is.

Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul plan to be in for most, if not all, of the next seven days. Jon Huntsman has never left, having chosen not to campaign in Iowa and to put all of his political chips on New Hampshire.

Perry and Bachmann had both planned to write off New Hampshire and head directly to South Carolina.

But after finishing last among those who actively competed in the Iowa caucuses on Tuesday, Bachmann on Wednesday dropped out of the race.

Perry returned to Texas to re-assess his campaign but said later today that he is staying in the race, but will write off New Hampshire and campaign in South Carolina. But he is expected to return to New Hampshire for two weekend debates.

South Carolina Republicans will hold the nation's second primary (and third preference event) on Saturday, Jan. 21.

“Obviously we'd prefer to have the governor here,” said New Hampshire Perry strategist and senior adviser Paul Young. “But the situation doesn't dictate that.”

Other top Perry supporters, including 2010 GOP gubernatorial nominee John Stephen and 2010 congressional candidate and former Republican National Committeeman Sean Mahoney, did not return calls or e-mails seeking comment.

Neither did David Carney of Hancock, a longtime top Perry adviser who has reportedly been marginalized by the hierarchy of the Perry campaign. Last week, Politico published a scathing report on stumbles and missteps in the Perry campaign, including a split among top staff and advisers over how much time, if any, Perry should have spent — and should now spend — in New Hampshire, described in the story as a “culturally alien New England state.”

Bachmann and her campaign decided months ago that she would spend virtually no time in New Hampshire, a decision that disappointed some local Tea Party leaders who had been excited about her campaign following her strong performance in a late spring debate in the Granite State.

A well-known New Hampshire Bachmann backer, Jerry DeLemus, chairman of the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC, said prior to Bachmann's departure from the race that her national staff “is scuttling her campaign.

“I think they've done a horrendous job,” he said. “Her instincts are good, but her national staff has been a problem.”

He said that New Hampshire was fertile ground for Bachmann.

DeLemus had said he would “take a look” at Santorum if Bachmann “falls by the wayside.”

Gingrich was scheduled to arrive in New Hampshire in the early morning hours today, flying directly from Iowa, accompanied by a herd of reporters.

Battered by negative television ads in Iowa paid for by a political action committee supporting Romney, Gingrich has promised to more directly compare and contrast his record with that of the former Massachusetts governor during the days leading up to the New Hampshire primary.

That effort will begin today with a full-page Gingrich ad in the New Hampshire Union Leader. Entitled “The Choice,” the ad portrays Gingrich as a “bold Reagan conservative” and Romney as a “timid Massachusetts moderate.”

Gingrich spokesman R.C. Hammond said the print ad will begin an ad program that will continue on television later this week.

Like the print ad, he said, the television ads “will make a contrast between Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney on leadership, the economy and important issues for Republicans like abortion and gun rights,” said Hammond.

Hammond added, “We will fight Romney on the airwaves, on the beaches, on Interstate 93, on WMUR and in every county.”

Gingrich today will hold town hall meetings in Concord, Laconia and at Saint Anselm College's New Hampshire Institute of Politics.

His Thursday schedule includes town halls in Plymouth, Littleton, Lancaster and Meredith.

Romney plans to arrive in New Hampshire at noon today and will head directly to Manchester Central High School for a town hall. The same school hosted President Barack Obama in November.

Romney will then hold another town hall in Peterborough. He'll begin Thursday with a town hall meeting in Salem, but he will then leave the state and head to South Carolina, returning Friday evening for a stop in Laconia.

His schedule is set through Saturday, with a morning rally at Pinkerton Academy in Derry.

Romney, Gingrich and most of the other candidates are scheduled to participate in debates on Saturday night and Sunday morning.

Santorum will appear in Brentwood today. His Thursday stops include Manchester, Northfield, Tilton, Concord and Windham.

Huntsman will be in the state every day through the primary, his campaign says. His schedule today includes employee town halls at 10 a.m. at Globe Manufacturing in Pittsfield and at 4 p.m. at Public Service of New Hampshire in Manchester.

Ron Paul's campaign spokesman said his schedule for the week would not be available until today.

(The Dec. 22 Granite Status follows. A new Granite Status will appear on Jan. 5 in the New Hampshire Union Leader and on UnionLeader.com.)

THURSDAY, DEC. 22: BACKING UP NEWT. While Newt Gingrich has been under escalating attacks from Mitt Romney, Michele Bachmann and other GOP presidential hopefuls for his role as a consultant for mortgage giant Freddie Mac from 1999 to 2007, he's found a friend in J.C. Watts.

The former Oklahoma congressman, who formally endorsed Gingrich on Tuesday, told the Granite Status this week that when he left Congress and chaired an industry group that pushed for more government oversight of Freddie Mac and fellow government-sponsored entity Fannie Mae, he was lobbied by many people, but Gingrich was not among them.

“As God is my witness,” he said.

Gingrich's firm, the Gingrich Group, reportedly received $1.6 million from Freddie Mac during those years, but Gingrich said this week that he personally pocketed only about $35,000.

Still, Romney unleashed another attack on Gingrich on the issue Wednesday.

Watts, in the early- to mid-2000s, chaired FM Policy Focus, a self-described “coalition of financial services and housing-related trade associations” that worked with “affordable housing and consumer advocates, taxpayer groups and financial institutions” as a watchdog on “Freddie” and “Fanny.”

Watts said FM Policy Focus folded after the two GSEs (Government-Sponsored Enterprises) were taken over by the federal government in September 2008 to save them from collapse.

He pinned the near-collapses on unchecked “mission creep” and “collective neglect by Republicans and Democrats alike.”

In 2007, as the House considered the Federal Housing Finance Reform Act — a forerunner to the Dodd-Frank bill of 2010 — the two entities had amassed what Politico.com described as a “well-oiled, well-financed and well-connected lobbying armada” fighting the bill.

FM Policy Focus supported the bill's call for the creation of a new regulatory office to watch over Fannie, Freddie and other government home loan banks. The bill passed the House but died in the Senate.

Watts said Gingrich was not part of the Freddie/Fannie lobbying armada.

“In the seven-and-a-half years that I was involved with trying to get reform with Fannie and Freddie, I never heard Newt's name,” he said.

Watts said consultants and strategists supporting oversight “would get together weekly and talk about how we would try to move the ball another yard down the field.

“And, again, in those seven-and-a-half years, I never heard Newt's name,” said Watts. He said he “never even knew (Gingrich) was advising them until the last month or so.”

Watts said he talked to many congressmen and interested parties while chairing FM Policy Focus, including Reps. Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Spencer Bachus of Alabama, former Rep. Mike Oxley of Ohio, and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama.

“I talked to the Bush administration, I talked to people who were directly involved with that,” Watts said.

“If Newt was lobbying, I'm the one person, as good friends that we are, that I think he would have called to say, ‘Let's get together and talk about this and see how we can bring this to a head,' or whatever.”

“I think Newt was a small potato,” said Watts.

- - - - - - - -

NO INFLUENCE PEDDLING. Watts said calling Gingrich's paid consulting work “legal bribery” is no different than a candidate taking campaign contributions.

“They're both legal, but all I'm saying is, if (Gingrich's actions were) wrong, then why wouldn't campaign contributions be wrong?” Watts said. “You're giving money directly to a candidate's campaign committee and somebody that can give $25,000, you could surely make the argument that they're buying influence with members of Congress or city councilors or whomever.

“I think it's a little unfair to go after Newt for that while at the same time you're taking campaign contributions,” Watts said.

- - - - - - - -

TEA PARTY PATRIOTS FAVORITE. Gingrich won a straw poll by the Tea Party Patriots last Sunday, garnering 31 percent of the approximately 23,000 votes cast following a telephone forum.

Bachmann was second with 28 percent. Romney was supported by 20 percent and Rick Santorum received 16 percent. Rick Perry, Jon Huntsman and Ron Paul did not participate.

Gingrich's win is a blow to those who like to paint him as the ultimate Washington insider. The Tea Party is, of course, an anti-establishment entity.

The Gingrich win also came after Romney was endorsed by prominent Tea Party activists South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley and unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell of Delaware.

- - - - - - - -

OVIDE: NO ENDORSEMENT. There will be no presidential endorsement from one of the state's most influential conservatives.

Candidate for governor Ovide Lamontagne made it official Wednesday.

“I am very unlikely to endorse a presidential candidate in the primary,” he told the Status.

He said that while he and his wife, Betty, “were honored to have eight candidates visit our home and meet friends and supporters from around the state during the past year, the governor's race has become my single focus on the political front.”

Lamontagne earlier this year indicated he would make an endorsement. But he said Wednesday, “Being publicly uncommitted gives me the opportunity to support, enthusiastically and without reservation, whoever that nominee is,” he said.

Lamontagne would have been a major catch for any presidential candidate. He drew widespread conservative support in New Hampshire and nationally, including from some elements of the Tea Party, in a U.S. Senate run last year, barely losing to Sen. Kelly Ayotte by 1,600 votes in the party primary.

Earlier this year, he was named the state's “conservative of the year” by Americans for Prosperity-New Hampshire.

Kevin Smith, former executive director of the conservative issues group Cornerstone Action, is also running for governor and has also said he will not endorse in the GOP presidential primary.

- - - - - - - -

CANDIDATE ENDORSEMENTS. Former presidential hopeful Steve Forbes is backing Rick Perry and his optional 20 percent flat tax.

Forbes will be in the state Dec. 28 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. as the guest of the Derry Republican Committee at Promises to Keep, 199 Rockingham Road, Derry.

Gingrich's campaign announced the support of former state senator and 2008 Republican nominee for governor Joe Kenney, as well as Rich Allen of Allen Associates Health Insurance in Manchester, Andy Crews, president and CEO of Autofair in Manchester, Nicole Yurik, co-founder of the Raymond Tea Party, and Gus Fromuth, former member of the state Republican Party finance committee.

Also this week, conservative activist and former congressional candidate Jennifer Horn of Nashua endorsed Romney.

- - - - - - - -

PAUL IN SECOND PLACE? The latest poll of likely N.H. primary voters has Romney with a substantial lead and a statistical tie between Gingrich and Ron Paul for second place.

Public Policy Polling says it surveyed 1,235 likely primary voters Dec. 16 to 18. It said its poll had a margin of error of 2.8 percent.

Romney was supported by 35 percent, Paul by 19 percent, Gingrich by 17 percent, Jon Huntsman by 13 percent, Bachmann by 5 percent, Rick Santorum by 3 percent, Perry by 2 percent, with 1 percent for Gary Johnson.

Johnson's campaign spokesman said this week Johnson will drop out of the GOP race and run in the general election as a Libertarian.

A PPP spokesman declared Romney “is headed for an easy win in New Hampshire and has a very good chance to get one in Iowa as well. That one-two punch would probably end the Republican nomination fight before it really starts.”

The spokesman may be right, but then again, the spokesman, based in North Carolina, may not know New Hampshire voters and their penchant for surprise.

The same poll showed that Romney is viewed favorably by 63 percent and unfavorably by 30 percent of those surveyed, while Gingrich is viewed favorably by 42 percent and unfavorably by 51 percent.

- - - - - - - -

SAME-SEX MARRIAGE: DIFFERENT QUESTIONS, DIFFERENT RESULTS. Different polls can get different results on the same topic if their questions are phrased differently.

A case in point is two polls made public this week that included questions seeking Granite Staters' views on same-sex marriage.

The aforementioned PPP poll asked whether likely GOP primary voters would “support or oppose repealing New Hampshire's law allowing same-sex marriages.”

Only 44 percent of this presumably conservative-leaning sample supported repeal, with 39 percent opposing and 17 percent unsure.

But a poll completed last month (but not made public until this week) for conservative Patrick Hynes' July Fourth Forum PAC, asked this question:

“Would you support or oppose (those words rotated) legislation which defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman — while providing for civil unions for same-sex couples?”

The survey of 500 registered likely primary voters by Kellyanne Conway's firm, named “inc./Woman Trend,” showed that 61 percent backed such legislation and 33 percent were opposed.

The PAC said this result showed more than three-fifths of those polled favor legislation that “restores traditional marriage, while allowing for civil unions.”

And PAC spokesman Jason Rose said the poll “affirms the will of New Hampshire voters, who in 2010 overwhelmingly voted against legislators that supported gay marriage.”

- - - - - - - -

RIPPING MITT. While Gingrich has generally refrained from going negative on Romney, the Barack Obama team is under no such obligation.

On the eve of Romney's three-day bus tour of the state on Tuesday, Obama national campaign manager Jim Messina and national press secretary Ben LaBolt held a conference call with New Hampshire reporters to blast the former Massachusetts governor as indifferent to the plight of the middle class.

Messina noted that Romney has said anyone running for President should be focused on the middle class. But, he said, Romney's economic plan “gives tax breaks to millionaires, billionaires and large corporations while doing next to nothing for middle class families.”

He pointed out that Romney has acknowledged his plan wasn't a “huge tax cut” for the middle class but at least wasn't “zero.”

Messina said that under Obama's plan, a family making $40,000 a year would receive an $800 payroll tax cut and a $421 tax cut on earned income. The same family, he said, would get a tax cut of $54 under Romney's plan.

Romney's camp countered that Obama's policies have been “disastrous for the middle class,” with unemployment remaining at more than 8 percent for 34 consecutive months.

- - - - - - - -

RADIO ROW RETURNS. A primary tradition, the New Hampshire Primary Radio Row, will return to the Radisson Hotel in downtown Manchester from Jan. 7 through primary day, Jan. 10.

Some of the region's top radio stations and biggest syndicated radio show hosts will be interviewing candidates, pundits and celebrities.

The event is being organized by Talkers Magazine and Talk Radio News Service, with Granite State sponsorship from the New Hampshire Energy Forum and support from primary radio sponsor WTKK-AM of Boston. Other sponsors are Autofair, Rivier College and Jack Heath of WTPL 107.7 FM.

“Among the national hosts on board is 2004 Democratic presidential hopeful the Rev. Al Sharpton.

- - - - - - - -

A HOLIDAY THANK YOU AND WISH. As the Granite Status concludes its 30th year of reporting on New Hampshire politics, we thank readers and wish you a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

The Granite Status will return on Jan. 5.

(John DiStaso is senior political reporter of the New Hampshire Union Leader and New Hampshire Sunday News.)

Romney edges Santorum by 8 votes in Iowa caucuses; on to NH