NHIOP At 25: The 'Epicenter Of New Hampshire Politics'

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

The New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College doesn’t just follow history. It was born into it.

“Just a few days before September 11th, 2001, there was a ribbon-cutting here,” NHIOP Director Neil Levesque told a crowd gathered to commemorate the institute’s 25th anniversary on Sept. 8.

It was also primary election day, Levesque noted. “So much history, and we’re in the middle of it.”

On hand for the event were Gov. Kelly Ayotte, joined by former U.S. Ambassador Terry Shumaker, former U.S. Sen. Judd Gregg, and other dignitaries, to mark the anniversary of an institution that has become a key venue for presidential debates, candidate forums, and political speeches.

Thanks to New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation presidential primary, the institute is a regular stop for White House hopefuls and a gathering place for candidates, campaign operatives and national media organizations.

“The fabric of this institute is so intertwined with what the success has been of the New Hampshire presidential primary and New Hampshire governance in general,” Gregg told NHJournal. “It’s really the epicenter of New Hampshire politics.”

Gregg recalled the 2000 Republican presidential primary battle between then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush and U.S. Sen. John McCain, who scored an upset victory in New Hampshire before Bush recovered in South Carolina and eventually won the Republican nomination and the White House.

“There were so many really important debates that took place here,” Gregg said.

The New Hampshire Institute of Politics opened in September 2001 as a nonpartisan center dedicated to civic education and political engagement. Its 20,000-square-foot facility includes an auditorium, television studio, research center, classrooms, and political archives.

Gregg played a central role in securing the congressional support that helped launch the institute. Ayotte told the anniversary gathering that its founders initially proposed naming the facility after him.

Gregg refused.

“‘Do not name this after me. I’m a Republican,’” Ayotte recalled Gregg saying. “‘I want this to be a place where both sides of the aisle, where it’s nonpartisan, where we have people come together.’”

“That shows you a lot about the person and the leader,” Ayotte added.

“This institute came together because of a vision of people in our state that understood the importance of people talking to each other,” Ayotte said. “Understood that we could, on both sides of the aisle, whether it’s our first-in-the-nation primary or whether it’s our debates that we’ve all participated in here, that we could bring people together to have discussions.”

Ayotte has experienced the institute from multiple perspectives: as a candidate appearing on its debate stage, as a U.S. senator participating in policy discussions, and now as governor.

Former Sen. Judd Gregg, Gov. Kelly Ayotte and Dr. Michael Lewis, president of St. Anselm College, at the 25th anniversary of the founding of the NHIOP.

“I’ve sat here for a couple of presidential debates, and it’s unbelievable,” Ayotte told NHJournal. “It’s such a good forum, right? Because it’s small enough, you feel like you’re right there.”

Gregg said the institute’s ability to host disagreement and debate is particularly important during a period of increasingly polarized politics.

“What we see, unfortunately, is this centrifugal force within our communities of single-issue politics, social media that’s extremely negative and angry, and it’s pushing people apart,” Gregg said. “So we need places where people can come together.”

The idea behind NHIOP, Gregg said, was to create a place where people “will talk, they’ll discuss, they’ll shout at each other, but they’ll start the process of moving toward compromise.”

Shumaker, who has worked on many Democratic presidential campaigns in the state, offered a bipartisan confirmation of Gregg’s assessment.

“It is a great convening place,” Shumaker told NHJournal. “It is a great place for Republicans and Democrats to come together and do what New Hampshire does best, and that is to look at candidates, give them a chance and a microphone.”

Shumaker invoked Ronald Reagan’s famous 1980 New Hampshire primary declaration, “I am paying for this microphone,” to describe the institute’s role.

“The Institute of Politics pays for the microphone and provides a room for the microphone to be, and gets all the people that ought to be there here that want to come,” Shumaker said. “I’ve been to numerous presidential debates here. I’ve been to gubernatorial debates here, U.S. Senate debates. They do a great job of hosting them, and I think they’re a good symbol for our state.”

The institute’s programs include the nationally known Politics & Eggs series, candidate town halls, and public policy discussions. The New Hampshire Political Library, founded by former Gov. Hugh Gregg and longtime Secretary of State William Gardner, merged with NHIOP in 2010.

Levesque, who has led the institute since 2009, also used the anniversary to look ahead. He announced plans to launch a new Center for Democracy at Saint Anselm College, focused on voting and civic participation.

“We’re going to continue to explore national exposure with some of the political activities that are taking place here in New Hampshire, and we’re going to put civic life in New Hampshire on display because civic life in New Hampshire is alive and well,” Levesque said. “We do things well here, and the rest of the country needs to see it.”

After 25 years of presidential candidates, national debates and unpredictable campaign moments, Levesque had plenty of political memories to choose from.

One involved crawling under tables in a new suit to search for a watch presidential candidate Jeb Bush had misplaced. Levesque expected an expensive timepiece, only to discover it was “something you’d buy at a pharmacy.”

Asked to name three of the best speakers to appear at the institute, Levesque selected Bush, the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis, and U.S. Sen. Jon Ossoff. He also praised Trump as a compelling speaker and recalled traveling with him and Michael Cohen during Trump’s early campaign appearances.

“He really loved the crowds that we had here and the things that we could put together,” Levesque said.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.