From RRH Elections….
New Hampshire: For Republicans, the New Hampshire primary is a little less than a month away and a new poll has an eyebrow-raising result. In the latest American Research poll of The Granite State, Donald Trump leads ex-SC Gov. and US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley (R) by just 4 points — 33% to 29%. Saint Anselm College likewise found real momentum for Haley, with her doubling her support since September but still trailing Trump 44% to 30%.
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The NY Times does a piece on Haley ‘Playing it Safe’….
…With under three weeks left until the Iowa caucuses, Ms. Haley is treading cautiously as she enters the crucial final stretch of her campaign to shake the Republican Party loose from the clutches of Mr. Trump. Even as the former president maintains a vast lead in polls, Ms. Haley has insistently played it safe, betting that an approach that has left her as the only non-Trump candidate with any sort of momentum can eventually prevail as primary season unfolds.
On the trail, she rarely takes questions from reporters. She hardly deviates from her stump speech or generates headlines. And she keeps walking a fine line on her greatest obstacle to the Republican nomination — Mr. Trump.
“Anti-Trumpers don’t think I hate him enough,” she told reportersthis month in New Hampshire, where she picked up the endorsement of Chris Sununu, the state’s popular Republican governor. “Pro-Trumpers don’t think I love him enough.”
Ms. Haley’s consistent strategy has enabled her team to build a reputation as lean and stable where other campaigns have faltered: As Mr. DeSantis’s support has dipped and turmoil has overtaken his allied super PAC, even some of his advisers are privately signaling they believe hope is lost…..
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….at an Osceola distilling company the next day, Jim Kimball, 84, a retired doctor, veteran and anti-Trump Republican, elicited nervous laughter from the audience when he asked Ms. Haley a couple of bold questions regarding the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021: “Did Mr. Trump trample or defend the Constitution? And is he running for president or emperor?”
As usual, Ms. Haley weighed her words. She said that the courts would “decide whether President Trump did something wrong” and that he had a right to defend himself against the legal charges he faces, but she expressed disappointment that when he had the chance to stop the Capitol attack, he did not.
“My goal is not to worry about him being president forever — that is why I’m going to win,” she finished to loud applause.
But afterward, Mr. Kimball said that he wished she would have said that Mr. Trump is unfit to be president and that he was still deliberating whether to caucus for her or for Mr. Christie.
“I wish she had the courage of Liz Cheney,” he said, referring to the congresswoman pushed out of Republican leadership in Congressand then her Wyoming seat by pro-Trump forces in the party. “But she doesn’t want to end up like Liz Cheney, so you get the answer you get.”….
image…This month, Ms. Haley secured the endorsement of Gov. Chris Sununu of New Hampshire, right. Credit…Sophie Park/Getty Images