Gingrich confident of staying in race after NH (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich says he hopes to finish in the "top three or four" in the New Hampshire primary and go on to confront front-runner Mitt Romney in South Carolina.

With voting under way, Gingrich tells Fox News Channels "Fox & Friends" he believes "the biggest story today" is that Romney will fall short of "any reasonable expectation" in New Hampshire, particularly since the former Massachusetts governor has been heavily favored there all along.

Gingrich says people expected the state to be Romney's for the asking, but adds, "I don't think it's going to be much of a fortress."

Gingrich also says he believes a controversial statement Romney made about firing people was likely "taken out of context" and he isn't going to press the issue. The former speaker did say he didn't think the remark was "well-worded."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Newt Gingrich said he expects Mitt Romney to win Tuesday's New Hampshire primary. But with Romney's support slipping, the former House speaker argued that the race could end up being "wide-open."

Gingrich is preparing a blitz of television appearances and 11th-hour campaign stops Tuesday as he tries to whip up enthusiasm for his White House bid, following a disappointing fourth-place finish in Iowa. The former House speaker will visit polling places in Manchester, Bedford, Merrimack and Hollis.

Gingrich has used New Hampshire as a staging ground to launch more aggressive attacks on Romney, labeling the GOP front-runner timid and assailing his time at the helm of Bain Capital. The most successful elections, Gingrich argues, are those in which the contrast between the candidates is wide.

"I really do believe a Reagan conservative has a better chance of defeating (Democratic President Barack) Obama than a Massachussetts moderate," Gingrich said late Monday at a town hall at a high school in Hudson that drew some 500 people.

"I think you need a very clear, sharp distinction," he continued.

He's been stressing an economic message to cut taxes, slash regulations and promote an American-based energy policy. And he's even weighed in on some local issues, calling for better health care options for the state's veterans and speaking out against plans to place some 180 miles of electric transmission lines above ground in scenic areas in northern New Hampshire.

But even before New Hampshire voters cast a single ballot, Gingrich already was eyeing South Carolina, considered a critical state for the former Georgia congressman.

He's been fine-tuning his message, keying in on gun rights, veterans issues and abortion, which could prove pivotal in the nation's first Southern primary.

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Romney wrestles with GOP attacks on corporate past (Reuters)

MANCHESTER, New Hampshire (Reuters) – Mitt Romney is poised to take a big step toward the Republican U.S. presidential nomination on Tuesday by capturing New Hampshire, hoping to ride out last-minute attacks from his rivals and recover from a self-inflicted wound.

The former governor of neighboring Massachusetts carried a sizeable lead in polls into voting day, a sufficient cushion that should force rivals Ron Paul, Jon Huntsman, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum into a battle for second place.

Romney, 63, would be the first Republican who is not an incumbent president to win the first two early voting states, after his slim eight-vote victory over Rick Santorum a week ago in the Iowa caucuses.

A more resounding win on Tuesday would give him momentum going into South Carolina on January 21 and Florida on January 31. He leads in both states and victories there could all but sew up his nomination to face Democratic President Barack Obama in the November 6 election.

"You're going to make a big statement tomorrow, let's take it to the next step, give me the boost I need, I hope," said Romney in Bedford on Monday night at his final rally of the day.

It was unclear how much damage had been done by a mess of his own making in which Romney declared "I like being able to fire people," in addressing his desire for greater competition between health insurance companies.

His opponents, Republican and Democratic alike, quickly seized on the comment as evidence of an out-of-touch politician and coupled it with attacks over his record at Bain Capital, a firm that bought companies and restructured them.

"Governor Romney enjoys firing people. I enjoy creating jobs," Huntsman said.

In a remarkable turnaround in a party known for being friendly to business, Republicans seeking to slow Romney down sounded more like populists as they bashed Romney's work as a venture capitalist.

Gingrich, brooding over negative attacks from Romney and his backers that knocked him out of the front-runner position, has launched the toughest onslaught on Romney.

"Mitt Romney was not a capitalist during his reign at Bain. He was a predatory corporate raider," says a video produced by a pro-Gingrich group.

New Hampshire voting stations close at 7 p.m. EST (midnight GMT). About 250,000 people are expected to vote in the Republican primary while 75,000 are likely to vote to endorse Obama's re-election.

HUNTSMAN HOPING FOR 'BONANZA'

"Mitt Romney, I think he will come out on top," said voter Albert Guptill in Nashua. "By how much, I don't know, but I think he will, yeah."

But not everyone was happy about voting for him.

Eli Haykinson of Bedford said he did not want to vote for Romney but might have to because he could have the best chance to defeat Obama.

"I personally don't like his huge campaign style. You don't really get to feel him at all. I don't want to vote for him but I may have to," Haykinson said.

The Monday Suffolk University tracking poll had Romney at 33 percent, Paul 20 percent, Huntsman 13 percent, Gingrich 11 percent, Santorum 10 percent and undecided 12 percent.

Since victory looked out of reach for Romney's rivals, they were waging a fierce battle to sway undecided voters their way in the final hours and win second place.

Both libertarian Representative Paul and Huntsman, a former U.S. ambassador to China, have been on the rise in recent days.

"It could be a bonanza," Huntsman told CNN.

Former Pennsylvania Senator Santorum, who nearly won Iowa by appealing to social conservatives, has found that his message in New Hampshire is not attracting the same surge of support.

He and Texas Governor Rick Perry, along with Gingrich, are looking to South Carolina to challenge Romney as his conservative alternative.

Romney leads there for now but Gingrich backers have launched $3.4 million worth of ads in South Carolina to try to slow him down in the conservative state.

(Additional reporting by Ros Krasny, Sam Youngman, Jason McLure and Mary Milliken; editing by Mohammad Zargham)

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How Past New Hampshire Primaries Turned Out (ContributorNetwork)

The second great contest of the 2012 election cycle is the New Hampshire primary, scheduled for Jan 10. At hazard are 12 delegates for the Republican national convention, which will be distributed proportionally.

Past results of the New Hampshire primary had often negated the results of the Iowa caucus, which generally take place a week before.

2008 New Hampshire Primary -- The Republicans.

According to the New York Times, the winner of the 2008 contest on the Republican side was John McCain, which was surprising as Mitt Romney, who was a favorite son of a sort due to his coming from next door Massachusetts, had been expected to win. McCain, who went on the win the nomination, got just over 37 percent of the vote and seven delegates, Romney got just over 32 percent of the votes and four delegates. Mike Huckabee, who had won the Iowa caucus, took just 12 percent of the votes and one delegate.

2008 New Hampshire Primary -- The Democrats

According to the New York Times, then-Senator Hillary Clinton barely edged out then-Sen. Barack Obama, the winner of that year's Iowa caucus, with 39 percent and 36 percent of the vote. Each got nine delegates. John Edwards, who had been a senator, a 2004 presidential and vice presidential candidate, won about 17 percent of the vote and four delegates. Obama would eventually win the nomination and then the presidency.

2004 New Hampshire Primary

Since George W. Bush was the incumbent president, only the Democrats had a seriously contested primary. According to CNN, Sen. John Kerry, who was from next door Massachusetts, won with 38 percent of the votes and took 13 delegates. Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean came in second with 26 percent of the vote and took nine delegates. Kerry would eventually win the nomination.

2000 New Hampshire Primary -- The Democrats

According to US Gov Info, then-Vice President Al Gore, the eventual nominee, won the primary with 50 percent of the votes and took 13 delegates. Bill Bradley came in second with 46 percent of the votes and took nine delegates. Gore would be the Democratic nominee that year.

2000 New Hampshire Primary -- The Republicans

According to US Gov Info, Sen. John McCain shocked the presumed front-runner, then-Texas Gov. George W. Bush, by winning the primary with 49 percent of the vote, taking nine delegates. Bush came in second with 30 percent of the vote and six delegates. Steve Forbes came in third with 13 percent of the vote and taking two delegates. Despite the unexpected defeat in New Hampshire, Bush would rally back to win the Republican nomination and then the presidency by the narrowest of margins.

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Santorum opens Primary Day in NH with media blitz (AP)

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum says he'll be pleased if he finishes in the middle of the pack in Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, but adds that he "might sneak up on some people."

The former Pennsylvania senator tells Fox News Channel a third-, fourth- or fifth-place finish would be proof that he's "climbed up and reached the pack." And he says he's proud he did it "without spending a dime on broadcast TV" ads in New Hampshire.

Instead of buying airtime, Santorum was spending the morning of primary day giving interviews to cable TV and radio programs. After the media blitz, he was planning to visit polling places for some last-minute, face-to-face campaigning.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is hoping to emerge as the leading conservative alternative to front-runner Mitt Romney after the wrap-up of voting in New Hampshire.

The former Pennsylvania senator is preparing for a busy day of visits to polling places and non-stop media interviews Tuesday. He hasn't bought advertising in the state and is instead relying on a constant stream of TV appearances to put himself before voters. He was slated for appearances on cable programs and radio shows before visiting polling places to do some last-minute, face-to-face campaigning.

"We're not asking much. Our founders gave their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor," Santorum said at a primary eve rally. "I'm asking you for 24 hours of effort to pull off a huge surprise here in New Hampshire to give us the boost to show that the momentum is continuing so we can go down to South Carolina, kick a little butt down in South Carolina, go down to Florida and keep kicking until we have a strong, principled conservative in the model of Ronald Reagan."

Santorum said Republicans don't have to settle for someone who doesn't share their values.

"We're going to vote for the real conservative because we know the real conservative can win this race and change this country," he said.

Santorum's fundraising didn't pick up until after his strong second-place finish in Iowa, and his advisers decided against spending money here on the air. In Iowa, he spent just $30,000 on ads to finish just eight votes behind the former Massachusetts governor.

"Given the fact that we're not running any media up here and that we've really only spent five days in the last month here, second place would be a dream come true," Santorum said Monday, looking to manage expectations.

The key, he said, was emerging as "the strong alternative to Gov. Romney and continuing to build off that momentum."

Late Monday, Santorum sharpened his criticism of Romney and urged voters not to settle on the former Massachusetts governor simply because "it is his time." He cited other candidates who captured the GOP's nomination only to lose: Gerald Ford, Bob Dole and John McCain. They have been described as moderates by many in the more conservative wing of the party.

"We win elections when our people are excited about who to vote for," Santorum said.

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Obama links congressional GOP with candidates (AP)

WASHINGTON – On the eve of the crucial New Hampshire primary, President Barack Obama told supporters Monday that the Republicans vying for his job out on the campaign trail are no different from the ones opposing his policies on Capitol Hill.

Speaking at an evening fundraiser at a Washington hotel, Obama several times dismissed "the Republicans in Congress and the candidates who are running for president," saying both groups were trying to eliminate needed environmental protections, roll back the minimum wage, dismantle Medicare and gut spending on education, research and infrastructure.

"Republicans in Congress and these candidates, they think that the best way for America to compete for new jobs and businesses is to follow other countries in a race to the bottom," Obama said. "We can't go back to this brand of you're-on-your-own economics."

The president didn't mention any of the Republicans by name, and made only a couple of passing references to New Hampshire. But it was his most explicit effort yet to link the GOP presidential field with the unpopular Republicans in Congress — a strategy the White House has been signaling it would employ.

Obama also sought to recapture some of the energy of his 2008 campaign, telling about 700 supporters at the Capitol Hilton that their work was far from finished in 2012.

"The very core of what this country stands for is on the line," he said, adding, in another swipe at the GOP field: "Don't take my word for it. Watch some of these debates that have been going on up in New Hampshire."

Obama didn't talk about Tuesday's New Hampshire primary, but did tell supporters at one point that a sense of common purpose still exists in the country — even if "maybe it doesn't exist here in Washington and maybe not on the presidential debate stage of New Hampshire, but out in America, it's there."

Supporters paid $100 per ticket to see Obama speak at the reception as the president got back on the fundraising trail for the first time in 2012, something he'll be doing with increasing frequency through the November election.

At an earlier event Monday at the swanky Jefferson Hotel, Obama joined around 25 guests for a closed-press round table discussion with tickets $45,000 each and proceeds split between his campaign and the Swing State Victory Fund, which supports Democrats in battleground states.

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In Dixville Notch, it's a Romney-Huntsman tie (AP)

DIXVILLE NOTCH, N.H. – Voters in the tiny New Hampshire village famed for casting the first ballots in the nation's first presidential primary found themselves in a tie Tuesday between Republicans Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman.

Nine ballots were cast in New Hampshire's Dixville Notch just after midnight.

Romney and Huntsman received two votes each. Coming in second with one vote apiece were Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul.

For the Democrats, President Barack Obama received three votes.

The nine residents who cast their ballots include three registered Republicans and two registered Democrats. Four other voters haven't declared a party.

Dixville Notch is an unincorporated village in northern New Hampshire just below the Canadian border. The town clerk, Rick Erwin, said the nine registered voters make up the entire Dixville Notch population.

The only other place casting midnight votes was Hart's Location, a small town in the White Mountains that started the early-vote tradition in 1948 to accommodate railroad workers who had to be at work before normal voting hours. Hart's Location suspended the midnight voting in 1964 and brought it back in 1996.

Of the 23 votes cast Tuesday, Romney received five and Paul received four. Huntsman received two, and Gingrich and Rick Perry each received one vote. Ten people voted for Obama.

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NJ Assembly's GOP leader dies at Statehouse (AP)

TRENTON, N.J. – As the long and busy final day of New Jersey's legislative session was coming to a close, most lawmakers were preparing to head home for a few hours of sleep before the new session got under way.

But in a matter of moments, everything changed.

The Assembly and state Senate members, along with their aides and other staffers, stood stunned as they learned that Assembly Republican leader Alex DeCroce had collapsed and died around 11 p.m. Monday in a men's room at the Statehouse. They had been working with the 75-year-old lawmaker all evening as the Legislature wrapped up its session with a flurry of last-minute bills, and one of his final acts as the GOP leader was to accuse Democrats of casting votes for an absent member.

The death threw into turmoil the Legislature's reorganization plans for Tuesday and caused Gov. Chris Christie to delay his annual state-of-the-state address. The Assembly and Senate greatly scaled back swearing-in ceremonies for new members. Christie planned to deliver remarks about DeCroce on the floor of the Assembly in lieu of his scheduled address.

Assemblyman Herb Conaway, the Legislature's only physician, attended to DeCroce at the scene, but it was too late. DeCroce was soon declared dead, and Christie, a fellow Republican and personal friend of DeCroce for 20 years, confirmed the death 2 1/2 hours later.

A cause of death was not immediately known.

"Tonight I lost a dear friend, colleague and mentor," Christie said in a statement. "He helped to give me my start in elective politics in Morris County in 1993. He was one of the most kind, considerate and trustworthy people I have ever had the pleasure to know. This is an enormous loss for our state and for me personally."

An obviously emotional Christie returned to the capital around midnight, wearing a sport jacket over a T-shirt and loafers but no socks. The governor was seen breaking down while embracing Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver and other legislative leaders.

DeCroce, who lived in Parsippany-Troy Hills, served in the Assembly since 1989 and became the GOP's leader there in 2003. His district includes parts of Morris and Passaic counties.

His wife, Betty Lou DeCroce, is a deputy commissioner with the Department of Community Affairs.

DeCroce's death comes on the heels of the passing of another GOP assemblyman, Peter Biondi, on Nov. 10 — two days after he was re-elected to an eighth term.

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