ORTSMOUTH, N.H. - Katie Jarvis, a sixth-grade French teacher, stood in the dusty school gymnasium here the other day, and with a bit of trepidation, told Vice President Al Gore about ''a very unfair property tax'' that could cost many people their homes.
Republican presidential candidate Steve Forbes greeted Bill Graham and his friends, all from Berlin, N.H., at a diner in Concord, N.H., yesterday. (AP photo / Jim Cole)
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''I guess I'm wondering, because the governor is endorsing you, are you endorsing her property tax?'' asked Jarvis, whose tax bill in nearby Rye just went up $2,000.
Gore politely but firmly refused to be drawn into what has become one of the longest-running, most controversial sagas in state history - how to equitably fund the schools.
''I have stayed completely out of that, not only for the reason you might suspect, but also because I genuinely believe it is not helpful to the people of New Hampshire ... to mix it up in a presidential campaign,'' Gore replied, leaving Jarvis disappointed, annoyed, and planning to vote for Bill Bradley - even though Bradley shares Gore's view.
''All politics is local, and we are suffering in this part of the state,'' Jarvis said later. ''How can you stand there and say you're not going to get involved?''
Here in the first primary state, the issues that voters are most concerned with are not always lofty matters of national security or domestic policy. Frequently, they are very local and very personal, having little to do with the presidency and everything to do with winning or losing the New Hampshire primary.
At every opportunity, the voters of New Hampshire are asking the presidential candidates what they think - about their taxes, about their jobs, and about their school budgets. And in many cases, the candidates are trying to duck out of the way.
On the seacoast and in the Lakes region, for example, a tax revolt is brewing over efforts to finance public schools in a way that satisfies the state Supreme Court. A legislative plan, signed by Governor Jeanne Shaheen, would substantially raise taxes in about 50 property-rich ''donor'' communities to equalize education spending in poorer property towns in the rest of the state.
Meanwhile, workers here on the seacoast are also worried that another round of military base closings could jeopardize their jobs at the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard. In vote-rich Nashua, about 350 jobs are dependent upon the Defense Department's contract with Sanders, a Lockheed Martin Company, for six F-22 fighter jets - a source of controversy in Congress because of the cost. And throughout the state, communities struggle to pay for educating disabled children without having all of the federal special education dollars promised by Congress.
It is tempting for candidates to try to curry favor with primary voters by genuflecting to local concerns, but some observers urge that if they can avoid it, they should.
''The candidates should keep their comments to the issues in which they will have a role to play if they are elected president,'' said Bruce A. Berke, who ran the presidential campaign here for Congressman John Kasich, an Ohio Republican. ''If they weigh in on local issues, the downside is much greater than any upside.''
Often, for the candidates, choosing sides on a controversial local issue can cause them to lose more votes than they might gain. ''Local issues are hard to deal with because you don't know all the sides, you don't know where all the bodies are buried,'' said David M. Carney, a longtime Republican strategist here.
Another risk is for candidates to seem like they are pandering by coming down on the popular side of a debate. That's what the Bradley camp says Gore is doing by favoring a military contract for the F-22.
The contract is worth as much as $3 billion over the next 13 years to the defense company. Sanders is responsible for the electronic guts of the advanced tactical fighter, which is designed to evade radar and fly at supersonic speeds.
But Bradley says he believes that the F-22 is an outmoded weapon, premised on a world in which the Soviet Union is the enemy.
''I don't support the F-22,'' he said. ''I think that we ought to be spending on an overall defense strategy, with more on new technology and less on new planes. I don't think it makes sense to be paying $125 million for an F-22, given the way our national security needs have evolved since the end of the Cold War.''
Gore, on the other hand, supports the fighter jet, and said he did not realize it was important to New Hampshire until after he decided to back it.
''I will admit that I was pleased to find out that it was a local issue,'' Gore said. ''But my support of it was and is due to its important role in protecting our national security.''
The vice president, along with GOP candidates Steve Forbes and Texas Governor George W. Bush, cited the advanced technology of the F-22 as reasons for continuing the project.
''It's vitally important that this country stay way ahead in air capability of other countries,'' said Forbes. He said the ''flawed'' and ''bizarre'' defense procurement system is responsible for the high cost of the project, and the jet should not be grounded because of it.
Republican John McCain said he was not aware that jobs in New Hampshire are at stake in the contract for the F-22. The Arizona senator, a former Navy fighter pilot, said he does not object to the concept of the jet, only the cost.
''We're going to have to make some hard decisions in the next administration as to which fighter we're going to put our money into,'' McCain said, calling for congressional hearings and stringent cost caps.
After Sanders, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, which repairs and refuels nuclear-powered submarines, is the second-largest recipient of defense dollars in the state, with 3,648 workers and a $192 million payroll. Invariably, a shipyard employee will ask a candidate if he will protect the jobs there from future base closings.
None of the major candidates interviewed, with the exception of Forbes, would make that promise.
''I would neither seek to protect it, nor would I seek to close it,'' said McCain. ''I would have the appointment of an objective base-closing commission, and they would make their decisions on Portsmouth just as they would make their decisions on the five military bases that are in the state of Arizona. The fact is, we have to close bases, OK?''
Bush said the shipyard has done a ''fantastic'' job, and any future base-closing commission would conduct itself in a nonpolitical manner.
''I make no promises, but I do understand the importance of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard,'' Bush said.
Bradley said no one can expect to return to Cold War-era defense budgets, and places like Portsmouth should be used for private, as well as public, projects. ''I think there continues to be work for Portsmouth, the question is how much, and what happens if you don't have enough,'' he said.
Gore said it is hard to know what kinds of decisions the nation will face in the future, ''but I frankly can't conceive of any situation that would lead to the closing of the Portsmouth shipyard. I can't conceive of that.''
Only Forbes was adamant that he would keep the shipyard open and operating.
''There's a feeling in the post-Cold War world that we don't need nuclear capability with our submarines,'' Forbes said. ''I would beg to differ because while we don't have a Soviet foe right now, if you don't keep up on that capability, others will catch up.''
While voters want to know what the candidates think of these and other close-to-home subjects, most observers of the presidential political scene here don't believe that they will make their decision solely based on narrow self-interest. They said New Hampshire voters take their responsibility seriously, and understand that how they vote will influence the rest of the country.
''I don't think in the final moment of Feb. 1, that someone's going to say the reason I'm voting for Al Gore is he said he's going to increase federal special education funding,'' said Dayton Duncan, the author of ''Grassroots,'' a book about the 1988 New Hampshire primary.
