US Presidential Race at Full Throttle in New Hampshire

Concord, United States: At Hillary Clinton HQ in Concord, New Hampshire, a dozen volunteers are manning the phones. The US presidential election is not for another year but there's not a minute to lose.

This small state in the northeastern United States is typically the first to hold its party primary elections scheduled for next February and the campaign is at full throttle.

Placards for "Ben Carson" and "Donald Trump" the two Republicans currently top of the polls hang at intersections.

In the local Clinton office the Democratic candidate has nine other campaign outposts in the small state of 1.3 million there are to-do lists on pin-up boards, memos, motivational phrases and children's drawings.

A cardboard cutout of the former US secretary of state, senator and first lady stands welcoming visitors.

The registration period for candidates standing for office officially opened this week. Billionaire real estate developer Trump was one of the first to travel to Concord, the state capital of 41,000, to register, sign up and pay dues of $1,000.

Florida Senator Marco Rubio followed the next day, before Republican Carly Fiorina, the former chief executive of Hewlett-Packard, and Socialist Senator from Vermont, Bernie Sanders, who organized a rally before 1,000 enthusiastic supporters.

Eight other candidates are scheduled to register before November 13, including Clinton next Monday. Jeb Bush has not yet announced when he's coming but the deadline is November 20.

But he spent three days this week in the "Granite State" pressing the flesh and conducting interviews in a bid to revive his flagging campaign, cornering four percent of the nationwide Republican vote according to the latest Quinnipiac poll.

New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie, also struggling in the polls, is scheduled to arrive today. Fiorina is due to stay until Saturday, having lunch and holding meetings.

Vital state for candidates

New Hampshire has long been considered a vital election state and candidates work the state for months. Some, such as Christie, have visited more than 20 times, yet the outcome of the primaries is still very uncertain.

Clinton, Sanders, Carson and Christie have already started to broadcast television ads. Trump launched radio ads on Thursday.

On the Democratic side, Clinton is neck and neck with Sanders in New Hampshire despite extending her lead elsewhere.

As for the Republicans, after months with a huge lead over his rivals, Trump's dominance is slowing, faced with surges from retired neurosurgeon Carson and the telegenic young Rubio.

"Every president, since 1952, has won a New Hampshire presidential primary," New Hampshire secretary of state Bill Gardner told AFP.

Out of the 16 presidential elections since then, 13 of those who won the primary became president and three times, those who came second, became president, he said.

In other words, no chance for anyone coming third.

"If they say we don't represent the country, we have a pretty good record of picking who ends up becoming president," Gardner said.

In 2008, Clinton won the Democratic primary in New Hampshire but Barack Obama went on to win the White House.

At Clinton's Concord HQ, 75-year-old volunteer Sylvia Patten, who ditched Hillary for Obama in 2008 and still feels guilty, stressed the importance of leaving nothing to chance in a state that "sets the tone."

"If there is a setback in Iowa or New Hampshire, or one of the other early places, then your candidate loses momentum and we don't want that to happen for Hillary," she said, before picking up the phone to dial the next Democrat or registered independent.

Outside the New Hampshire State House, 39-year-old Trina Larotonda, a stay-at-home-mom, holds up a Trump poster given to her, she says, by his campaign but has still not made up her mind. She is still dithering between Trump and, well, Clinton.