Rath's Primary Touch

Boston Red Sox fans had to wait 86 years to celebrate a World Series win, but who knows how long Tom Rath will have to wait until a candidate he backs will win the New Hampshire Primary.

"I'm not that young enough to wait that long," Rath, an avid Sox fan, said of his own wait for a winner.

When Arizona Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) won the New Hampshire primary earlier this month, it meant that for the sixth straight time the candidate Rath backed did not win.

Rath is a former state attorney general who now heads up one of the state's most powerful law firms.

Those Rath has endorsed reads like of Republican candidates now buried in the New Hampshire primary graveyard.

Over the past 20 years they include: former Tennessee Senator Howard Baker, former President George H.W. Bush, former Kansas Senator Robert Dole, current Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander, President George W. Bush and this year he backed former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney.

When Rath joined Romney's political action committee in 2006, Romney called Rath "a respected national leader in the Republican Party (who) knows New Hampshire better than anyone."

In an interview with PolitickerNH.com Rath said, "I blame myself, I always want to do better," he added "It's not about winning or losing it's about the process."

According to Rath, Mitt Romney finished second because, "McCain had a very unique relationship with the voters."

"For an extended period of time McCain and Giuliani had a market share of the vote, when Giuliani dropped out of New Hampshire that support went to McCain," he added.

Polls in New Hampshire show that once Giuliani decreased his ad buy on WMUR and Boston television stations, McCain's poll numbers began to rise.

Rath argued that finishing second is acceptable.

"New Hampshire is not always about winning the primary, it's about positing yourself for the nomination," he said.