Today, we drove up to New Hampshire for a pig-roast with Representative Paul Hodes, who is running for U.S. Senate. It was a special pig roast and jamfest, or perhaps a Hodes-down for bloggers. We live in Connecticut where we have our own hotly contested U.S. Senate race going on, but I’ve got lots of good friends who are bloggers up in New Hampshire and I always enjoy heading up to talk democracy in the Granite State.

Today, Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte formally declared her candidacy for the U.S. Senate. Prior to being elected to Congress, Rep. Hodes served as Assistant Attorney General under then Attorney General David Souter. The two of them are currently the likely candidates to go head to head seeking retiring Senator Judd Gregg’s seat.

It may seem strange to drive four hours each way, to an event for a Senate candidate two states away, but it reflects a view towards democracy that I love about New Hampshire. Back in the beginning of 2008, we traveled up to New Hampshire to help campaign for John Edwards. Fiona, who was six at the time, got up on the stage and led a large crowd of supporters in a chant for Sen. Edwards, and later hopped into his arms after his speech. When Sen. Edwards dropped out of the race, we asked her what she thought about supporting Sen. Obama. She paused for a moment, and said, “I don’t know. I haven’t met him yet.”

When I tell that story to people in Connecticut, or many other states, they are taken aback. Why would a six year old expect to meet a Presidential candidate before deciding whether or not to support them? Yet when I tell that story to people in New Hampshire, they nod their heads and say, “Yup, makes sense to me.” Democracy needs to be participatory, and at least for us, that means more than just watching news bites on television. It means having a good face to face discussion with the candidates.

Prior to heading up to New Hampshire, I asked around a couple places online, “If you were going to have lunch with a U.S. Senate candidate, what would you ask?” I’ve gotten a lot of great replies; enough for a good blog post in and of itself. Yet, that question also points in the same direction. You should expect to have lunch with people who will represent you at your state capitol as well as people that will represent you in Washington.

The problem is, it takes a lot of money to run for office. Rep. Hodes estimates that the New Hampshire U.S. Senate race may end up costing $8 million per candidate. That is a lot of money, it takes a lot of time to raise that sort of money, and you’re not likely to be able to do it, by having lunch with every citizen that comes along. I think this helps illustrate part of the reason we need to change the way campaigns are funded in our country, but that too, is another full blog post in and of itself.

Besides some good one on one discussion with Rep. Hodes, I listened to his pitch to my fellow bloggers and take questions during a Q&A session. What did I think? Well, I’m not going to rush into a meeting to get Sam Seaborn to join Rep. Hodes’ campaign even though I can a similar appeal between Rep. Hodes and Jed Bartlet. His comments also deserve another long blog post themselves.

While I’m making odd comparisons, I’ll finish off with one final comparison. Rep. Hodes may have an interesting time of things because he is “all mavericky”. The difference between him and a politician better known for her maverickiness, is that Rep. Hodes’ maverickiness appears to be driven by intellectual prowess and personal integrity that the other maverick sorely lacks.

It has been a long day. I’m glad I went up. I’m glad I spoke with Rep. Hodes. I look forward to talking with him again, as well as to following his race for U.S. Senate.

(Cross-posted at BlueHampshire.)