At The Polls: The Man Who Saved NH’s Primary

Print More

Elaine Wood Photo

Jim Splaine, left, talks primary with InDepthNH.org's Roger Wood at the New Franklin School in Portsmouth.

While voters headed to the polls in the nation’s first Presidential primary, Jim Splaine, the man who ensured it would continue to be number one, was in his usual place – outside in the February cold campaigning for his favorite candidate.

Roger Wood has known now-Portsmouth Assistant Mayor Jim Splaine for more than 40 years, and caught up with him at the city’s Ward 1 polls, just off the Portsmouth Traffic Circle.

Splaine has also sponsored state legislation supporting same sex marriages, legalization of a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and other measures. Locally he has fought for more transparency in city government.  He has the distinction of being the youngest member of the Portsmouth City Council and still follows the Legislature through columns in the Seacoast Media Group newspapers.