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The real audience at N.H. town hall meetings

CHI BIRMINGHAM FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

CONCORD, N.H. — When Hollywood conjures up an image of the New Hampshire primary, there is usually a presidential candidate sweating inside a VFW hall, where a local in flannel delivers an earnest earful to the White House hopeful.

That kind of storied town hall meeting still happens in the first-in-the-nation primary. But for the most part, from now until when voters pay attention this fall, these events are dominated by special interest groups that want to be part of the presidential primary show.

These days, it’s not uncommon for people to get paid to follow candidates around the state, repeating the same questions at each stop — sometimes accounting for as many as half of the inquiries. Unlike others in the audience, they aren’t evaluating candidates. Their goal is to get the candidate on the record — and hopefully get attending reporters to note the topic is something on the minds of “voters in New Hampshire and Iowa.”

Despite this, the candidates continue with the open forum. Senator Ted Cruz of Texas will take questions at a VFW in Merrimack Friday afternoon. When Senator Rand Paul visited New Hampshire last weekend, members of the same traveling circus followed the Kentucky Republican to every event, hoping they would get called on to ask the same question they just asked him two hours before.

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But before a candidate addresses a town hall, operatives often scan the crowd to spot the usual suspects. They point out the cast to the candidate: There’s the legalize marijuana guy, the woman who will ask about Social Security, the immigration reform advocate, the Common Core hater, the anti-ethanol enthusiast, the Sierra Club activist, campaign finance reform disciples, and, the newest entrant, the Alzheimer’s Association folks. It gets worse in summertime when out-of-state tourists show up. (As soon as the audience hears, “I am from Massachusetts,” there’s usually an audible groan.)

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In the back of the room, there’s a person with a camera, called a tracker, paid by the opposition and waiting to record a gaffe.

CHI BIRMINGHAM FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

“Presidential campaign meetings are not based on a Norman Rockwell painting,” said Neil Levesque, the executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics. “There is usually a press gaggle, plants and cameras from the opposition, and hired guns from lobbying groups. But even with these distractions, which New Hampshire voters get used to, regular citizens do get a chance to not only ask the question, but to ask the follow up.”

There’s a term for the practice of hounding candidates: bird dogging. It’s hardly a new phenomenon, political operatives in Iowa and New Hampshire remember bird dogging in every cycle since 1999. That year, one of former Florida governor Jeb Bush’s top advisers, Rich Killion, pestered candidates on behalf of Citizens for a Sound Economy.

If there is such a thing as a professional bird dogger, it is Mike Castaldo, a 50-year-old moderate Republican from Dover. A chef by training, Castaldo has attended hundreds of New Hampshire primary events where he was paid to ask questions on behalf of different organizations, including social justice groups and the National Rifle Association.

During the 2008 campaign, he wore a T-shirt with the antipoverty ONE Campaign logo to events seeking photos with candidates for the organization’s blog.

Castaldo recalled that in 2007, then-candidate Barack Obama’s personal aide, Reggie Love, said to him, “C’mon man, don’t you have enough pictures with him?”

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“Yes, I can be a pain in the ass,” Castaldo said. “But on the other hand, I am not going to ask some gotcha question that trips them up. They know what is coming with me.”

This year he is volunteering with Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, which supports Republicans who believe climate change is man-made. He’s already posed questions to former New York governor George Pataki and Paul at televised town hall-style meetings on the state’s dominant media outlet.

Although a New Hampshire mainstay, the town hall grew in popularity over the last 15 years — thanks in part to US Senator John McCain. In 2000, the Arizonan did an eye-popping 100 events, where he showed up somewhere, spoke for a few minutes, and then took questions from the crowd for about an hour. The open events took place inside town halls; others in community centers or high school gyms.

Republican presidential hopeful US Senator John McCain at a campaign event at Pelhan High School in Pelham, N.H., in 2007. Darren McCollester/Getty Images

Mike Dennehy, who ran McCain’s 2000 campaign in New Hampshire, said the town hall format is still the best way to campaign for president in the state. Dennehy now works for former Texas governor Rick Perry, for whom he organized four town hall meeting events during his two-day swing to New Hampshire last week.

CHI BIRMINGHAM FOR THE BOSTON GLOBE

“I saw firsthand with McCain how voters appreciate the opportunity to see a candidate and ask them a question,” Dennehy said. “I still believe it is the best way to campaign in the state and the tradition of it is very strong.”

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Former Republican National committeeman Tom Rath served as an adviser to both of Mitt Romney’s presidential campaigns. During the 2008 campaign, Romney held “Ask Mitt Anything” town hall-style events.

Rath recalls one town hall event in Hopkinton where a pro-environmental group bused in Vermont college students to pack the event with the same question.

“Eventually the residents of the town who had showed up got resentful,” Rath said. “They had to stand outside of the hall because the seating was taken up, and they had a hard time getting to ask their own questions because the other group was so dominating.”

Conversely, avoiding town hall meetings can hurt a candidate politically. During Governor Scott Walker’s first trip to New Hampshire earlier this month, local press and Republican circles noted the Wisconsin governor did not open himself up to a free-wheeling traditional town hall meeting.

Former New Hampshire Democratic Party chairwoman Kathy Sullivan said she doesn’t really have a problem with special interests sending people to New Hampshire primary events.

“Candidates should be prepared to answer a wide range of questions, but, the whole point of these things is to talk to voters, not listen to some guy who is being paid to give a five-minute speech advocating this or that,” Sullivan said.

Rick Perry with VFW post commander Jerry Martin before a town hall meeting in Lancaster, N.H., this month. Paul Hayes/Caledonian-Record/AP

James Pindell can be reached at James.Pindell@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @jamespindell.