The exceptions: 1964 when Ashland went with Barry Goldwater and not Henry Cabot Lodge and Ashland’s 1976 vote for Ronald Reagan rather than Gerald Ford - aberrations that Republicans here will tell you only underscore their good sense.
The run makes Ashland an ideal perch from which to watch the twists and turns of the upcoming primary - as the Globe will do with a series of stories. In coming months, as candidates’ positions and personalities come into clearer view, Ashland voters will be asked to share their thoughts about which candidate they believe would best handle the economy, health care, the environment, immigration, entitlement programs, and education - and, ultimately, whom they will choose as their hoped-for leader.
Recent statewide polls in New Hampshire show Mitt Romney leading - taking 41 percent in one poll. Interviews with dozens of Ashland residents suggest that among those who have committed to a candidate, it is most often Romney, whom they view as a trustworthy man with valuable business experience. But many more are undecided.
“Oh, I’m keeping my options open,’’ said Sherrie Downing, a 48-year-old hair salon owner who wears a constellation of silver rings and bangle bracelets and lives with her machinist husband and two children on 28 acres. “I’d like to see what all their arguments are.’’
One hundred miles north of Boston, Ashland stretches along the Squam River. Here, Leyton’s Pub offers Tuckerman’s on tap but moves more Bud Light. The Cumberland Farms on Main Street sells Canadian nightcrawlers under the shelf of Poland Spring bottles, and the boutique a few doors down caters to the second-home crowd with $178 J Brand jeans. The down-low reliably can be gotten at Bob’s Shur-Fine Market. Rites of passage tend to be marked at the DuPuis-Cross Post 15 American Legion, like the other night’s celebration of Mark Ober’s retirement as town road agent, to tend his farm.
