Unity: Can't Get Theyah From Heyah

For the 1,630 residents of Unity, NH, word that they would be the center of the most talked about photo op of the presidential contest – the first joint public appearance of Democratic primary rivals Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton -- came not via Obama’s campaign but from the AP.

“They didn’t call us to inform us ourselves,” said Tammy Dowd, secretary to Unity’s three selectmen. “I guess [Willard Hathaway, chairman of the board of selectmen] got a phone call over the weekend, and he thought it was a joke. He laughed about it and said he didn’t think it was a real phone call.”

Hathaway tells On Call that he heard from one Obama point-person at the end of last week. While the caller said that the campaign was “thinking of having an event at the Unity Elementary School,” Hathaway said he “didn’t know if that was an event that was going to take place this fall or whenever.” The day after news of Obama and Clinton’s visit broke, Dowd said, “the Secret Service crawled into the school, and they’ve been around ever since.”

Visitors are already streaming into Unity, a Southwestern New Hampshire town chartered in 1790 and located near the Vermont border. Together, Unity’s municipal and school budgets total $3.5M. The town’s population count includes residents of a county prison and the local nursing home.

New Hampshire is the center of presidential primary action every four years, but rural Unity rarely makes it onto candidates’ schedules.

Cheri LeMere, who works in the town’s general store, Will’s Place, said there have been “lots of new people” in her shop. “Most of them are from out of town,” she said. “Lots of journalists.” Meanwhile, Glenn Verity at Unity’s Back Side Inn says the BBC is taking up his entire hotel – all seven rooms.

Susan Sadonsky of the Greater Claremont Chamber of Commerce – one town over from Unity – said visitors will park at Mt. Sunapee (about 15 mi. to the east) and Twin States Speedway (about 9 mi. to the northwest) and then take shuttles to the event.

Dowd, the selectmen’s secretary, said the Secret Service has prohibited residents from sprucing up the town and helping with logistics of the event. “We are not allowed to hang a streamer; we are not allowed to let residents offer their land for parking; we are not allowed to do anything,” she said. “When you define nothing, that’s what they’ve told us to do.”

Except enjoy the show.

(Hotline’s NICHOLAS TABOR)