Foot soldiers in the White House battle

It was cold, wet and miserable. But that wasn't enough to stop campaigners for Hillary Clinton turning out in force with placards and chants.

Elsewhere, supporters of Senator Joe Biden had been out planting the roadsides with signs saying Biden for President and Biden, Yes!

Others wandered around Manchester, New Hampshire, bearing banners for candidates Senator Chris Dodd and Representative Duncan Hunter, among others.

The 2008 US presidential election is still 17 months away, yet in New Hampshire, where the Democratic hopefuls held their latest televised debate on Sunday and the Republican contenders square up on Tuesday, local campaigning is well under way.

So what motivates people to get involved, and is there a danger their energy could run dry on the long haul to November 2008?

For grassroots campaigner Ann Balcom-Dadak, who lives a short drive from Manchester, the motivation is partly belief in her chosen candidate, Senator Biden from Delaware, and partly civic duty as a resident of one of the key campaign states.

"I've lived in New Hampshire about 25 years and I've always felt how lucky I was to be here because I could get involved - and shame on me if I wasn't," she says.

Ann, 55, signed up to support Sen Biden's campaign late last year and has been working hard ever since to convince people around her that he is the best Democratic choice for America.

She admits the task is made harder by the media focus on the party's "rock star" trio of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and John Edwards.

Her husband, Paul Dadak, has come on board though, and was among those who spent several hours on Sunday holding up signs in the rain outside the debate venue. "It is a big commitment," Ann says. "But I felt I was committed very, very early to Senator Biden. I think we need someone with his experience and that's what drew me towards him."

As a grassroots campaigner, one of her jobs over the coming months will be to help organise the many house parties where Mr Biden will meet potential supporters face-to-face, a vital part of New Hampshire campaigning.

The hard slog will come as she and others go door-to-door canvassing for potential voters, especially as the primary season approaches in early 2008 and the weather worsens.

Some people are understandably wary of getting involved too soon in what may be a gruelling campaign.

Pat Yosha, a retired English teacher living in Exeter, New Hampshire, knows who she plans to support - Hillary Clinton, whose performance at Sunday's debate she describes as "superb".

She has seen her three times at campaign events in New Hampshire, at one of which she was able to put a question to the New York senator and former first lady in person.

But at the same time, she is not quite ready to throw herself into full-scale campaigning.

"Eventually I will - the people from her campaign are asking me a lot of questions about contacts, they are trying to get organised in this area.

"I want to get involved in voter registration and eventually I will start writing letters to the editor and so on.

"But it's going to be a long haul - and that's why I don't want to use all my energy now, although I'm accumulating all the information I can."

Of all the states, New Hampshire can perhaps claim to feel the most pressure, because it is the first in the US to nominate its candidates to run for president - and this time round campaigning has started exceptionally early.

But Dean Spiliotes, director of research for the New Hampshire Institute of Politics, at St Anselm College in Manchester, says fatigue among the state's campaigners - both Republicans and Democrats - is unlikely to be a problem. "The reality is, for people who pay close attention - the political elite here - this is nothing new for them," he says.

"They are used to making these campaigns the long haul. The intensity is a little more this time round, but people are used to a roughly two-year primary cycle, so right after the mid-terms in November, people started to gear up for the primary."

One resource the campaigns are able to draw on is a pool of hundreds of student volunteers willing to carry out grassroots tasks like leafleting, posting signs and supporting rallies.

Greg Boguslavsky, chairman of the New Hampshire College Republicans group, says his recruits are "in for the long haul".

Frequent visits by candidates to state campuses, including one by former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee last week, are helping to keep the students - many of whom will be voting for the first time - highly motivated, he adds.

"Students are very energetic and they get excited about the opportunities to play a part, so we really are an important base for politics in the state."

Ultimately, whether it is the Democrats or the Republicans who win, it will be their countless dedicated grassroots campaigners they can thank for turning out the vote. "I feel like it's a right but also a responsibility," Ann Balcom-Dadak says.

"If I participate I can complain because I'm trying to do something to change things. If I don't participate, I have no right to complain."

BBC