PETERBOROUGH — As polls closed across the state on Tuesday evening, Republican supporters rallied at campaign parties in Manchester and waited in nervous, but short-lived, anticipation of results that confirmed the national punditry’s yearlong prediction: Mitt Romney won the first-in-the-nation primary, advancing his second bid to clinch the presidential nomination.

But in Peterborough, in a house on Powersbridge Road, Obama backers gathered to watch a webstreamed address from Vice President Joe Biden and talk about gearing up for the general election in November.

Romney’s victory — the former Massachusetts governor and failed 2008 Republican presidential candidate took 40 percent of the vote across the state and 34 percent in the Monadnock region — cinched the momentum he’s gathered after a close win in Iowa’s caucuses last week and bolstered a candidacy that will struggle to enjoy the same following in the more socially conservative southern states that will host the next contests.

Still, with the rest of the Republican field splitting voter support and Romney’s campaign positioning him as the practical, inevitable choice, Democrats are gearing up for a race against what they already see as the presumptive nominee. And local staffers for the Obama campaign, which enjoys wide support in Peterborough, stressed Tuesday that the President has not forgotten about the people who put him in office.

Obama’s supporters, though, are acutely aware of the issue that propelled Romney to the front of the Republican pack and that will determine the voter sentiment over the course of the nominating process and the general election: the economy.

It’s a topic that Republican candidates continually referred to as they crisscrossed New Hampshire stumping for votes over the past seven months.

“I intend to make America the job creating machine it’s always been, and make sure it’s good to be middle class in America again,” Romney said during a Peterborough Town Hall meeting in November. “I believe that middle class Americans should have the highest standard of living in the world.”

As a former executive of Bain Capital and Bain and Company, with more than 20 years of experience in the private sector, Romney repeatedly underscored his business acumen during New Hampshire campaign stops. He recently came under fire after remarks that opponents said highlighted his distance from middle class concerns. Romney is a multi-millionaire.

Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning candidate who garnered 23 percent of the New Hampshire vote and 28 percent of the Monadnock vote Tuesday, positioned himself as the counter to establishment Republicans like Romney, touting a wide-ranging agenda hinging on reducing government spending. Paul supporters, who came out in droves for a Peterborough Town Hall he hosted in mid-December, were among a sparse crowd holding signs outside of the polling place in Jaffrey on Tuesday.

But enthusiasm outside campaign headquarters was markedly absent, and in many regional towns there were fewer picketers than appear for town elections. In the Monadnock region, 45 percent of registered voters cast a ballot — the same turnout that voted in the last single-party contest in 2004. In 2008, when both the Democratic and Republican nomination was contested, turnout surged to 62 percent.

At the Obama campaign event Tuesday night — the only public primary night event in the region, Democratic or Republican — math teacher Becky Van Dan said she hoped the lackluster showing would affect Romney’s staying power in the long run.

“I think this election is like the one when [Sen. John] Kerry was the Democratic nominee,” Van Dan said. “Back then I voted for Kerry because I wasn’t going to vote for [President George W.] Bush. But it wasn’t with enthusiasm that I voted for him. I think the Republicans find themselves in a similar situation, where there’s not a single candidate they can all get excited behind.”

That critique has been leveled against Romney since he announced his candidacy last summer, with each alternative candidate enjoying a momentary surge as the Republican electorate’s wandering eye came to rest on any substitute.

Jon Huntsman, former Utah governor and U.S. ambassador to China, bet his strategy on that dissatisfaction, devoting more time to New Hampshire than any other candidate in the hope of attracting moderate and independent voters.

But Huntsman — who held more than 170 events in the state including appearances at the Peterborough Town House, the Peterborough and Jaffrey-Rindge Rotary Club meeting, Franklin Pierce University and the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript editorial offices — never saw the surge he was hoping for, only creeping forward in statewide polls during the last week.

Still, Huntsman, who pulled in approximately 17 percent of the statewide vote, didn’t clinch Peterborough, which had more voters cast a ballot for Obama than either Huntsman or Romney.

While he did win in Hancock and Dublin, strong showings from Paul supporters — especially in Antrim and Greenfield where Paul received more votes than Romney — stifled Huntsman’s hopes for a strong second place finish. Huntsman will go on, he vowed during a speech Tuesday night, to compete in the South Carolina primary on Jan. 21.

With 48 states still to select delegates to send to the Republican National Convention in August, Romney may find his momentum slipping. But even if it doesn’t, the challenge will be rousing an electorate that is only warily settling for what they see as the pragmatic choice.

“I don’t think [Romney’s] the candidate we really need,” Francestown resident Steven Berry said after casting a ballot for Romney. “But he’s the best thing out there."

This story appeared in the Jan. 11, 2012, edition of the Ledger-Transcript.