Kemp, who died Saturday, was briefly the subject of discussion at a forum on the New Hampshire presidential primary held at the Pierce Manse by the New Hampshire Political Library.

Kevin Landrigan, the political reporter from the Nashua Telegraph, went first.  He described the scene at a 1988 house party for Kemp held in Keene.  Journalists and staffers had conspired to have a football at the event, hoping to cajole Kemp, a longtime professional quarterback, into tossing it around.  When the party broke up, some one threw it to him.

He looked at the ball, looked at a staffer and shook his head.  No, he implied.  No way.  I’m not playing.  Kemp, Landrigan related, was eager not to be seen as just some aging athlete.  Yes, he led the Buffalo Bills to the American Football League championship in 1964 and 1965 – but he was also a big thinker in the GOP and wanted voters to know it.

The second story came from Secretary of State Bill Gardner.  When Kemp arrived in Gardner’s office to fill out the official paperwork to get on the 1988 ballot, he wasn’t the only presidential contender in the room.  Also signing in that day: David Duke, the notorious Louisiana racist. 

“What have you done lately for the white race?” Duke asked Kemp.

Startled, Kemp replied that, unlike Duke, he was not a bigot.  Indeed, much of Kemp’s energy in those days was spent pushing the Republican Party to include blacks, Hispanics and Jews in its ranks. 

Duke didn’t like Kemp’s answer.  Kemp didn’t like Duke’s.  Eventually, mild-mannered Gardner had to step between them and break up the argument.  The Secretary of State didn’t event know – yet – who Duke was.  But the incident has stayed with him to this day. 

There is much stagecraft in American politics – back then and exponentially more so today.  But the New Hampshire primary still allows for serendipity – contrary politicians, unlikely characters and explosive scenes when you least expect them.  For that, we say, thank goodness.