coupons The Daily Register VOL. 102 NO. 204 SHREWSBURY, N.J. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 26,1980 20 CENTS One small town votes at midnight New Hampshire primary today CONCORD, N.H. (AP) - New Hampshire Vice President Walter F. Mondale's home state, next week. voters rendered their verdict today in a presiden- where the president loomed a heavy favorite. Carter never set foot in New Hampshire dur- tial primary that determined whether there really Kennedy once was the favorite in New ing the campaign, insisting that he would not do is a Republican front-runner, and tested the Hampshire, next door to his Massachusetts home, political business as usual in a time of foreign shaken challenge of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy to but not any more The last pre-primary public crisis, with American hostages still held in President Carter's renomination. opinion poll, conducted for the Boston Globe, said Tehran. Ronald Reagan, the pre-season favorite, and Carter was preferred by 55 percent of New Kennedy said that was a dodge, and contended George Bush, twice a winner, were the leading Hampshire Democrats to Kennedy's 30 percent. that the emphasis on foreign emergencies had contestants in a seven-way Republican contest. The senator from Massachusetts said his distorted a campaign he claimed would prove him The first polls opened at 6 a.m. EST, before situation was like that of the U.S. Olympic hockey stronger once the agenda turns to problems at the winter dawn, for a day of balloting that ran as team, the underdog that won a gold medal. home, inflation and the economy chief among late as 8 p.m. "I'm glad to be an underdog," Kennedy said them. In tiny Dixville Notch, far to the north, all 23 in Nashua yesterday. "They were underdogs and Brown was rated a far-back third in the New voters met after midnight to cast their ballots they pulled it out, and we're going to doit..." Hampshire public opinion polls. He was battling over coffee, close the books and announce the But Kennedy said that whatever the outcome, to keep going, insisting that he, not Kennedy, was first returns of the day. he will stay in the race. He once said that New the real Democratic alternative to Carter. Republicans in the hamlet handed Reagan and Hampshire and Maine were must-win states for The pollsters rated the Republican race a tight Bush five voles each, followed by Sen. Howard H. his -campaign, then changed his mind. Carter one between Bush .and Rwgan, who barely lost Baker Jr. with (bur. John Connally, Rep. Philip defeated Kennedy in the Maine caucuses Feb. 10, the last New Hampshire primary to former Presi- M. Crane and Rep. John B. Anderson got one with an edge of little more thap 3 percent in the dent Gerald R. Ford. each. The six Democrats gave Carter three votes, popular vote. He had beaten Kennedy by a The Republicans spent the final phase of their Kennedy two and California Gov. Edmund G. landslide two-to-one margin in the Iowa caucuses campaign arguing about the exclusion of four of Brown Jr. one. on Jan. 21. their number from a debate between Bush and At stake in New Hampshire: 22 votes for the Mondale, who wrapped up the Carter cam- Reagan Saturday night in Nashua. Reagan and Republican presidential nomination; 19 for the paign with a stop in Berlin, counseled against the four others he invited, blamed Bush for ex- Democratic nomination, all committed in line overconfidence, saying that polls don't count, and cluding them. Bush said they were allied against with candidate shares of the popular vote. warning the president's supporters not to take him, and insisted he had simply played by the In Minnesota, precinct caucuses tonight begin anything for granted. two-man debate rules set by the host, the Nashua the process of selecting 75 Democratic nominat- Still, Carter campaigners were bent on Telegraph. FIRST RESULTS — Tom Tillalson makes correction tally of Republican vote for ing delegates and 34 Republicans. The caucuses fashioning a victory margin that would embar- "I have been under constant attack in New Ronald Reagan as Dlxville Notch, N.H. voted at midnight In the first-in-the-nation there are not binding, but a Democratic straw rass Kennedy on his home turf, and perhaps slice Hampshire," said Bush, who spent election eve at presidential primary. vote tested the strength of the Carter ticket in into his formidable strength in his home state home in Houston. Boarding homes probed By MARIE COCCO Since many of those who are eligible live in and if a boarding house operator took $160 or more Federal and state law-enforcement authorities boarding homes or other institutions, and pay no from the recipient, our office would consider that are investigating allegations that some 90 utility bills of their own, state Human Services to be an unconscionable amount," Blader said. sheltered care boarding home operators Commissioner Ann Klein suggested that boarding Blader said his office will decide within two throughout New Jersey have wrongfully taken home operators keep $70 to ISO of the $185 supple- weeks whether to initiate civil suits against more than their share of federal energy**- ments for the homes' heating bills, and turn the operators on behalf of residents who have com- sistance checks meant to aid the elderly and rest back to the residents. plained of making the payments. But he added handicapped poor Fay said evidence gathered by his office shows that lawsuits may not be the best way to handle . The vast majority of the 90 operators re- that operators took $160 or all of the $185 checks. the matter, because the residents are dependent portedly under investigation operate hornet in He said he has given this evidence, which he upon the operators and a lawsuit would create Mnnmoulh County, a state official said. termed "fully documented," to the U.S. Attorney tension between the parties that could adversely In addition to the investigations of possible for the District of New Jersey, the state attorney affect the residents. criminal wrongdoing on the part of the boarding general's criminal division, and the state Depart- home operators, the state Department of the ment of the Public Advocate. Blader said be had sent letters to boarding home operators cited in the complaints, urging Public Advocate and the Office of the Om- Charles Walsh of the Frauds and Public Pro- them to comply with state suggestions on handl- budsman for the Institutionalized Elderly may tection Division of the U.S. Attorney's Office, initiate civil action against the operators, who said he had received the evidence, and that his ing the checks. allegedly used threats of eviction or return to office regularly reviews such complaints. He Fay said his office would take civil action mental institutions to frighten residents into han- would neither confirm nor deny that a full-scale against the operators on behalf of the individuals ding over all or most of the 1185 energy al- investigation of criminal activity is being con- who have complained and perhaps on behalf of lowances meant for them. ducted by his office. boarding home residents as a class. The investigations stem from allegations The state Attorney General's Office, however, The suits, Fay said, would focus on abuses in made last month by John J. Fay Jr., the om- said an investigation into violations of state the energy-assistance program, but also would be budsman for the institutionalized elderly. Fay statutes has been undertaken. based on monies from other programs taken from charged that the operators were in some cases residents in "a variety of ways" by the home "We are looking into possible criminal viola- operators. One of the programs he is looking into, threatening the residents, or had misled them into tions of state statutes," said Richard Carley, believing that the total amount of the checks was he said, is that involving regular SSI payments, chief of the attorney general's medical fraud rightfully theirs. out of which recipients actually receive only $30 a control unit. Carley refused to comment further month, if that. Fay said at the time that complaints of alleged on the case, and said he could give no timetable Boarding home operators in Monmouth County coercion of residents by the operators came for completion of the state investigation. primarily from Monmouth County, particularly have denied any wrongdoing. from Asbury Park and Long Branch. Since then, Deputy Public Advocate Stephen Blader said A spokesman for Thomas Armour, who residents of homes in Keyport and Atlantic his office is pursuing possible civil action against operates Winner House in Long Branch, re- Highlands have come forward to say that they boarding home operators under the state's peatedly has denied that coercion was used never received the special checks. Landlord Tenant Act. against any of the 22 recipients of the energy- Federal guidelines allow energy-assistance re- assistance checks there. That act, Blader said, prohibits landlords of AND THE WINNER IS...— These are the 12 men running in New Hampshire's cipients, including all elderly and disabled any type from raising rents or other payments Sam Schraeger, the spokesman, said that persons who receive Supplemental Social Securi- although Armour kept $160 from each check, the earliest state primary today. From left to right, they are: Top row, Sen. Edward without notice to the tenants, and from demand- Kennedy, President Carter, Calif. Gov. Edmund Brown and Lyndon LaRouche; ty Income payments, to keep the entire allowance ing an "unconscionable" increase in rent.