Seeking to face off against the weakest Democratic candidate in the November 1972 presidential election, President Nixon decided to meddle in the New Hampshire primary. To siphon off votes from front-runner Sen. Edmund S. Muskie [D-Maine], Nixon suggested to White House special counsel Charles W. "Chuck" Colson a secretly financed write-in campaign for Sen. Edward M. "Teddy" Kennedy [D-Massachusetts], who was not a presidential candidate that year.