Matthew Spolar

CONCORD. N.H. -- This campaign season, Republican presidential candidates and New Hampshire's congressmen have been met by groups of old folks carrying signs and making their voices heard on maintaining programs like Social Security and Medicare. Texas Gov. Rick Perry got an earful at a protest in Portsmouth on Aug. 18, and a group gathered outside a Mitt Romney town hall event in Lebanon last week.

Behind much of the activity is the Alliance for Retired Americans, a national advocacy group launched in New Hampshire in 2007. The alliance itself was founded by the AFL-CIO in 2001, spokesman Michael Buckley said Monday from its Washington headquarters.