You don't need to take hostages to talk to candidates in NH.

I've volunteered in NH. The candidates are always there. You can meet them at events and at offices. There's a 100 ways to contact the candidates directly before you have to do something like this. Whoever is doing this must be deranged.

...prior to paying a visit to a candidate's offices is the very definition of "deranged."

possibly?

There's no way this person is thinking straight.

was held up, they guy said he had a gun, there was a bag covering his hand and alleged gun and it was scary as hell, we all handed him over every bill we could get our hands on.

I spent many months canvasing door-to-door in New Hampshire in 2003-04. We met a few whack cases who were pretty much on the edge for personal reasons (though probably not enough to strap a bomb, or fake bomb, onto themselves and walk into a campaign office). One man went ballistic on us because the politicians couldn't stop his son from listening to rap music. Hokay. We spent about 45 minutes talking him down. Another guy who came to the door went off about politicians not being able to help him. What did he need? His wife had left him and taken their young son. He was very distraught. We just said we were sorry and left.

It's probably unlikely that this was politically related ... most likely some disturbed guy making a desperate attempt at .... something.

P.S.: This is why you should never do campaign work alone: always take a buddy (campaigns usually require this). Not that that's much help if somebody straps a bomb to themselves, but at least you have company.