Chris Christie and Nikki Haley have a Dean Phillips problem in New Hampshire

And suddenly, Haley and Christie are encountering independent voters at their town halls who may not vote in the Republican primary after all.

“I would like to hear Dean Phillips,” Larry Gray, a Newcastle independent, said about an hour after telling Christie at a recent business roundtable that he was backing the former New Jersey governor.

Diane Noble, a Nashua independent who’s interested in Haley and Christie, said at a town hall…