Possible End to The Smoking Ban Success and Hard Left Turn of NH in Elections

[laney]

http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070110/REPOSITORY/701100316/1043/48HOURS

"After failing by a vote in the New Hampshire Senate last year, a proposed ban on smoking in restaurants and bars appears likely to pass the Legislature this year.

The new Democratic majority in the Senate may bolster support for the ban, which lawmakers will reconsider this year. Last year, the ban passed the House and won the support of all eight Senate Democrats. But the opposition of most Senate Republicans, who denounced the ban as an infringement on the rights of business owners, snuffed the
plan."

....

It seems like NH took a hard turn to the left.  I haven't seen any good news coming out of there in a while.  Now, I'm really worried about them trying to bring Commuter Rail to Nashua.  No Commuter Rail have ever been self supporting.  It's just a way for the Dems. in charge to import Dems. from the failed state of Massachusetts in oroder to bolster their power so that they can raise taxes and bring legal restrictions onto people.

[FrankChodorov]

No Commuter Rail have ever been self supporting.

hard to really know because we have so thoroughly subsidized car travel in this country...

[d_goddard]

It seems like NH took a hard turn to the left.

That's not a correct interpretation of what happened in November.
~30% of registered voters in NH are UNDECLARED (neither D nor R).
It's this group of people that determines elections.
They were pissed off with Bush's handling of Iraq, and voted straight-ticket against the (R)'s
The Democrat leadership knows they have to tread very carefully to avoid getting booted out in 2008.

That's why they withdrew their attempt at an Income Tax -- it would never have passed, but even having the debate could have killed them.
Look for them to push for widely popular issues that the Republicans would not allow. These will be both good and bad.

The Bad:
* smoking ban
* Mandatory school attendance till age 18

The Good:
* rejecting Real-ID
* abolishing straight-ticket voting
* (maybe) putting same-sex civil unions on the same legal footing as marriage

A great way to keep updated on the issues is to join the NHLA:
http://nhliberty.org/join

As critical issues come up for public hearing, we do alert people. We'll also be coaching people in how to effectively give testimony, to give you the best chance of killing bad legislation or passing good legislation.

[Ruger Mason]

Sadly, we're going to lose some legislative battles this year.  The smoking ban, minimum wage increase and mandatory school attendance for 16-17 year olds are all going to pass and we can't really stop them.

We can, however, make our presence known and do a lot of good on the numerous bills coming through the legislature.  Our bill tracking effort this year will be the most comprehensive yet; we've got some excellent technology on our side, plus the very capable leadership of Denis Goddard heading up the whole effort.

[d_goddard]

We can, however, make our presence known and do a lot of good on the numerous bills coming through the legislature.

We've also got more people sitting in on the various House Committees. I cannot overemphasize what a powerful thing it is to have unpaid, concerned-citizen PRO-LIBERTY lobbyists "on the inside".

Lastly, something we can do is to expose these legislators to the philosophy of Liberty.... something they have probably never been exposed to before.
http://forum.soulawakenings.com/index.php?topic=6563.0