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The U.S. House of Representatives will vote on a historic health care reform bill - H.R. 3962 -
a bill that includes a strong public option and numerous other provisions that will lower costs and improve care. This vote will be a moment that we have been working toward for months.
For anyone who has carried a sign, signed a petition, petitioned a stranger, found Frank Guinta not knowing how many people in New Hampshire are uninsured strange, insured yourself on the private market and then covered costs out of pocket because you were denied a claim, fought back against the claims of teabaggers, or enjoyed a cup of tea during a health care house party or a visit to a Congressional office to advocate for health care reform ... you need to be in Concord tomorrow at 2 PM.
Change that Works and Organizing for America (OFA) are hosting a public gathering in support of health insurance reform at the State House tomorrow, Saturday, November 7th at 2:00 PM.
Sen. Hassan and Peggo Hodes will be there, along with other notable New Hampshire leaders.
But, more importantly, I'm hoping you will all be there, too. We've stood on picket lines and sat in phonebanks together; let's celebrate and support this historic vote side-by-side too.
note: you betcha Kevin Smith, Dan Itse, etc. want all this out of state money to come to NH to influence the 2010 elections.
In May 2009, the Maine legislature passed a marriage equality bill. Governor Baldacci signed the bill - ensuring that Maine gays would have the same rights as Maine heterosexuals into law. Sadly for everyone, Maine has a process known as "the People's Veto" which means that any Maine voter may propose a veto referendum to be placed on a statewide ballot, in order to reject a law recently passed by the Maine state legislature. The "People's Veto" may have once seemed like a swell idea in a democracy, a way to give folks at the grassroots level a voice. In terms of social issues, a referendum question on a ballot means that tons of special interest money will pour in from out of state, to influence, and (in Maine's case) determine the outcome.
An eagle-eyed reader wondered - just how well-known is Bill Binnie?
So he checked to see if he has a Wiki page. He does!
The fascinating, highly complimentary tour through Binnie's life has had precious real estate on a community platform since...29 October, courtesy one contributor. Merely coincidental to the official launch of his campaign a week later, of course.
Doubtless this is emerging evidence of Binnie's "largest grass-roots political organization the state has ever seen." They must be the "many" in this line from the Wiki:
Binnie has been speculated by many as a viable candidate to replace Judd Gregg, ...
CONCORD, NH: Students in Manchester participated in the municipal elections on Tuesday, November 3rd, casting their vote for the next Mayor of the Queen City. Kids Voting New Hampshire (NH) is a civic education program of The Political Library. Kids Voting NH volunteers collected 512 student ballots with the following percentage of votes reported:
So Adam Krauss wrote a really quite fine and nuanced piece on marriage equality and the potential ramifications of Maine's election on us.
Someone less fine and nuanced, but with an agenda, must have sent it to Republico's Ben Smith, who made linkbait out of it, with the headline "Reconsidering Marriage in New Hampshire" and with a blockquote and description that conveyed zero of the nuance.
From there, to Taegan, and thus, vapors and breathless emails ahoy.
Please. Let's start over, shall we, with some of the things in Krauss' piece that weren't splashed across the intertubes:
Lynch wouldn't support repealing the gay-marriage law if it reached his desk, spokesman Colin Manning said. "It was carefully crafted legislation, now law, that protects the rights of all of our citizens and the governor would not support changing it," he said.
and
Slim chance of that happening, according to House Speaker Terie Norelli, D-Portsmouth.
and
There are no proposals currently in the Senate, where Minority Leader Peter Bragdon, R-Milford, says lawmakers' agendas will reflect people's concerns over the economy, jobs and high taxes.
Besides, he said, the 14-10, party-line vote approving gay marriage won't change, he said.
and
Democratic Chairman Raymond Buckley said the legislation "wouldn't make it out of either legislative body."
Heck, even Civil Rights Leader Kevin Smith calls it an "uphill battle" in the piece, and John H. Sununu basically dismisses the idea of a repeal.
That's not to say we shouldn't do everything possible to defeat the haters' bills. But on the other hand, let's not let linkbait cause us to forget the firm ground we are on either.
We are on the way to a post-Frank Guinta Manchester. While my expectations of Ted Gatsas are pretty modest, I can't honestly think of how he would do a worse job than the outgoing mayor.
For me, the final verdict came down the week before Election Day. The University of New Hampshire's Carsey Institute released a disturbing study about the changing demographics of the Manchester metropolitan area.
(Wonderful. Part put below the fold. - promoted by Dean Barker)
Despite a national trend that was favorable to Republicans across the country in yesterday's elections, Democrats in New Hampshire stood strong.
In fact, we won great victories across the state-bucking historical trends and convention wisdom.
It is typical for the party in power to lose seats in an off year. Back in 2001, Republicans were defeated across the board after the election of George W Bush. Unfortunately for John H Sununu and the New Hampshire Republican Party, that did not happen to Democrats this time around.
(Good news is good. I'm very happy she's accomplished this. People are not statistics. - promoted by Jennifer Daler)
As you all probably have heard by now, Senator Jeanne Shaheen was successful in her effort to obtain an extension of unemployment benefits for all states, including New Hampshire, in the senate yesterday. Folks here in the Granite State will have their benefits extended for 14 weeks.
http://www.wmur.com/money/2152...
The bill now moves back to the House, which had passed an extension that only applied to states with unemployment rates of higher than 8 1/2%. Passage there is expected.
Until Jeanne Shaheen stepped up to the plate, New Hampshire's jobless would have faced an end to their benefits as we head into the winter months.
I'm needing my DiStaso fix. Somehow I was able to ferret out a link, but since it's technically supposed to be behind a paywall I don't feel right about quoting any of it.
The NY-23 fallout has resulted in a double-whammy of bad news for Craig Benson protege Kelly Ayotte.
First, it looks like the Club for Growth, not buying Ayotte's transparently last minute conversion to Hoffman, was undeterred by the NY-23 loss:
Chris Chocola, president of the Club for Growth, another conservative group that campaigned heavily on behalf of Mr. Hoffman, said the organization was now considering issuing endorsements in contested Senate and House Republican races in New Hampshire, Florida, Kentucky and California.
And secondly, Big John Cornyn and the NRSC were deterred from their not-so-covert support for Judd Gregg's chosen successor:
"We will not spend money in a contested primary," Sen. John Cornyn,
the chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, told ABC
News in a telephone interview today.
"There's no incentive for us to weigh in," said Cornyn, R-Texas. "We have to look at our resources. . . . We're not going to throw money into a [primary] race leading up to the election."
So will Big John be giving back the Benjamins he's already dropped on Team Ayotte? A question for the ages...
Wait a sec - did I say "double-whammy"? I meant triple-whammy. In the ever-expanding field of Republican contenders, Fred Tausch 2.0 launched yesterday:
[Bill] Binnie, 51, said he decided to run after many months of consideration and because he was concerned about the priorities expressed by the other candidates. A native of Scotland who moved to the United States when he was 5, Binnie has never run for political office before and believes not being a career politician is an asset.
To get his campaign off the ground, Binnie said he will use an undetermined amount of his own money, but plans to build "the largest grass-roots political organization the state has ever seen."
Have I mentioned yet how much I love self-funders?
Picking up a trail in another diary it seems Ted Gatsas has intoned/insinuated/promised to step down from his Senate seat if elected Mayor.
What would the process be for filling that Seat? How do we hold him to it? Who are the Great Dems in his District that are potential candidates?
Recalling the old yarn that the 13 folks that make up a majority in the Senate are the most powerful people in the State, this would seem like a huge opportunity to further a progressive New Hampshire.
Five states have legalized gay marriage - Iowa, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Hampshire and Connecticut - but all did so through legislation or court rulings, not by popular vote.
The Associated Press will not determine marriage equality to be acceptable in Villager Conventional Wisdom until every last man, woman, and child in America approves of it with hands raised.
(By now we know the sad outcome in Maine, but the message for New Hampshire remains - promoted by Laura Clawson)
It's about 12:30 AM, the morning after Election Day, and I feel rather, well -- not great. At this point, the vote in Maine on Question 1 is, at best, too-close-to-call, although we can hope for the best.
Either way, it ended up being close, and the cause has to continue. We know there are those forces trying to continue discrimination. But love is greater than hate, and I know eventually equality will prevail -- in Maine, here, and everywhere.
Nevertheless, the reality is that the next effort to turn back the clock will be right here in New Hampshire come this January. Legislation has been entered to repeal House Bill 436 and marriage equality. The 2010 Legislative Session begins in just 8 weeks, and that means we have work to do now.
We won last Spring by keeping in mind that whatever vote we had "yesterday," whether it was a victory or a setback, wasn't as important as the next vote we had to take on the issue. We kept looking forward, expanding our supporters, and eventually we won.
I'm confident we will hold onto our supporters in the House and Senate, and that Governor John Lynch will remain steadfast in his strong support for equality. But it would be good to "max out" on our support in the Legislature in a few months.
Whatever the final result in Maine, and no matter how close, WE CAN DO THIS. We can have marriage equality, and hold it here. But it will take continued work. We have to remain optimistic, and continue looking forward.
And www.BlueHampshire.com Bloggers will be needed as much as ever to help get the word out. Last Spring, they made the difference. They can again. We need everyone.
For all our friends in Maine who put their hearts and souls in the fight, our thoughts should be with them, and our congratulations for their efforts. I'm hoping when I wake up I'll see a wonderful headline. Either way, the adventure continues...
