State Senate Republicans in Retreat

Sometimes, your past catches up with you. The performance of Free State and Tea Party Republicans in the state legislature has been so unsettling to the public that it ranks second only to the economy as an area of concern. Now, with the next election about six months away, Republicans in the State Senate are getting nervous. As a result, they have started killing some of the more outrageous bills passed by GOP members of the House to prevent them from becoming campaign issues.

Senate Republicans have deep-sixed several loony gun bills supported by GOP members in the House. The Portsmouth Herald writes,"Despite the pleading of police and school leaders, the House passed a bill making it legal to carry concealed weapons on any public property, including colleges, any public land or any publicly financed buildings.

According to this bill, not only could concealed firearms be taken to college beer parties, people would be able to surreptitiously carry guns into private businesses at Pease International Tradeport (which rent from the state) without the business owner's knowledge or permission. A second bill backed by the House GOP would allow loaded guns in vehicles. As if we didn't have enough problems with road rage already.

The Republican magicians in the State Senate made both
these regrettable bills disappear.  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 4-0 to send both bills for "interim study." Interim study is a political graveyard where embarrassing bills are buried.

Senate Republicans have also killed a so-called Right-To-Work bill dear to the hearts of union-busters. As originally proposed last year by Republicans in the House, the bill would not permit unions to collect agency fees from non-union employees to cover the costs of negotiating a contract. Under these circumstances, no employee would have an incentive to join a union because he or she could get the same benefits for free. And, of course, that was the purpose of the bill - to end collective bargaining and break unions.

Republican House Speaker Bill O'Brien struggled mightily to produce the two-thirds majority needed to override a veto of the so-called Right-To-Work bill by Democratic governor John Lynch. O'Brien delayed an override vote from summer until November hoping to find a day when enough Democrats were absent to pass the bill. In the end, he narrowly failed.

Undeterred, O'Brien submitted a very similar Right-To-Work bill this spring. Once again, it passed the House, but this time with a narrower majority as six House Republicans switched their votes from supporting to opposing Right-To-Work. Support for Right-To-Work was weakening.

Republicans in the State Senate took the hint. Kevin
Landrigan writes in the Nashua Telegraph, "In a surprising rebuke, the
State Senate Wednesday set aside a House-passed right to work bill, apparently
concluding a second losing fight with Gov. John Lynch was not worth it.

But that's not all. Senate Republicans have also killed
a potentially controversial contraceptive coverage bill backed by Republicans
in the House. The Senate Public and Municipal Affairs Committee voted 4-0 to
recommend this piece of legislation for "interim study." (The gates
of the legislative graveyard have swung open once again to receive the remains
of another dead bill.)

This legislation would have exempted employers who object on moral or religious grounds from providing birth control as part of their health plan for employees. Employers would not be required to provide any justification for making this decision. Any employer could do it without explanation.

I have a suggestion for those hard-working Senate
Republicans seeking to undo the damage done by their colleagues in the House.
Tell House Republicans to stop passing so many flawed bills.

The work of Senate Republicans is far from done. House
Republicans have supported so many off-the-wall bills that it is likely beyond
the capacity of anyone to undo all the damage. They attempted to do away with
kindergarten. They attempted to lower the drop-out age from 18 to 16, even though the 18 year old requirement reduced dropouts by one-third. They attempted to reduce the number of days in the school year.

They are attempting to use public tax money to support private schools. They lowered the tax on cigarettes, resulting in a decline in revenue needed to balance the state budget and jeopardizing the health of the public. They passed a rule saying that guns can be carried on the floor of the legislature. They passed a payday loan bill increasing the allowed interest rate from 36 percent to as much as 400 percent. A Republican legislator attempted to bring charges of treason against President Obama. A group of Republican legislators attempted to have President Obama's name removed from the New Hampshire Primary ballot.

Actually, rather than trying to undo all the damage Republicans have done, the simplest solution might be to remove them from office next November so they can't propose such questionable legislation in the first place.