Much of the nation’s attention is focused on New Hampshire’s “first in the nation” primary today, but Granite Staters in particular shouldn’t allow themselves to be distracted from goings-on in the state capital. 

Some of the more extreme legislation percolating in the New Hampshire legislature has already garnered national attention—and a healthy dose of ridicule. 

...[S]ome of these citizen legislators are crazier than a Statehouse rat… 

New Hampshire House Bill 1148 would "require evolution to be taught in the public schools of this state as a theory, including the theorists' political and ideological viewpoints and their position on the concept of atheism." [...]

Jerry Bergevin, a Republican who introduced HB 1148, went further, telling the Concord Monitor that atheism was linked to Nazism and the 1999 Columbine school shooting.

"I want the full portrait of evolution and the people who came up with the idea to be presented," Bergevin said. "It's a worldview and it's godless." 

Bonus points for strict adherence to Godwin's law. Plus, the legislation itself is prima facie evidence against evolution. But it gets a few demerits for unoriginality.  You can do better, New Hampshire… 

House Bill 1580…requires legislation to find its origin in an English document crafted in 1215.

"All members of the general court proposing bills and resolutions addressing individual rights or liberties shall include a direct quote from the Magna Carta which sets forth the article from which the individual right or liberty is derived," is the bill's one sentence. 

But some of the other proposals that have surfaced in the New Hampshire statehouse aren’t as hilariously ludicrous. Two in particular are especially troubling, and both are retreads of proposals Democratic Gov. John Lynch vetoed last year. 

One such measure is voter ID legislation. Two separate bills that would require voters to present photo identification before casting ballots are already scheduled for committee hearings. Despite Gov. Lynch’s veto of last year’s attempts at voter suppression, misinformation regarding voting requirements abounds in New Hampshire. In fact, some voting rights groups are concerned about the effect of these ballot-box access falsehoods on today’s elections. 

Though a number of bills were passed in the state legislature last year that would require a photo ID, Gov. John Lynch (D) rejected the bills. There is currently no law in the state that requires a photo ID to get a ballot. But that fact never resonated with folks who for more than a year had heard the constant drumbeat that New Hampshire was soon to join other states that had passed such laws. 

Some major news outlets, including NBC Nightly News, lumped New Hampshire into a list of other states that would be asking for ID at the polls or otherwise implementing new voter laws. Other smaller outlets followed suit. Cities and towns within New Hampshire seemed to be confused about who was eligible to vote and with what, according to voters'-rights groups. 

Another regrettable rehash from last year’s legislative trash heap is Republicans’ so-called “right to work” bill. GOP legislative leaders have promised to re-introduce the measure this month, despite the fact that the Republican-controlled legislature failed to override Gov. Lynch’s veto just a month and a half ago. 

When New Hampshire Republicans regurgitate this “right to work” legislation, they’ll be in the company of at least fifteen other states already slated to consider these middle class-eviscerating bills this year (including Indiana, where Democrats continue to work tirelessly to defeat the so-called “right to work” measure state GOPers are attempting to ram through before the Super Bowl in Indianapolis). 

Republicans just aren’t getting the message. This kind of extreme attack on working families was soundly rejected last year in Ohio, Wisconsin, and special elections all over the country. GOP overreach clearly has consequences at the voting booth—a lesson Republicans may learn the hard way this fall.

Over a year ago, we began noting the surge in birtherism in statehouses across the country. Legislators in at least fifteen states introduced “birther” bills, which are based around the thoroughly debunked, racially charged notion that Barack Obama is not eligible to be President of the United States. As GOP attacks on education, workers’ rights, and ballot box access escalated, however, statehouse birtherism receded into the background noise of conservative extremism. 

Now some Republican lawmakers in New Hampshire and “birther queen” Orly Taitz are attempting to resurrect this long-dead so-called “issue.” 

As state election officials yesterday rejected California lawyer Orly Taitz's argument to keep President Obama's name off the New Hampshire presidential ballot, supporters lining the hearing room in the Legislative Office Building cried out in protest.
…

"Saying a treasonous liar can go on our ballot?" yelled State Rep. Harry Accornero, a Republican from Laconia. "You're going to have to face the citizens of Laconia. You better wear a mask." 

Did a Republican Representative make an oblique threat against a state official? Perhaps he was just lashing out in frustration. (Fun fact: Rep. Accornero recently requested that his colleagues and congressional delegation levy charges of treason against the President.) 

A legislative colleague clearly shared Rep. Accornero’s disappointment. 

"Unbelievable," fumed state Rep. Susan DeLemus, a Republican from Rochester, walking around the room during a break in the hearing, before the commission took its vote. 

"Let's just bury the Constitution now and have a funeral," DeLemus said. "It just makes me want to throw up." 

All five members of the state Ballot Law Commission determined that President Obama had submitted his declaration of candidacy form and paid his filing fee properly and voted unanimously to keep his name on the ballot. 

But the members of the Granite State GOP Birther Caucus were not about to let this go. 

Following the commission's decision Friday, a group of House members requested a meeting with [GOP House Speaker] O'Brien to discuss their frustration over the board's dismissal of their complaint. Nine Republican state representatives have signed on to the complaint challenging Obama's candidacy in the Democratic primary: Harry Accornero of Laconia, Al Baldasaro of Londonderry, Susan DeLemus of Rochester, Laurie Pettengill of Glen, Larry Rappaport of Colebrook, William Tobin of Sanbornton, Moe Villeneuve of Bedford and Lucien and Carol Vita of Middleton. 

Republican House Speaker O’Brien initially agreed to the meeting, scheduled for 1 p.m. today, but later called off the birther rendezvous. 

Yesterday evening, O'Brien sent an email to legislators announcing the cancellation pending the outcome of law enforcement investigations into the conduct of House members in the aftermath Friday's decision by the state Ballot Law Commission not to take Obama off the ballot in New Hampshire's Democratic primary. 

O'Brien said his decision to cancel the meeting was made after a discussion with Attorney General Michael Delaney about the Friday incident, during which state representatives and other attendees shouted their displeasure at members of the commission and Assistant Attorney General Matt Mavrogeorge. 

Delaney "is concerned over how members of the House conducted themselves during and following the hearing, as well as for the safety of a member of his office who attended the meeting in an official capacity," O'Brien wrote to Republican Reps. Harry Accornero of Laconia, Susan DeLemus of Rochester and Al Baldasaro of Londonderry. 

The abrupt cancellation may be due to certain lawmakers’ inability to “mask” their frustration at that Friday hearing. As there is plenty of video evidence from the hearing in question, the state police will surely resolve their investigation quickly.

While no one can deny that New Hampshire is an extraordinarily important state politically, two GOP lawmakers in the Granite State seem to be overreaching a bit. 

Republican state Rep. Harry Accornero recently copied all of his fellow House members on an open letter directed at “all Members of Congress.” One of his Democratic colleagues, Rep. Lucy Weber, shared the note on Blue Hampshire. It reads, in part: 

I am formally asking you to bring a commission of treason against Mr. Barack Husain [sic] Obama. 

... Barack Husain [sic] Obama has crossed the line, and under Article III section 3 of our Constitution is guilty of treason by giving aid and comfort to the enemy and attempting to over throw our government from within. Now is the time for members of Congress to finally do your Constitutional duty and hold Barack Husain [sic] Obama accountable for his crimes against America. Mr. Obama is a fraudulent president who is selling out America. Its [sic] time Mr. Obama is called accountable for his treasonous actions…. It is time to make up your mind "Do you stand with this fraud and treasons
president of with the American people and our Constitution which you swore to protect and defend"? [sic] 

GOP Rep. Accornero explained his missive in an interview. 

"I've been contemplating this for awhile (sic) and just been getting fed up with what's going on in Washington and what the president is doing to our country," he said. "I wrote a few letters into the local paper and I sent it to Congressman [Frank] Guinta and it just falls on deaf ears." 

But Rep. Accornero isn’t just going to wait for Congress to act. He sent a second version of the letter (some of the errors in the first note were corrected) to his colleagues, calling on his fellow state legislators to somehow “bring a commission of treason” of their own against the President. Another Democratic lawmaker helpfully posted the version he received. 

While Rep. Accornero continues to wait on his fellow lawmakers to take action beyond the scope of their powers (while nursing his birtherism), another Republican legislator tried to vote himself a whole new level of authority. 

Last week, the New Hampshire House considered – and rejected—a proposal that would have granted the Speaker license to put people in jail. Republican House Speaker O’Brien cast his fourth vote of the entire year to support giving himself such authority. 

The Speaker’s spokesperson insists that this vote to grant himself unprecedented power to imprison people was mere coincidence. 

The amendment failed 205-136, with House Speaker Bill O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) casting only his fourth vote of the year, in favor of the bill. O’Brien’s spokeswoman, Shannon Shutts, said it was a coincidence that O’Brien was able to vote on the bill since he had stepped down from the presiding officer’s chair for a few minutes when the vote was taken. 

"He was in the middle of taking a break," she said. 

Shutts said O’Brien did not wish to retake the chair until after discussion of the bill was complete. 

Coincidence or not, Speaker O’Brien’s support of this power grab is only the latest in a long line of New Hampshire Republican antics. GOP extremism and overreach have helped fuel the steady stream of Democratic special election successes in the Granite State , and there’s every indication that both of these trends will continue.

Republican presidential candidates are campaigning for more than just themselves these days.

After Democrats’ most recent special election victory in New Hampshire, the GOP candidate posted public thank-yous to the campaigns of Mitt Romney, Rick Perry, Ron Paul, and Buddy Roemer. Their involvement was more than symbolic. 

Perry campaign consultant Paul Young said, “Nothing is insignificant in New Hampshire when you’re running for President, and the campaigns would do well to cover all the bases.” …His camp had several staffers volunteer to work phone banks and go door-to-door.

Ryan Williams of the Romney campaign said he also had people working phones, election places and door-knocking. 

Too bad this turned out to be the biggest special election loss of the year for the New Hampshire GOP. 

Iowa is home to another statehouse contest receiving high-level Republican attention. In November, a state Senate special election will either maintain the chamber’s Democratic majority or leave it divided. Currently, the Democrats' state Senate majority is the only thing protecting Iowans from the GOP’s extreme right-wing agenda items regarding reproductive health and marriage equality, among others. 

The Republican candidate in this district (SD 18) is receiving all sorts of attention as presidential contenders woo the Party establishment. When Rep. Michele Bachmann was in the area on September 26, Golding declined the presidential candidate’s offer of campaigning and fundraising assistance. 

“Personally I like her but we have to figure out what is best for our district at this point,” Golding said prior to Bachmann’s campaign visit. “You know, Michele is a great national candidate, but I have to make sure nothing in the national politics interferes with Senate District 18.” 

But now Golding seems not to mind such “national” interference with the Senate District she seeks to represent. Last week, Mitt Romney’s wife appeared at a fundraising event on her behalf. 

This is only the beginning. With four weeks to go, we expect other candidates to offer favors in this critical contest during their own visits to Iowa. 

And we expect this presidential hopeful meddling to be of no more benefit in this election than it was in New Hampshire.

When a Republican presidential debate audience booed an active-duty soldier serving in Iraq for asking a question about “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” conservative activists tried to dismiss the incident as just a few bad apples among a crowd of thousands.

That will be much harder, now that a GOP state Representative has come out in favor of booing gay American servicemembers, calling it “great:”

[Think Progress reporter Scott] KEYES: What did you make of that moment in the debate when they had the gay marine asking a question and there were a few in the audience who were booing him?

[GOP State Rep. Al] BALDASARO: I was so disgusted over that gay marine* coming out, because when he came out of the closet. Bob won’t say it because they’re scared to get in trouble, but their brothers and sisters – brothers especially- that are there, they’ll start getting away from him. They’ll start ignoring him. He doesn’t realize it, but when the shit hits the fan, you want your brothers covering your back, not looking at your back.

KEYES: Did you have an issue with the audience reaction?

BALDASARO: Oh no, I thought the audience, when they booed the marine, I thought it was great.

[*Note: the debate question was from a soldier serving in Iraq, not a marine.]

Notice that Baldasaro leaves no room at all for misinterpretation – he believes the audience “booed the Marine” and that “it was great.” He never even tried to dodge the issue, as other Republicans have, by claiming that the crowd’s intent was unclear.

More troubling, though, is that Baldasaro himself served more than two decades in the military. Would he, as his comments suggest, “start ignoring” his fellow Marines in combat if he knew they were gay? Would he really refuse to help a soldier whose life was in danger, just because he or she happens to be gay?

It’s no surprise that the bigotry of a Republican debate crowd is being reflected by Republican officials like Baldasaro. What’s shocking is that a Republican state legislator is saying it’s more important to hate gay Americans than to love those who defend our nation.

If that's really how Baldasaro feels, then he should take the advice of New Hampshire Democrats and veterans' advocates and resign, before he embarrasses his constituents any more more than he already has.

[h/t Think Progress]

Democrats have won yet another special election. 

The most recent victory came last night in New Hampshire, as Democrats picked up their third House seat from the GOP in that chamber this year. 

Democratic Representative-elect Peter Leishman won the previously Republican seat in a “moderate Republican bastion that is home to [US] Rep. Charles Bass,” according to the Union Leader. His Republican opponent was endorsed by the state Senate President (whose home district overlaps this House district) and the House Speaker, who reportedly was heavily involved in this race. And despite the fact that registered Republicans outnumber registered Democrats in the district, Leishman defeated his GOP opponent by the largest margin of any New Hampshire special election so far this year. 

One special election pickup is an example, two could be coincidence, but three is certainly a trend—a trend of rejecting the GOP’s attacks on public employees, voter ID measures, attempts to deny some workers even the minimum wage… the list goes on. 

This trend isn’t confined to New Hampshire. Yesterday’s win comes on the heels of a Democratic sweep of six New York Assembly special elections last week, which capped off a summer that saw a considerable list of Democratic victories. In Wisconsin, Democrats not only held all of their Senate seats targeted by the GOP for recalls, but also added two new Democrats to their caucus. Democrats picked up an additional seat in the Wisconsin Assembly. Democrats also won special elections in Maine’s Senate and House. 

This trend of Democratic successes in statehouses has emerged as conservative overreach by GOP leadership in these states reached a crescendo. After a winter and spring of GOP lawmakers attacking middle-class values and pushing right-wing agendas, Democrats began picking up Republican legislative seats. 

As recent statehouse shenanigans in Pennsylvania help demonstrate, Republicans seem unlikely to pull back on their extreme policy pushes any time soon. But this clear trend of Democratic successes should put GOP lawmakers on notice: voters are repeatedly and thoroughly rejecting their brand of right-wing extremism.

The Wisconsin recalls are over, Congress is back in session, and some may think that state legislative politics is SO yesterday. 

But you and I know better. So here’s a rundown of what’s popping. 

In this week’s edition of The Nation, John Nichols explains why things are looking pretty good for Democrats in statehouses. 

There’s a confidence level on display in the states that goes far beyond what is being heard in Washington these days. It is rooted in the fact that state-based Democrats have found winning issues in their fights to defend labor rights, public services and public education against a GOP austerity agenda that cuts taxes for billionaires and corporations while placing greater burdens on working families in a period of high unemployment and economic uncertainty. 

In New Hampshire, where Republicans scored unprecedented victories in 2010, the GOP is losing House seats in special elections that have turned on the question of whether legislators will override Democratic Governor John Lynch’s veto of an antilabor “right to work” law. 

In Maine, where Governor Paul LePage may well be the most extreme of the new Republican leaders, Democrats are not just winning special elections. They are seeing spikes of nearly 20 percent over the party’s 2010 vote totals for candidates who bluntly declare that they are determined to fight the LePage agenda, which
has extended so far as to attack child-labor protections. The national Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee notes that Democrats are running on average nine points better than they did in the same districts in 2010. And the DLCC says they are “performing as well now as they were in [the 2008] election—and in fact winning additional seats lost in that election,” as was the case with the defeat of the two Wisconsin Republican senators who survived the Obama landslide. 

Read the full piece here. Check out our data on Democratic performance in special elections here. 

Meanwhile, the GOP war on voting has some fresh developments. Just today, the Maine Secretary of State certified a “People’s Veto” of the new law prohibiting the long-standing practice of Election Day voter registration. Until the GOP-controlled legislature decided to halt the practice this year, Mainers had been able to register to vote and cast ballots on the same day since 1973. Now citizens will have the opportunity to continue that practice by electing to overturn this restrictive voting law this
November. 

In New Hampshire, where the state Senate upheld the Democratic Governor’s veto of that state’s voter ID legislation on Wednesday, GOP state Rep. Kyle Tasker posted some (unrelated) reprehensible comments on the House Republicans’ Facebook page. 

On Tuesday night, Tasker wrote on the House Republican Caucus Facebook page that “When a police officer points his firearm that’s not gonna make me feel threatened? If I’ve been trained to respond to that with force am I justified in blowing a cop away because I’m quicker on the draw, and he already pointed his firearm at me? Police are just citizens with badges and all laws should apply equally.” 

The comment has since been removed, but a copy of the posting was given to WMUR. 

Rep. Tasker defended these comments as part of an “intellectual discussion” of a piece of legislation. Former law enforcement officers and current Democratic state Reps. Steve Shurtleff and Ray Gagnon blasted the comments as “appalling,” “insulting and disgusting.” 

Oklahoma GOP state Rep. Sally Kern (whose antics we’ve highlighted previously) is promoting her new book, The Stoning of Sally Kern, and doubling down on her claim that homosexuality is “more dangerous” than terrorist attacks – just in time for the 10^th anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in American history. 

In an August 31 interview, she said: 

You know if you just look at it in practical terms, which has destroyed and ended the life of more people? Terrorism attack here in America or HIV/AIDS? In the last twenty years, fifteen to twenty years, we’ve had maybe three terrorist attacks on our soil with a little over 5,000 people regrettably losing their lives. In the same time frame, there have been hundreds of thousands who have died because of having AIDS. So which one’s the biggest threat? And you know, every day our young people, adults too, but especially our young people, are bombarded at school, in movies, in music, on TV, in the mall, in magazines, they’re bombarded with ‘homosexuality is normal and natural.’ It’s something they have to deal with every day. Fortunately we don’t have to deal with a terrorist attack every day, and that’s what I mean. 

So there you have the good, the bad, and the ugly in statehouse politics this week. Stay tuned for the next exciting installment!

Young people: they don’t deserve voting rights, they shouldn’t speak up about public policies that effect them, and now they don’t deserve a decent wage either, at least according to GOP state legislators.

Over the weekend, a Tea Party inspired bill went into effect in New Hampshire, finalizing the total repeal of that state’s minimum wage. The GOP legislator who sponsored the bill took the occasion to argue that repeal was necessary because younger workers don’t deserve the princely sum of $7.25 for an hour’s work:

State Rep. Carol McGuire, the Epsom Republican who sponsored the bill, acknowledges it changes little and could be restored by lawmakers at any time. She would have liked to have repealed the minimum wage entirely and let the free market dictate wages, she said.

"It's very discriminatory, particularly for young people. They're not worth the minimum," she said.
[emphasis added]

Contrary to Rep. McGuire and her GOP cohorts’ opinions, the facts tell a far different story. Most minimum-wage workers are already, in fact, young people (60.5% are younger than 30). McGuire and the GOP are saying, in effect, that these workers don’t deserve what they already earn.

But the minimum wage also provides a crucial stop-gap for older workers, as well – those whose Social Security benefits don’t quite cover the bills or whose prescription drug costs fell into the Medicare “doughnut hole” until the President’s health care reform closed it. (Or those workers who might lose health insurance entirely under the GOP Medicare elimination plan.) Workers 65 and older are actually more likely than the average hourly employee to earn at or below the federal minimum wage, probably because it's harder for these individuals to find willing employers.

Someone should ask Rep. McGuire if these workers are also “not worth” $7.25. Or better yet, Rep. McGuire herself should ask the next such employee she encounters – of any age – whether he or she agrees with McGuire’s opinion of their “worth.”

Thankfully, most New Hampshire workers are still protected by the federal minimum, but New Hampshire Republicans say they also want to eliminate the federal minimum wage. Rep. McGuire’s sentiments above were merely echoing those of GOP House Speaker Bill O’Brien, who called for the elimination of “job-killing regulations like the minimum wage.”

But once again, New Hampshire Republicans have it backwards, as fifteen years of research support the conclusion that a higher minimum wage increases economic growth.

As is the case all across the country, the GOP’s anti-growth agenda – including their ideological crusade against working families – is holding back job growth for everyone in America.

[h/t Blue Hampshire]

Even as politicos around the country wait breathlessly for the Wisconsin recall election results, New Hampshire has already given Democrats their first victory of the night. 

With all towns in the district reporting, former Democratic state Rep. Bob Perry has crushed Republican Honey Puterbaugh with over 58 percent of the vote. 

Today’s special election filled the House seat previously held by GOP Rep. Martin Harty, who resigned after telling a constituent that “the mentally ill, the retarded, people with physical disabilities and drug addictions - the defective people” should be “shipped off” to “Siberia…to freeze to death and die and clean up the population."  

This is the second Democratic special election pickup in a row in New Hampshire. This victory, like the previous one, was in a GOP-leaning district, and Democratic Rep. Perry won not only the district’s Republican stronghold of New Durham, but also
Puterbaugh’s hometown of Barrington.

Today’s results hold more significance than just demonstrating a pro-Democratic trend in New Hampshire. 

James Pindell explains: 

First, Republicans need to pick up 7-10 votes to override Gov. John Lynch’s veto on Right to Work legislation. With this seat vacant during those earlier votes, this race could tip that close margin either way. Second, State Republican Chair Jack Kimball has lost every special election contest (including primaries) since he took the party over in January. He needs a win badly to calm chatter from within his own ranks that he isn’t doing the most elemental thing for a chair: win elections. 

So tonight’s Democratic victory in the New Hampshire House has the twofold effect of helping protect the rights of Granite Staters to collectively bargain, as well as generally embarrassing the Tea Party-controlled state GOP establishment. 

Other elections tonight may grab more national headlines, but this key win for working families is a critical event in backing states away from the extreme right-wing, anti-middle class abyss.