{"id":2349,"date":"2012-05-09T08:49:25","date_gmt":"2012-05-09T13:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/?p=2349"},"modified":"2017-11-24T18:24:03","modified_gmt":"2017-11-24T23:24:03","slug":"urgent-free-speech-under-attack-hb-1704","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/2012\/05\/09\/urgent-free-speech-under-attack-hb-1704\/","title":{"rendered":"Urgent – Free Speech Under Attack (HB 1704)"},"content":{"rendered":"

SPECIAL ALERT!<\/strong> (courtesy of RLCNH)<\/p>\n

Contact the Senate to oppose the attempt to gag political speech!<\/p>\n

Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 9) the Senate is considering a Committee Amendment to HB 1704<\/a> that would make it harder for political organizations such as the RLCNH to criticize elected state senators and state representatives.<\/p>\n

The Senate Amendment, which the RLCNH is calling the \u201cIncumbent Protection Act,\u201d would essentially put a gag order on political committees by preventing them from spending more than $500 criticizing members of the Legislature without disclosing the expenditure to the Secretary of State within 24 hours. <\/p>\n

Frankly, we’re stunned that Senate Republicans would advance an amendment that is so clearly motivated out of political self-interest. We expect this type of power-grabbing bill from statists and Democrats, but we expect Republicans in the Senate and in the House to put the rights of the People above their own political ambitions.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s important to note that Section 12 of the bill under the Senate Amendment would not require reporting when political groups express support for legislators. Reporting would only be required when these groups\u2019 expressions are \u201ccritical\u201d of senators and representatives! <\/p>\n

The fact is that nonprofit, issue-based groups on both the right and the left are formed to help keep elected officials accountable to their campaign promises and to the people they represent. Stifling our voices using onerous government regulation is not in the public interest. It is purely in the interest of incumbent politicians who don\u2019t like the criticism that their own actions bring about.<\/p>\n

If you’re as upset about this as I am, please email all Senators at Senators@leg.state.nh.us or call your Senator and ask them to oppose the WHOLE committee amendment to HB 1704. (If you’re not sure who is your Senator, you can look it up here http:\/\/www.gencourt.state.nh.us\/Senate\/members\/senate_roster.aspx<\/a>)<\/p>\n

Sen. John Gallus 271-3076
\nSen. Jeanie Forrester 271-4151
\nSen. Jeb Bradley 271-8472
\nSen. James Forsythe 271-3067
\nSen. Matthew Houde 271-8631
\nSen. Fenton Groen 271-2609
\nSen. Andy Sanborn 271-3067
\n\u2028Sen. Bob Odell 271-4063
\nSen. Ray White 271-2609
\nSen. Molly Kelly 271-3207
\nSen. Peter Bragdon 271-2111
\nSen. Jim Luther 271-4151
\nSen. Gary Lambert 271-2609
\nSen. Sharon Carson 271-1403
\nSen. Sylvia Larsen 271-3207
\nSen. David Boutin 271-3092
\nSen. Jack Barnes 271-4063
\nSen. Tom DeBlois 271-4151
\nSen. Jim Rausch 271-3091
\nSen. Lou D’Allesandro 271-2117
\nSen. Amanda Merrill 271-3207
\nSen. Chuck Morse 271-4980
\nSen. Russell Prescott 271-4063
\nSen. Nancy Stiles 271-3093<\/p>\n

Time is of the essence\u2014the vote on this is a mere hours away. Let your voice be heard!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SPECIAL ALERT! (courtesy of RLCNH) Contact the Senate to oppose the attempt to gag political speech! Tomorrow (Wednesday, June 9) the Senate is considering a Committee Amendment to HB 1704 that would make it harder for political organizations such as the RLCNH to criticize elected state senators and state representatives. The Senate Amendment, which the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[61],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2349","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-official-oppression"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2349"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5268,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2349\/revisions\/5268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cnht.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}