NOM is sadly mistaken. In the 2010 elections the Republicans consistently beat the "fiscal responsibility" drum. They had absolutely no mandate for making socially conservative changes. You can't blame the socially-conservative minority for trying in the second year, but they should have known that they would get no support from the GOP's libertarian, socially-moderate wing.

Stephen Cobb I think part of the problem is NOM had it in their mind they can threaten members of the GOP who might vote against the repeal like they did in NY but what they didn't realize is, Republican or Democrat, most of the members of the NH House are cantankerous old New Englanders who take offense to idle threats. The more you push them the more they push back. I have no respect for the leadership of NOM. They impress me as being a bunch of thugs.

The simple left-right, one-dimensional paradigm is often inadequate to describe politics, especially New Hampshire politics. The House, like New Hampshire overall, has a large number of libertarians, more loosely described as fiscally-conservative social moderates. Looking from the left, Democrats often can't tell the difference, but yesterday's vote was a good example. This same group of "extreme right-wingers" in the House voted overwhelmingly last year to legalize medical marijuana (which Gov. Lynch threatened to veto again). Libertarians believe that government's job is to defend rights, not violate them, as eloquently described in the Declaration of Independence:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed...."

Maybe they finally have come to realize that they are supposed to represent ALL people.