The first two months of 2011 have brought a range of controversial legislation. Are Republicans overreaching the interests of citizens?

There’s a popular myth about the N.H. Legislature, says Andrew Smith, associate professor of political science at the University of New Hampshire. The myth is that, with 400 state representatives and 24 state senators, every citizen personally knows his or her local legislator. But that’s not necessarily the case.

“The reality is that nobody really knows who their state rep is or who they’re voting for,” said Smith, director of the UNH Survey Center. “They vote for the Republican or the Democrat, depending on their political leanings.”

Nor do most people change their political leanings from one election to another. The difference is in how many voters actually make it to the polls. In 2006 and 2008, energized by their collective ire toward the Bush administration, Democrats flooded the polls, while many Republicans stayed home. As a result, the Legislature became disproportionately Democratic. 

In 2010, the reverse occurred. According to Smith, Republican turnout was 5 percent higher than average in November, while Democratic turnout was 5 percent lower than average. Republicans won overwhelming majorities in both chambers, resulting in a legislature that’s more Republican than the general public.

Campaigns for seats in the N.H. House are usually small and inexpensive, offering scant opportunity for voters to assess each individual candidate. Therefore, Smith said, most voters never really know what they’re getting into.

“The problem is nobody was really listening to what (the candidates) said they were going to do,” Smith said. “The problem for Republicans is you get this legislative overreach, I guess is the best way to describe it.”

Republicans have filed hundreds of bills over the last two months, many of which have drawn sharp criticism and outright incredulity from Democrats. But, with the Republicans holding veto-proof majorities in both branches, there’s only so much the Democrats can do about it.

“I don’t think the Republican agenda has been in line with what anybody would have wanted,” said Harrell Kirstein, spokesman for the N.H. Democratic Party. “There have been a number of bills that really haven’t been in the best interest of New Hampshire.”

He outlined a few of the most controversial. House Bill 631, sponsored by Rep. Jonathan Maltz (R-Hudson), would have repealed the requirement that schools offer public kindergarten (the bill was killed in committee). HB 343, sponsored by four Republicans, would establish a permanent state defense force. HB 176, sponsored by Rep. Gregory Sorg (R-Easton), would prohibit college students and active duty military members from voting in the community where they live.

“This is not what people want,” Kirstein said. “Bills to repeal kindergarten or create a state militia or to take away voting rights from college students and active duty military—that’s not what anybody votes for.”

House minority leader Terie Norelli (D-Portsmouth) is particularly concerned about legislation related to education. She cited a number of Republican-sponsored bills that, taken together, amount to an “all-out assault on public education,” she said. One is HB 39, which would amend public education standards to remove requirements for arts, foreign languages, health and technology classes. Another is HB 429, which would lower the legal dropout age from 18 to 16. Yet another is HB 595, which would eliminate state oversight of home schooling.

“These are bills that send a message that public education is not important in our state,” Norelli said. “These bills, individually and collectively, would undermine public education and would risk our students’ futures.”

Freshman Rep. Laura Jones (R-Rochester) is the prime sponsor of HB 595, which would repeal the existing home education statute. A member of the House Education Committee, she said the bill would “bring the home schooling law more in line with the rest of the country.”

“Parents are responsible for their children’s education, and if we remove some of the regulations on the parents, they can spend more time educating their children and more parents will be willing to try home schooling,” Jones said.  

HB 595 and two other bills related to home schooling have been retained in committee with the goal of combining them into a single bill over the summer, Jones said. HB 39, to remove arts and technology requirements, has already been rejected by the committee, she added. 

But other bills related to schools remain on the table, including HB 370, which would significantly loosen anti-bullying regulations adopted last year. 

Sen. Nancy Stiles (R-Hampton), a member of the Senate Education Committee, said she could not speak to the House bills regarding education. But she said Republicans in the Senate are focusing on legislation aimed at funding an adequate education for all New Hampshire students. She’s sponsored several bills related to education funding and said Democratic Gov. John Lynch is on board with some of her ideas. 

“In the Senate, we’ve been working on the funding formula, and that’s where our focus has been,” Stiles said.  

Education isn’t the only issue that has generated recent turmoil in the Legislature. Norelli pointed to several bills related to gun control. On the first day of the 2011 legislative session in January, Republicans voted to remove a ban on guns on the House floor in Concord. They later voted to remove a separate ban on carrying guns in the entire State House complex. Another bill (HB 330) would allow people to carry a loaded concealed weapon without a license. Yet another (HB 378) would allow homeowners to display a gun if a trespasser refuses to leave their property.

Democrats have criticized many of these bills, citing the Arizona shooting spree that wounded U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and killed several others in January as evidence of the danger of loosening gun laws.

Norelli also scoffed at Republican House efforts to approve several tax cuts, only to table them before they could advance to the Senate. In February, House members voted to cut the rooms and meals tax and telephone tax. But, acknowledging the state still needs the revenue generated by those taxes, they immediately tabled them to prevent them from becoming law. Norelli accused Republicans of essentially pretending to cut taxes as a publicity stunt. 

“I think ‘political’ is the operative word. It certainly sounds good to say we made tax cuts, but in essence they did not,” she said.

Norelli was also disappointed by a recent House vote to withdraw New Hampshire from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a cap-and-trade program intended to cut greenhouse gas emissions from public utilities. Public Service of New Hampshire said the program costs ratepayers just 36 to 40 cents per month and warned that withdrawing would cost the state up to $18 million in funding from the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Reduction Fund. 

Nevertheless, bill sponsor Richard Barry (R-Merrimack) called the initiative a “stealth tax,” and House speaker William O’Brien (R-Mont Vernon) came out in support of withdrawal. Deputy majority leader Shawn Jasper (R-Hudson) added that “neither man nor cow is responsible for global warming.”  

House majority leader D.J. Bettancourt (R-Salem) outlined the Republican agenda in January, saying social issues would take a back seat to the party’s top priorities: jobs and the economy. But Norelli questioned whether the party has been sticking to that promise. She noted that Republicans have proposed several bills related to same-sex marriage and abortion rights. 

“Where’s the emphasis on jobs? And show me the cuts. I keep hearing that the Republicans have quote-unquote cut a couple million dollars from the budget, but we have not seen them yet,” Norelli said. 

The House Judiciary Committee recently voted to table two bills that would repeal New Hampshire’s two-year-old law allowing gay marriage in the state. That vote came after a recent poll conducted by the UNH Survey Center found that 62 percent of residents opposed repealing the law.

The same poll found that the vast majority of residents think abortion should be legal, at least in limited circumstances such as cases of rape or incest, or when the mother’s health is in jeopardy. Andrew Smith, of the UNH Survey Center, said New Hampshire is more pro-choice than almost every other state. 

But the poll did show support for a proposed bill (HB 329) that would require minors to notify their parents before getting an abortion. That bill is still under consideration by the House Judiciary Committee.

Despite their powerful majorities, Smith said, Republicans have it tough. It’s easier for the minority to stand in opposition to the majority than it is for the majority to agree on a clear path forward, he said. Just because an individual Republican sponsors a bill doesn’t mean the rest of the party supports it.

“Any bill that gets filed by a member has a hearing and has a vote, so there’s going to be all sorts of stuff,” Smith said. “There is going to develop some disunity. That happens all the time, especially when you win a large majority.”

An article published in The Boston Globe in early February, titled “Hard right turn worries GOP moderates in N.H.,” indicated that moderate Republicans in the state were feeling increasingly alienated by the far right. Tea Party favorite Jack Kimball, a former gubernatorial candidate known for his unabashed conservatism, was elected chair of the N.H. Republican Committee in January, despite former chair John H. Sununu’s endorsement of Kimball’s opponent, Juliana Bergeron.

“That completed the Tea Party takedown of the New Hampshire Republican Party,” said Harrell Kirstein, of the N.H. Democratic Party. 

Kimball was unavailable for an interview last week, and state GOP spokesperson Christine Baratta did not respond to requests for comment.

Nancy Stiles, who considers herself a moderate Republican, said she is unaware of any disunity within the party. 

“I don’t feel that in the Senate, at all,” she said. 

Laura Jones echoed that sentiment, saying House Republicans have been eager to help her at every turn of her first two months in the Legislature. 

“Personally, I get along with everyone in the House, Republicans and Democrats. I was actually surprised by how well everyone gets along,” she said.

Norelli said Democrats will continue reaching across the aisle and to interest groups outside the Legislature to build consensus for Democratic initiatives. That tactic worked in killing the kindergarten repeal bill, she noted, although it was not successful in squelching the RGGI repeal.  “I think that we need to look for opportunities where there are outside interests that share these views that can work with Republicans,” she said.

Local Democrats will also have to fend off national Republican movements that are gaining momentum around the country. Efforts to cut bargaining rights and benefits for public employees in states like Wisconsin and Ohio are spreading. The N.H. House recently approved a “right-to-work” law (HB 474) that prohibits unions from requiring payments or fees from employees. Proponents say the law will improve jobs in New Hampshire, but Norelli disagrees.

“Here is a bill that would undermine collective bargaining in New Hampshire,” she said, noting the Granite State currently has the highest median income and one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country. “Their argument flies in the face of reality.” 

The first real evaluation of the Legislature’s performance will come in November 2012. In the meantime, Smith said, legislators will continue to pursue their personal beliefs.  

“Republicans in Concord believe that’s what voters sent them to do,” he said. “They’re going to try to enact as much (legislation) as they can, and they will find out when the next election comes up whether the voters like it or not.”