NH State Senator Andy Sanborn: you are wrong on this. Even more so, Grant Bosse... - Granite Grok

NH State Senator Andy Sanborn: you are wrong on this. Even more so, Grant Bosse…

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

[Art.] 22. [Free Speech; Liberty of the Press.] Free speech and liberty of the press are essential to the security of freedom in a state: They ought, therefore, to be inviolably preserved. (NH Constitution)

…for crafting this Editorial (reformatted, emphasis mine).

Year-round sunlight: Sanborn bill is a great start

The New Hampshire House can take a small but important step today toward improving the state’s campaign finance laws. Under current law, political committees raise and spend campaign cash in complete darkness for more than a year and a half out of every two-year election cycle. From November of one election year until June two years later, they don’t have to file a single public report on their activities. Sen. Andy Sanborn has mustered a bipartisan coalition to bring some light into the darkness, and the House Election Law Committee is unanimously recommending passage of his bill.

Complete editorial after the jump but I did leave a comment:

Right – government putting MORE restriction on “abridging the freedom of speech”. Political speech is just speech and political speech was specifically thought of when the First Amendment was written. As much as a Libertarian as he might be, Andy should know better than to put on a heavier govt harness on us all for simply speaking our minds and making our opinions known in the political sphere. Each time they do this, the message sent is “shut plebes” because they make it harder and more onerous to “freely speak”. This is nothing more than the “Protect The Incumbents from People Speaking Against Them” Act.

Look around at both the State and Federal levels and the strictures on plain speech surrounding the political arena – you either have to be a long term political operative or a lawyer (or both) in order to keep yourself out of jail or fined out of existence simply if you want to speak your mind in the public arena.  I’ve looked at the laws here in NH – it’s not easy to understand.  Sure, it is doable for a layman to do but trust me, you would spend LOTS of time to truly understand it to the point of surviving a challenge in court by folks that disagree with you and are willing to use lawfare to shut you up.

So go ahead, yell “Yippee!” in just adding onto the burden on a group of friends (and not the megabuck fueled organizations that have the wherewithal and human resources to easily navigate these laws) that want to voluntarily band together their voices (and the cash to get that speech out there).

And for each minute spent on doing that is a minute you can’t speak – how’s that for stymying your opposition (by tying them up in legalese and sucking your time away from your original purposes).  Just ducky. Sunlight is good but it should be Government that is more subject to it instead of Government getting further intrusive into the private sector (hey, Grant – you DO realize why it is called the PRIVATE sector, eh?).

And I wonder what the Loebs, whose namesake School of Communication gives out First Amendment awards to those that defend free and unfettered speech in the public arena,  would say when their editorial guy uses their paper to cheerlead again it?

This is just Crony Politicism – Government (for that is what Andy represents) making it harder for the little guys to compete in the political marketplace.

And there’s Grant leading that bandwagon.

*****

Year-round sunlight: Sanborn bill is a great start
EDITORIAL
The New Hampshire House can take a small but important step today toward improving the state’s campaign finance laws.

Under current law, political committees raise and spend campaign cash in complete darkness for more than a year and a half out of every two-year election cycle. From November of one election year until June two years later, they don’t have to file a single public report on their activities.

Sen. Andy Sanborn has mustered a bipartisan coalition to bring some light into the darkness, and the House Election Law Committee is unanimously recommending passage of his bill.

SB 458 would require political committees, including both PACs and candidate who file as political committees in order to take unlimited PAC contributions, to file complete receipt and expenditure reports in June and December of odd years. This would give the public a peek at what they’re up to before the next election is underway.

The new reporting requirements would also let incumbents show off their campaign war chests to scare away potential challengers, but giving the public more information about their candidates, and the groups trying to elect them, is a good thing.

Politicians don’t take a year off from fundraising, and the public shouldn’t wait in the dark. Sanborn’s bill is a great start.

The next step would be to require all state elected officials to file off-year reports, just like their federal counterparts.
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– See more at: http://www.unionleader.com/article/20160511/OPINION01/160519897#sthash.tGSMjGq8.dpuf

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