Slicing and Dicing the NH Gay Marriage Repeal (HB437) Vote
The attempted repeal of gay marriage in NH has failed. Here are a few ways to slice the roll call vote:
Party Votes
Democrats voting against gay marriage*: 1 (Roger Berube of Sommersworth)
Democrats voting for gay marriage: 92
Republicans voting against gay marriage: 115
Republicans voting for gay marriage: 119
Vote Switching
The votes above and the votes that are reported in the news are of the final vote on ITL. There were several previous votes, including a simple vote on whether the repeal ought to pass. There were 17 21 reps who voted for the repeal but then voted to kill the bill. There are two reasons to do this. One is pragmatic – since the vote to pass the bill already failed, why not vote to kill it? That’s the procedural thing to do. The other reason could be clever political maneuvering – the vote that gets reported is the last one and conceivably a Rep. can be on both sides of the bill come November, depending on the audience. Here are the switchers:
This first group voted against the repeal, but then voted to not kill the bill. One supposes they wanted more debate or an amendment? I don’t think these are particularly meaningful.
| Belvin, William | Republican | Hillsborough | 6 |
| Chirichiello, Brian | Republican | Rockingham | 5 |
| Davenport, Joshua | Republican | Rockingham | 12 |
| Flanders, Donald | Republican | Belknap | 4 |
| Hunt, John | Republican | Cheshire | 7 |
| Johnson, Jane | Republican | Cheshire | 6 |
| Kingsbury, Robert | Republican | Belknap | 4 |
| Packard, Sherman | Republican | Rockingham | 3 |
| Pilliod, James | Republican | Belknap | 5 |
| Ritter, Glenn | Republican | Rockingham | 14 |
This next group is the more interesting one: Reps who voted ‘against gay marriage’ before they voted ‘for’ it:
| Bradley, Lester | Republican | Grafton | 4 | Yea |
| Brown, Julie | Republican | Strafford | 1 | Yea |
| Coffey, James | Republican | Hillsborough | 3 | Yea |
| Devine, James | Republican | Rockingham | 7 | Yea |
| Eaton, Stephanie | Republican | Grafton | 1 | Yea |
| Emerton, Larry | Republican | Hillsborough | 7 | Yea |
| Erickson, Duane | Republican | Hillsborough | 25 | Yea |
| Graham, John | Republican | Hillsborough | 18 | Yea |
| Hagan, Joseph | Republican | Rockingham | 7 | Yea |
| Hawkins, Kenneth | Republican | Hillsborough | 18 | Yea |
| Katsakiores, Phyllis | Republican | Rockingham | 5 | Yea |
| Malone, Robert | Republican | Belknap | 5 | Yea |
| McGuire, Dan | Republican | Merrimack | 8 | Yea |
| Newton, Clifford | Republican | Strafford | 1 | Yea |
| Parsons, Robbie | Republican | Strafford | 3 | Yea |
| Proulx, Mark | Republican | Hillsborough | 15 | Yea |
| Reilly, Harold | Republican | Grafton | 8 | Yea |
| Remick, William | Republican | Coos | 2 | Yea |
| Sanders, Elisabeth | Republican | Rockingham | 7 | Yea |
| Terrio, Ross | Republican | Hillsborough | 14 | Yea |
| Vita, Carol | Republican | Strafford | 3 | Yea |
By the simple tally of the final vote, one would conclude that a majority of Republicans voted to protect gay marriage in NH. But by including those who first voted to remove gay marriage, it becomes clear that a majority of voting Republican Reps. in NH are against gay marriage.
Adding in the vote switchers, in both directions ( counting those who voted ‘nay’ on OTP then ‘nay’ on ITL as ‘for’ and those who voted ‘yay’ on OTP then ‘yay’ on ITL as ‘against’, for +- 11), yields:
Republicans who voted against gay marriage: 126
Republicans voting for gay marriage: 108
I think this is a more correct tally than just the ITL vote. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – without a veto-proof majority, this whole exercise on the Republicans’ part was a gift to the Democrats come November. Gay rights aside, they betray their political futures and their constituents by choosing to give up seats in November.
Liberty Rep. Votes
OK, that’s now the whole house voted – how about the pro-liberty reps (as defined by the top-25 spots on the 2011 NHLA Liberty Rating)?
| Name | District | Town | Grade | Vote |
| Brown, Paul | Rockingham 2 | Raymond | A+ | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Cohn, Seth | Merrimack 6 | Canterbury | A+ | Pro Gay Marriage |
| DeJong, Cameron | Hillsborough 9 | Manchester | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Greazzo, Phil | Hillsborough 17 | Manchester | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Malone, Robert | Belknap 5 | Alton Bay | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Maltz, Jonathan | Hillsborough 27 | Hudson | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Murphy, Keith | Hillsborough 18 | Bedford | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Newton, Clifford | Strafford 1 | Rochester | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Sanborn, Laurie | Merrimack 5 | Henniker | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Seaworth, G. Brian | Merrimack 7 | Pembroke | A+ | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Simmons, Tammy | Hillsborough 18 | Manchester | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Tasker, Kyle | Rockingham 1 | Northwood | A | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Vaillancourt, Steve | Hillsborough 15 | Manchester | A+ | Pro Gay Marriage |
| Manuse, Andrew | Rockingham 5 | Derry | A | No Vote |
| Warden, Mark | Hillsborough 7 | Goffstown | A+ | No Vote |
| Holden, Frank | Hillsborough 4 | Lyndeborough | A- | Excused |
| Okerman, Richard | Rockingham 4 | Windham | A | Excused |
| Bowers, Spec | Sullivan 3 | Georges Mills | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
| DeLemus, Susan | Strafford 1 | Rochester | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
| Giuda, J. Brandon | Merrimack 7 | Chichester | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
| Jones, Kyle | Strafford 1 | Rochester | A+ | Anti Gay Marriage |
| Jones, Laura | Strafford 1 | Rochester | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
| McGuire, Dan | Merrimack 8 | Epsom | A | Anti Gay Marriage** |
| Tregenza, Norman | Carroll 2 | Silver Lake | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
| Vita, Lucien | Strafford 3 | Middleton | A | Anti Gay Marriage |
Do with it what you will.
- The actual vote was a yay/nay vote on an ITL (inexpedient to legislate) measure, which means it should not become law, on a bill to repeal gay marriage. So a ‘yay’ vote is a vote for not enacting a repeal of gay marriage. So, a for-against-against vote is for gay marriage since the double-negatives cancel out. Just so that’s clear to right-minded humans, it’s simplified above.
** vote for OTP before ITL
Update 1: 2012-03-23:23:52 – added vote-switchers
Update 2: 2012-03-24:00:46 – fixed switcher count