One-woman pro-liberty lobbying force

This past legislative session, I spent a fair amount of time observing the NH House Criminal Justice and Public Safety committee. In the process of watching the testimony, tracking the votes, and reviewing the bills, I came to realize that I had developed a new hobby -- that of part-time, pro-liberty lobbyist.

One of the most refreshing and heartening events of that period was that I got a chance to meet a New Hampshire resident named Laurie Peterson. She was trying to get legislation passed to reduce the harm of our overzealous, unconstitutional "sex offender" laws. Specifically, her bill would allow some sex offenders who were younger than 21 at the time of their crimes be erased from the state's sex offender registry. As it turns out, her husband falls into that category. When he was 19, he had sex with a girl who told him she was 17 years old -- but in fact, she was 15. As a result, he's been marked a "sex offender" for the rest of his life. This despite the fact that the sex was consensual with no force or coercion involved, and that his partner at the time had lied about her age. Now he's treated by the law in the same way that the worst pedophiles are. This is a clear misapplication of justice, and is all to typical of "one size fits all" government.

Anyway, back to Laurie. I was completely blown away with how professionally she managed her effort. It was a textbook lesson in how to get legislation passed. Before submitting the bill, she had befriended several members of the relevant committee, and discussed the details of her case. They then volunteered to sponsor the legislation. As a result, when it came time for the committee to hear testimony, it was their own committee members they were listening to. Moreover, Mrs. Peterson gathered a group of half a dozen people, both male and female, who had been in a similar situation as her husband -- they were 18 or just a year or two older, and had had consensual sex with someone just under the age of 18, often as a result of being lied to.

The bill, HB 504, sailed through the committee with a unanimous "Ought To Pass". It passed the House of Representatives handily. In the Senate, with continued lobbying, the relevant committee again gave the bill an "Ought To Pass."

Unfortunately, at that point, deeper political forces intervened. From an unknown source, a smear campaign was mounted against the bill, and it was killed in the Senate. The Concord Monitor ran this story about it.

This reminds me so much of what happened to last year's bill that would have opted New Hampshire out of the Federal "Real-ID" program. We would have been the very first state to reject it, had it not been killed in the Senate, after a series of shady meetings.

What do I take away from all this? Well, a few things:

1. Very often, it takes more than 1 try. Legislators need educating, and that's a lengthy process


2. A single, well-informed, dedicated activist can walk even controversial legislation a long way up the legislative ladder


3. The overwhelming support that this bill received in the House is more evidence that Freedom and Liberty are more well-ingrained in the New Hampshire culture than blind obedience to "Law and Order"


4. With role models like Laurie Peterson to draw on, Free-Staters who wish to become politically active can achieve real, measurable victories


5. Whatever your personal hot-button liberty issue is, it may take several tries over several years to make it happen. Never give in, never give in, never, never, never, never-in nothing, great or small, large or petty - never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense.

Update, July 31: It seems USA Today had noticed this effort, too! From the USA Today article