FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 20, 2012

Contact: Elizabeth Ray or Anath Hartmann at (703-683-5004)

"We intend to hold every legislator accountable for his or her vote on marriage. Those who support HB 437 will be rewarded, while those who don’t will suffer the consequences.”
—Brian Brown, NOM's President—

Concord, NH — The National Organization for Marriage (NOM), the nation's leading pro-marriage organization, today announced that it will spend $250,000 in legislative races to help legislators who support HB 437 restoring traditional marriage and hold accountable anyone who opposes the Same-Sex Marriage Repeal Bill. The Bill, HB 437, will be up for a vote in the next few weeks.

“Sixty-one percent of New Hampshire GOP primary voters support a legislative definition of marriage as the union between a man and a woman alongside of a provision for civil unions,” stated Brian Brown, NOM's president. "We intend to hold every legislator accountable for his or her vote on marriage. Those who support HB 437 will be rewarded, while those who don’t will suffer the consequences in the next election.”

HB 437 is compromise legislation that restores the traditional definition of marriage which predates the New Hampshire Constitution, while allowing existing same-sex marriages to remain intact, and grants rights and benefits through civil unions. HB 437 is a balanced bill and is the most common sense approach in New Hampshire.

NOM has helped mount successful legislative election efforts on the same-sex marriage issue in places like Minnesota, Maine, California, New York and New Hampshire. The group is particularly effective at ending the careers of Republican officials who abandon marriage. For example, the group aired ads critical of Republican candidate Bill Binnie’s position on same-sex marriage that resulted in his defeat in the GOP US Senate primary campaign in 2010.

"In 2010 NOM was a significant player in New Hampshire and spent over $1 million in the last election. It’s humorous that our opponents loudly proclaim they will raise $100,000 to help legislators on their side when we have already invested over ten times that amount,” said Brown. “Aside from helping defeat Bill Binnie, we worked with grassroots organizations to help flip the state legislature after liberal democrats legalized same-sex marriage in 2009. NOM sent mailers and launched phone calls in 119 house races, and our endorsed candidates won all of them. A vote for HB 437 is a vote for traditional marriage. We will consider a vote against the legislation a vote for same-sex marriage, and we will hold legislators accountable. NOM will support those who support marriage and will work with local New Hampshire organizations to recruit pro-traditional marriage candidates to run against those who vote against HB 437 and fund them.”

To schedule an interview with Brian Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, please contact Elizabeth Ray, [email protected], (x130) or Anath Hartmann, [email protected], (x105) at 703-683-5004.

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