Memo To Channel 9--Rep. Bates Does Not Exist

In honor of the United States Supreme Court decision to accept to cases on gay marriage, Channel Nine was left scrambling over the weekend to find...as usual...people on both sides of the issue for a quick comment.

Channel Nine has every right to do that, but what it doesn't have a right to do is put a certain former Representative named David Bates forward as if he's still a Representative.

David Bates did not run for re-election.  For Channel Nine to label him as Representative Bates must be more than an oversight.  After all, if they called him for a reaction to the Court decision, and said, "Do you have a comment, Representative Bates?", he certainly must have been honest enough to correct them and point out that he is no longer a Rep.

For the pro gay marriage side, Channel Nine (this was Saturday night) used Mo Baxley of the NH Freedom to Mary Group, but in fact, it failed to note that Mo is just as much a Representative as David Bates.  In fact, she is a former Representative.

Why did this bother me so much?

First, because I believe we should be able to trust to media--we obviously can no longer trust Channel Nine's weekend team; but secondly because the report made it seem that such a homophobe as David Bates (he's been given the appellation as Homosexual Hunter in this blog) is still in a position to deny all people their equal rights.

Although David Bates was still skulking around the State House after the election--even managed to someone get into the GOP caucus when Gene Chandler defeated PamTucker for minority leader--he is no longer a State Rep...any more than Mo Baxley is.  He is in no position to file legislation, as he did last year, to repeal gay marriage.

As I said two years ago when Democrats went down to a huge defeat, ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES.

A consequence of the 2012 election is that David Bates is gone. Despite his efforts to force out duly elected Representatives (I've heard he's trying to get Ann Grassie even though the Ballot Law Commissioner ruled unanimously that she lives where she was elected), David Bates is gone at last.

If Channel Nine insists on using him to portray the losing side of history, it should label him as FORMER Rep. David Bates.

Comments

[Joshua]

Channel 9 could have called Baldasaro. He's still around unfortunately and would probably offer a memorable quote.

I wonder why Bates opted not to run. Did he fear defeat or was he simply uninterested in legislating on any policy issues other than marriage?

[Rep Dan McGuire]

If we still have a President Clinton and a General Patraeus why not a Representative Bates?

[Rep Steve Vaillancourt]

Bill Clinton is never presented on TV with a graphic which would make one think he is still President. Were Channel 9 to say former Rep. David Bates, that would be fine with me, but to put it up the way they did was either ignorance (in which case he needs to inform them he is no longer a Rep) or a deliberate attempt to deceive. It would be as if I, a former Manchester Alderman, were to appear as Ald. Steve Vaillancourt to comment about something like a tax cap. I would make sure the reporter knew that while I am a State Rep, I am no longer an alderman.

Bates was interested in photo ID and other election law stuff. As I've pointed out here before, Windham, by being split apart from Salem, lost seats (they had usurped Salem seats before). They went down to four Reps, and I believe six or seven Republican incumbents were from that town, Bates being one of them. I also get the feeling that he might have been in for a high paying staff job had O'Brien won the speakership again. Only a guess. He went around telling people that even with only a 210-190 GOP majority, O'Brien would have been back as Speaker; I disagreed with his math, but we'll never know. I guess it depended on which 210.