Last November, conservatives took to the polls across the state and help elect the largest number of conservatives to the State House to be seen in recent years. This, in turn, has led to all of us having a louder voice in state government. The conservative resurgence was also felt at Tuesday’s Lobby Day as we had the highest attendance in several years with nearly ninety pro-family citizens taking time off from work to come to Boston.
In years past we have had one Republican and one Democratic legislator address the group, each speaking on their perspectives from the other side of citizen lobbying. This year, seven legislators spoke, with even more just stopping by to personally interact with their constituents.
The legislators spoke on a number of subjects, including the importance of personal contact from voters taking the effort to see them, not simply sending an email or making a phone call. Since the event was sponsored by MFI, the Coalition for Marriage & Family, and Catholic Citizenship, legislators did take time to thank the Coalition for their work engaging pro-family activists in their campaigns. They emphasized the importance of door-knocking and phone calls during campaigns, and congratulated everyone on dramatically reducing the number of sponsors of the Bathroom Bill.
After hearing from the legislators, and pro-family leaders—yours truly, Maureen Vaccca of MFI, Patricia Doherty of Catholic Citizneship, and MCFL’s Linda Thayer—attendees fanned out into the halls of the State House. Everyone left letters with their own legislators regarding the Bathroom Bill, Laura’s Law and the Maria Talks website. Some also visited Gov. Patrick’s office to directly lobby against the Maria Talks website and its vile content.
I want to personally thank everyone who participated is this year’s Lobby Day. I consider the event a complete success, and it was extremely important with Bathroom Bill supporters hosting their own lobby day next week. Legislators will now have the facts in front of them when our opponents descend on the building next Thursday.