Government by Lobbyists: The Corporate Takeover of New Hampshire’s Legislature continues in 2026

New Hampshire continues to be for Sale: Unelected Corporate Power Brokers Dictate Law While Legislators Cash the Checks

The below piece is a glossy, corporate-written warning shot to the public: New Hampshire’s laws are being shaped not by voters, but by unelected business organizations whispering in lawmakers’ ears. Disguised as concern for “economic competitiveness,” the article is essentially a policy demand list from the Business & Industry Association, an unelected, non-governmental lobbying group with no democratic mandate and zero accountability to taxpayers.

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Housing, childcare, energy, zoning, AI regulation—every major policy area is framed exclusively through the lens of what benefits large employers, not residents. The housing “crisis” is reduced to a workforce supply problem, not a human or community issue. Skyrocketing home prices aren’t treated as a failure of public policy, but as an inconvenience to corporations struggling to staff positions. Families are statistics. Communities are obstacles. Local control is something to be “balanced away.”

Most repulsive of all is how casually the article normalizes the process:

Unelected organizations draft recommendations, sponsor legislation, and pressure lawmakers, while legislators—many of whom receive substantial campaign funding or financial benefit from the very industries pushing these agendas—rubber-stamp the proposals and call it “governance.” The public is cut out entirely.

This isn’t representation. It’s regulatory capture dressed up as economic concern.

The article openly celebrates commissions, task forces, and “study groups” that exist one step removed from voters, quietly rewriting zoning laws and regulatory frameworks that directly affect people’s homes, taxes, and livelihoods. These bodies are not elected. They do not answer to citizens. Yet their recommendations routinely become law—because the legislators are incentivized to “suck it up,” stay in line, and keep the money flowing.

In an election year, the BIA warns lawmakers to “put politics aside”—which is code for ignore voters, ignore public outrage, and prioritize donors.

The message is clear: New Hampshire is “open for business,” even if that means closed government, sidelined taxpayers, and policies dictated by corporate interests rather than the people who actually live here.

This isn’t about housing.

It isn’t about childcare.

It’s about who really runs the state—and who gets shut out while it happens.