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So much happened yesterday that it is hard to decide where to start. We all know one thing, the NH House of Representatives was scheduled to vote on whether to override or sustain the Governor's veto of HB 474 - the right to work for less legislation - on Wednesday, March 25th.
Towards the end of the legislative session though, it became increasingly apparent that NH House Speaker Bill O'Brien did not have the votes to override the Governor's veto and he decided to postpone the vote rather than face the rejection of his extreme partisan agenda.
When it became obvious that the NH House would not be acting on HB 474, both pro-worker and open transparency advocates in the State House became agitated with Speaker O'Brien's inaction and his constant back peddling on this issue. In protest, Rep. Tony Soltani (R-Epsom) rose during the third reading - the formal act that generally concludes the legislative activities for the day - and voiced his opposition of postponing the vote.
With a record high turnout of state legislators - and thus an extremely representative cross-section of public opinion - it was the perfect time to take the vote. But Speaker O'Brien would hear nothing of it - when Rep. Soltani began to voice his concerns, the Speaker tried to stifle him. When Soltani persisted, the Speaker ruled him out of order and directed the Sergeant-At-Arms to escort him back to his seat.
Before he was seated, Rep. Soltani questioned why O'Brien was not calling for the vote after he had publicly stated that the vote would be held today. Now it must be made clear that, in recent memory, a Speaker has never made such an extreme request that a fellow colleague be escorted back to their seat. This act and the refusal to take the vote is disrespectful to the entire House (again, AP reports that 380 state representatives were in the House gallery which is a rare attendance rate by their calculation) as well as the legislative institution itself.
After the House session the Speaker held, for the second week in a row, a closed-door press conference. While not an entirely uncommon occurrence, it is a part of the larger trend of the House Leadership's lack of transparency and unwillingness to face the public in defense of House actions - or in this case, inactions. Why are they hiding now? What don't they want the public to know?
In this closed door press conference the Speaker told reporters that he will hold the vote "when the time is right" - meaning, when he can get his small group of supporters in the room alone. The Speaker can call the House into session and hold the vote whenever he feels like it - whenever he thinks he will win.
Even if it's in the dead of night.
Stay posted for more on that front. In the meantime, while Seth Cohn has responded that the timing of this was a mere coincidence, we did find it interesting that the Speaker joined the Natural Rights Caucus for a photo shoot less than 20 minutes after his press conference ended.
Given that just last week the NRC announced that Right to Work for Less is a prime piece of legislation for them, we couldn't help but wonder if a premature victory photo shoot had been established.
