Terie Norelli is new Speaker of the NH House

by: Mike Caulfield

Sun Nov 19, 2006 at 02:11:30 AM EST

Norelli won a majority of the vote on the first ballot of yesterday's Democratic caucus. She received 128 of 218 votes, while Rep. Stephen DeStefano of Bow received 57 votes, and Rep. Jay Phinizy of Acworth received 33 votes. After the initial vote, the caucus took another vote, electing Norelli unanimously.

Norelli quickly defined the bounds of what bipartisanship means, and more importantly, does not mean:

Norelli said she would not appoint Republican chairs of committees, noting "the role of the chairmen of committees is the direct the policy of the committees. As the majority, it is our right to direct that policy."

But she did say Republicans and Democrats alike would be treated with respect, and noted Republicans would not be in a small out-of-the-way office. Several years ago, Democrats were moved from their long-held, third-floor office to much smaller space on the first floor of the State House.

She also stated that her understanding is that a statewide income tax for education is off the table.

More after the flip...

It did. In the contest for Speaker, none of the candidates crossed party lines to solicit votes from Republicans.

In an additional testament to the unity of the caucus, the Democrats rejected a proposal that would have allowed the direct election of a majority speaker and risked fragmenting the party. From the Boston Globe:

Rep. Daniel Eaton, of Stoddard, said the Democrats also considered changing their rules Saturday to elect a majority leader, but that effort was defeated after intense debate.

Eaton said he and others worried that an independently elected majority leader would split the Democrats, just as the party gets ready to take control of the House for the first time since 1922.

"It just sets a recipe for disaster if you have a speaker and a majority leader in conflict. You leave the caucus in disarray and not knowing who to follow and it creates difficulty in keeping a very unified working team," he said.