State Senate President Peter Bragdon and Sen. Jeb Bradley minced no words in condemning the House’s obstructionist warfare with the Senate as a threat to the state’s economy and job creation:
“At a time when we should be focused on helping New Hampshire employers and supporting hardworking families, the House’s actions today will ensure the defeat of critical legislative initiatives. We are appalled the House has chosen to play political games with legislation widely recognized as being important to the state’s economy and job creation.”
Freshman GOP Rep. George Lambert ignited the war by moving to table six Senate bills that the House had just passed. Today we learn that it all began because his feelings were hurt when the Senate nixed his proposal to legalize home poker games.
For Lambert, the tipping point was the Senate Ways and Means Committee stripping away his provision to legalize home poker games to a bill aimed at (HB 1260) one day revitalizing live racing in Cheshire County….
“They wouldn’t even listen to the arguments I had for this; it was like I didn’t exist,” Lambert said.
Lambert, who was doing the bidding for House Speaker Bill O’Brien, apparently takes his poker very seriously. The legislature? That’s just a big game.
“I’m a poker player, and they say, ‘Go big or go home,’ ” he said.
Earlier this month, the state Senate recessed after passing SB 198. The bill would fix a technical error in the state budget that has already cost the state $2 million since July 1.
House Speaker Bill O’Brien is insisting the bill be amended to block extension of the marital master system, which handles most divorce cases. His amendment would require the bill to go back to the Senate for a vote and would likely delay its adoption until after the first of the year.
O’Brien’s determination on the marital masters issues is likely to cost another $2 million.
Today, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, Congressmen Charlie Bass and Frank Guinta, state House Speaker Bill O’Brien and state Senate President Peter Bragdon released a joint statement calling for New Hampshire GOP Chair Jack Kimball to resign. Kimball responded by declaring, “I won’t step down.”
“Ever since I’ve been elected, there’s been a continuous crescendo of criticism, innuendo and misinformation that has been going out to the press. It’s been non-stop and it’s culminating with this. …
“These’s a meeting, as you know, September 1st, and I called for this meeting. At that point, there will probably be a vote. But i will tell you this, I won’t step down. I will go to that meeting, and they will look me in the eye, and they will vote. Obviously, whatever occurs at that point in time, I will respect. …
“If I am voted out, it is going to cause a fissure in this party that is going to open a wound that isn’t going to heal real soon. This is the worst possible thing to happen at the worst possible time, with the “First in the Nation” primary coming up and the most important presidential election in our history.”
Yesterday, Kevin Landrigan reported the state’s entire GOP congressional delegation — Congressmen Frank Guinta, Charlie Bass and Sen. Kelly Ayotte — along with state House Speaker Bill O’Brien and state Senate President Peter Bragdon, held a conference call Friday to discuss the future of party chair Jack Kimball.
Today, John DiStaso reports the results of that call.
Sources said all five were unanimous that Kimball should go.
O’Brien on Friday afternoon relayed that message to Kimball at a meeting at Kimball’s office in Portsmouth.
Sources said that Kimball told O’Brien he would take the weekend to think about it, and then, after hearing from other party leaders and the grassroots, decided not to step down.
The 36-person GOP Executive Committee meets on September 1 to decide Kimball’s fate. A simple majority vote is required to remove Kimball as party chair.
Republican legislators are up in arms over reductions in service necessitated by the very budget cuts they enacted.
Case in point #1. After voting to reduce the state highway budget by $30 million a year for the next two years, state Rep. Gene Chandler is incensed that the Department of Transportation might have to reduce snow plowing this winter. ”What DOT is proposing is unacceptable,” Chandler said.
Case in point #2. After targeting hospitals with $230 million in cuts over two years, Senate President Peter Bragdon questions the resulting service and employment reductions. “There’s nothing that says that patient services have to be affected,” claimed Bragdon.
New Hampshire may actually have to activate the Emergency Broadcast System if the disconnect between illusion and reality reaches any higher levels, at least when it comes to understanding how the state budget works.
