The former and present Speaker of the NH House: Bill O'Brien - Granite Grok

The former and present Speaker of the NH House: Bill O’Brien

Happy Dance SnoopyBarring any Doug Scamman type hijinks in two weeks (Organization Day for the NH House when the full House votes on the Speakership), Bill O’Brien will be this session’s Speaker (having won the majority Republican nomination race).  As with the rest of the Groksters, I congratulate Bill!

NOW it is Happy Feet dance time and for one short night, I can gloat that this election has turned out well enough – not just here in NH but for more Conservatism across the nation.  Here in NH, the Progressives (the “All Hail Power To The State” kneelers) have had the Senate, Executive Council,  and the House torn from them; under the rubric of “screw DC, save NH” this has worked out ok so far (and leaving the only major office held by the Dems, Guv, neutered to a large degree).  To be sure, not as Conservative as we are here at the ‘Grok, but it works and in addition on a country-wide basis, you have a lot of Ray Buckley whine-alikes wailing about those nasty extremists….

…who the voters decided, this time, that their new BFFs were those “extremists”.  Thus, actually making the Dems the ugly extremists (having taken almost complete power away right now).  Operative phrase: right now.  NH is getting a history of  majority swings – and helping out the stocks of aspirin companies to boot.  But having snatched a victory, we have seen that the Republicans can invite Defeat to their table as well.  They will need not only a Liberty agenda that manifestly makes a difference in peoples lives (meaning they can see a difference quickly) but also make the messaging go along with it.

NH GOP Victory Starts Now LogoNot only that, the NH GOP, in the minds of many, left him out to dry last go around (e.g., like Jim Coburn and Joe Kenney’s Governor runs).  This may be the item to watch given the utter spanking that the Establishment / Five Families just took by inserting themselves and their reputations into this race and seeing, once again, their hand selected and widely publicized preference, Gene Chandler, loose. Kelly Ayotte, Doug Scamman, Donna Sytek, Steve Merrill, Charlie Bass, and John H Sununu (aka, Papa Smurf) decided to wage a unified front against the grassroots – and a spectacular fail from a PR standpoint.   This is now twice in a row, given that O’Brien wasn’t their choice last go round.  Add to this that their hand recruited Governor and US Senate candidates lost by large enough margins; Sununu must be beside himself.

And the election process is still not done = it may also be that this is giving them the willys with the Committee members and NH GOP elected officials are coming up.  Once again, we see an absolute split party.  Which reminds me of NH GOP Chair race promises made two years ago – that would be Jennifer Horn’s promises:

  • Unite the Party
  • A complete technology makeover
  • Fill the coffers.

It is clear from the names on the Chandler Endorsement letter that there is NO willingness to reach out and make common ground with the base – only “the blessed” from the Establishment; our way only (not even sure they’d provide the proverbial highway).  Thus, Unity?  Not so much and it is rather blatant – I can tell you with authority that the Establishment HAS kicked the grassroots to the curb multiple times (and then they can’t understand why we don’t support them with our votes).  This will be an issue for the next two years for the ever present question, given past history, is whether they will be actively (or passively) undermining Bill O’Brien (and as there is little to no Trust to dismiss that from the minds of many).

 

 

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