House Declines to Refer Rep. Rogers to Legislative Admin Committee - Granite Grok

House Declines to Refer Rep. Rogers to Legislative Admin Committee

nh-houseThe New Hampshire House on Tuesday rejected (on a 99-222 vote) a motion to refer Rep. Katherine Rogers (D-Concord) to the Legislative Administration Committee on the grounds of her recent guilty plea to an assault charge. Rogers admitted to assaulting Susan Olsen during a ballot recount in November 2016. (See Steve MacDonald’s December 22 post.)

The Legislative Administration committee would have had the power to recommend reprimand, censure, expulsion from the House, or no action on the grounds of Rogers’s recent guilty plea.

During debate on the motion, Rep. Steve Shurtleff (D-Concord) said his concern was “this body,” the House. Of referring representatives to Legislative Administration, he said, “I don’t believe this body should get involved in those kinds of actions. There are other methods of dealing with those infractions. Don’t go down the slippery slope of saying ‘gotcha.’ We’re better than that.”

The defeat of this morning’s motion apparently rules out future House action relative to the assault committed by Rogers. The vote was not a roll call, eliminating accountability for any specific representatives’ vote.

 

 

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