I don’t want anyone confusing this article with a routine one from Carol McGuire, who always does a great job and names her articles “YOUR State House.” Therefore, I’m calling this “OUR State House.” Carol writes about the House, but this piece is on the Senate and the Executive Council.
The dastardly RTK Tax, HB 1002, originated in the House, but tomorrow is its big day in the Senate. Unfortunately, it has the blessings of Sharon Carson and all of the Judiciary Committee, plus Tim Lang.
More on the senate, particularly Tim Lang and HB 1002, in a moment because I was there to observe the executive council from a front-row seat with Nurse Terese, who I will ask the readers to support, inside or outside of District 4, in her primary to take the place of Ted Gatsas. You can start by liking/following her on social media and asking others to do the same.
Let’s talk enemy camp primaries for a moment because there seem to be quite a few of them though not everyone might be aware that some communities have more than one of them. To recap, the governor’s race is on everyone’s ballot, and the enemy camp offerings are Councilor Warmington and former Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig. Half of all Granite Staters also have Colin Van Ostern and Senator Twitley hoping to be the next Annie Kuster. Wheeler’s constituents(1/5 of NH) have Alderman Kelly and Ms. Melanie Levesque primarying each other. But there’s another EC primary in the enemy camp and it’s one I wasn’t aware of until today. There are two people running for the gerrymandered District 2 seat, currently occupied by Warmington, and they’re regulars in the audience.
However, they’re too good to sit in the audience with all the spectators. They get to sit at a table placed next to the press table. This self-important VIP table for 3 was occupied today by Warmington’s campaign manager, who might consider choosing a deodorant with a stronger antiperspirant, Mike Liberty, whom I met in March during the Francophone proclamation meeting, and Lebanon City Councilor Karen Liot Hill, who proudly wears her woke civilian fruit salad. I call it fruit salad because General Mikolaitis is a regular at EC meetings, and there must be many veterans among the Grok Faithful. I didn’t know who Mike and Karen were, but being friendly with Meagan, the EC secretary, has its perks. I asked Meagan who those three were, and that’s how I learned.
I find a few things interesting. First, the Damn Emperor and PappASS were both executive councilors before running for governor and federal office. Would anyone happen to know if the campaign manager of either one of them had a very own special table in the room? I ask because Terese ought to be informed of that privilege if it exists, but I’m guessing it doesn’t. I will also point out that one of her primary opponents, Senator Reagan, was present today for the first time(to my knowledge). The old senator stood in the Corner Office reception area, presumably because there is no special seating for EC candidates and all the seats in the chamber were taken.
Now, let’s get back to the Senate. Being early for the EC, I wandered around looking for senators on the loose to remind them to reject HB 1002 tomorrow. Carrie Gendreau shares an office with Tim Lang. Once I confirmed that Tim was not there, I enjoyed a brief chat with Carrie. Because her parents are realtors, I told her my story and how my own RTK journey began with the assessor’s office. Her secretary pleasantly reminded her that she had stuff to do before her committee met, so I took the cue that it was my time to move on, and I made my way to Kevin’s office, where I spotted Regina entering from afar. I high-tailed it to make contact with her and said, “Regina, I hope you’re going to vote the right way tomorrow.”
I don’t know if she was playing stupid, so I had to say “HB 1002” and follow up with the words “RTK Tax,” but she just gave me a “we’ll see” without any indication of how she was leaning. She left the office, and I then had Kevin and his secretary almost all to myself as there was another aide in the room. He said Tim Lang planned to amend the bill to make RTK unlimited and free to locals. Essentially, that would mean that Laurie Ortolano et al. could keep on digging without ever having to put the shovel down upon hitting bedrock, um, I mean “the maximum allowed.” Kevin told me to find Tim and talk to him about that. I pointed out that the senate meets TOMORROW, I was on my way to the executive council, and Tim’s committees(Education & Ways and Means) weren’t on the calendar for today. I wasn’t expecting to run into Tim, but God had other plans! At least, that’s what Terese would say.
After the executive council adjourned and lunch was had, Terese and I were exiting the front door and stopped at the top of the front stairs. She wanted to show me something on her phone when I spotted Howard Pearl and Tim Lang(who are almost always seen together) entering the state house lawn from the far right corner. Terese had her back to them when I told her it was showtime. I greeted Howard first and said I still wanted him to vote the right way, and he played stupid. I reminded him that he replied to my email that he would look at the bill and wished me a good weekend. Then I confronted Tim and showed him a picture of the 4/9 committee sign-in. He claimed that it was a forgery and then started talking about bill cosponsorship in Kevin-speak, which I don’t agree with.
Then Tim switched to some of the opposition talking points, and I considered asking him if he read my last article, but I didn’t, so I looked squarely at both of them and said, “So what’s going to happen tomorrow?” All I got was the “I don’t know” shrug. A better answer would have been, “We’ll head over to OLS right now to get that amendment going and move to table the bill if it can’t be ready in time for tomorrow.”
