New Hampshire Republican State Chairman Fergus Cullen explains Gov. John Lynch’s failure to steward a constitutional amendment on education funding through the legislature this way in a press release:
“Governor John Lynch’s weakness as a leader has finally caught up with him. A leader cannot punt on issue after issue and expect people to follow him when the clock is ticking down. For two and a half years Gov. Lynch has not led on issues great or small. He offered no leadership on civil unions. He offered no leadership on mandatory seatbelts. It should surprise no one that when Gov. Lynch finally showed up saying, ‘Follow me!’ he was ignored.”
He makes a valid point.
But to my way of thinking, this has more to do with the governor’s priorities—and those of his allies in the state legislature. As I have written before, the Democrats were elected with a mandate in 2006 to clean up the ethical mess the Republicans made in Concord and to hash out a permanent solution to the school funding mess. What have they given us instead? Well, they wasted no time in pushing gay civil marriage through, even though none of them campaigned on it and the bill discriminates against heterosexuals. And Democrats in the Senate managed to get a $2 million appropriation for adult diapers taken care of, so that’s a relief.
Over in the House, Democrats have placed things like a fine for losing your balloon, seatbelt laws, and a vote condemning the Iraq War ahead of fixing our school funding problems.
In the coming weeks the Senate will pass—and the governor will sign—a measure repealing a law that allows parents to know if their minor daughter is going to have an abortion.
I believe the reason why we have no solutions to our school funding problems is because our leaders in Concord don’t care about our school funding problems. Instead, they are fixated on imposing a radical agenda, for which there is very little public support and on which they were not elected.
BY PAT H
