There are four announced candidates for Speaker of the House—Bill O’Brien, Gene Chandler, Susan Emerson, and John Reagan. The GOP State House Caucus will meet on November 18th in Concord to elect the new Republican Speaker.
Simply put, the assembled GOP Representatives should elect O’Brien. Here’s why….
First of all, Bill O’Brien is an very good strategic thinker. He takes the long view, whcih is how politics should be approached…but he is also a genial individual, and able to work with a wide range of personalities, including those who may agree or disagree with him.
Secondly, O’Brien has the most clearly conceptualized vision for a thriving New Hampshire in the future…including how to get from here to there. He is also the most consistent conservative candidate for the Speakership, and the best leader.
Out of all the State House Republicans, Bill O’Brien has the only 100% rating on the House Republican Alliance (HRA) "report card" for the bienniel legislative period of 2009-2010. The HRA score cards measure the level at which state representatives support the GOP principles laid out in the excellent State Party Platform. By contrast, Susan Emerson scored 95%, John Reagan 93%, and Gene Chandler 86%. O’Brien was the only Representative to score a perfect 100%.
As for Rep. Emerson, she has openly talked about forming an alliance with Democrats in order to get elected Speaker, and has reportedly made various promises to various Democrats in order to gain their votes. If followed through on, such a scheme would mirror the disastrous overthrow of the Republican State House majority in 2004 when Rep. Doug Scammon and a group of turncoat Republicans joined with the Democrats to get Scammon elected Speaker over the GOP choice of Rep. Mike Whalley. That election was a disgrace, and allowed the newly-elected Gov. John Lynch to "slide by" for the next two years, wholly uncriticized by the Republican leadership. It also presaged the destruction of the Republican majority in the state house two years later in 2006.
If true, Rep. Emerson should be ashamed for even considering such a scheme.
Of perhaps more importance, however, is why the 2004 Speakership race was thrown into disarray, allowing an unholy alliance of Democrats and Republican traitors to seize power. After all, Rep. Chandler was the Republican Speaker for the 2002-2004 biennial period. He was also the presumptive GOP Speaker nominee for the 2005-2006 biennium (yes, this is the same Gene Chandler who is running today against Bill O’Brien for Speaker of the House).
Why was Rep. Chandler not automatically re-elected to the Speakership in 2004 by the then-majority of Republicans?
The answer to that question provides Reason #3 why Bill O’Brien should be elected to the Speakership next week by the Republican House majority. I will explain in a GraniteGrok posting sometime tomorrow….