In what was often an insanely frustrating (the live feed kept going down) and sometimes amusing election for Speaker of the House on Wednesday, Republican Representative Shawn Jasper was elected as Speaker by a majority of Democrats. The majority in the Republican Caucus voted for O’Brien.
If you recall, the Republican race for Speaker was originally between Bill O’Brien and Gene Chandler. That had its own drama when Senator Kelly Ayotte, John Sununu and some other “Establishment’” types urged Republicans to back Chandler. When Chandler lost his bid and backed O’Brien, most just assumed O’Brien would become the next Speaker of the House.
Flash forward to Tuesday. Rumors swirled around NH politics that Jasper and others were up to no good. It appeared they were working with some to make sure O’Brien didn’t become the speaker. For some reason, the Establishment was afraid that O’Brien wouldn’t be the speaker they needed to gear up for the 2016 races in which Senator Ayotte is running for re-election and of course the Presidential election. Clearly they don’t seem to know much about Jasper’s personality in the House. How did this all come about?
It has been confirmed by multiple sources that Senator Jeanie Forrester was indeed making phone calls to Republican Representatives to support Jasper. It is unclear if any others were involved but there is no way Forrester would have done that without the approval of Senate President Morse. These two “squishy” Republicans helped bring Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion to New Hampshire and then proceeded to back progressive Republicans Boutin and Stiles in the primary over much better conservative candidates Cormier and Kenda.
This was a very well organized coup. Frankly, Jasper isn’t smart enough to have thought this up himself. There were obviously back room deals going on with higher ups in the party. Democrats were in on it as well. Shurtleff (Democrat who was nominated for speaker) and Jasper laid out exactly what was going to happen on Wednesday and indeed this is what happened.
No doubt this was probably an idea that actually gave birth in the Senate. It was just a matter of finding a GOP rep who was sleazy enough to pull it off. Of course Jasper fit the bill. Most likely he promised Medicaid Expansion votes in return since it’ll be up for votes by the end of 2016. Only a rep who could pull over enough Republican votes (along with most Democrats) would be able to manage this.
How can Jasper do it? Union hack Republicans. Unfortunately there are indeed enough of them in the House to aid Democrats and Senate leaders in pushing their big government agenda. Not to mention progressive Republicans who will vote for bigger government at the drop of a hat.
Republicans had already lost trust in the GOP Senate leaders when they delivered Obamacare’s Medicaid Expansion to Governor Hassan. Not only does it hurt Granite Staters but voting for it went against the Republican Party platform and against the majority of constituents in New Hampshire who have always disapproved of Obamacare in any form.
And let’s not forget about gun control. Jasper is no friend to the 2nd Amendment. He has a rating of only 36% from the New Hampshire Firearms Coalition and only 43% from the NRA. Since out-of-state anti-2nd Amendment extremist groups have already said they will target gun control legislation in NH and make it a big play in the 2016 elections, the Senate leadership, who would prefer to cave to these people rather than fight them, needed a House Speaker who would try to help make this happen as well.
Now New Hampshire has a GOP Senate leadership that will push big government and cannot be trusted as well as a GOP House leadership that will push big government and cannot be trusted. Your rights and wallet are being set up for huge hits under these people. Clearly there are some serious divisions in the Republican Party. When “Establishment” leaders in the Senate are pushing to undermine the House, there is a problem and it’s hurting Granite Staters as well. When Republicans behave like Democrats, what’s the point in having two parties?
Cross posted from Examiner
