The House Children and Family Law Committee (HCFLC) should not be allowed to hide low on anyone’s radar, no matter the amount of relevance one might think it has personally, professionally, or politically. In this election year, most of us can agree that NH is a hot mess in many ways and is not exempt from its share of nationwide woes.
I invite like-minded people who have a stake in this committee’s affairs to comment, discuss with each other, and perhaps write their own articles. There are lots of passionate hard working people who have subject matter expertise, personal stories, and a history of trying to help people. Unfortunately, there is no shortage of bad actors and loudmouths promoting the wrong agenda. On the “other side of the wall,” there’s a certain dumb blonde lawyer who’s always cosplaying Mrs. Helen Lovejoy into the mic when she’s pushing her partisan agenda thinly disguised as compassion.
Welfare school lunch comes to mind, but let’s get back to the House.
Our Speaker selects committee leadership and its members. I commented on a few committee assignments at the beginning of last year. And I also commented on the embattled Sanborns here. Let’s look at the team roster of the HCFLC here. There’s a lot of dysfunction to discuss.
The word “dysfunction” is often used in discussing family dynamics, which this committee should be committed to the preservation and improvement of. I’ll jump back again to the “other side of the wall” again for a moment because the use of that word came to mind from when Sharon Carson, the sponsor of a failed Parental Bill of Rights(SB 272), used it while addressing the rest of the senate in a matter nongermane to the HCFLC. Let’s dig in and discuss some of that dysfunction, shall we?
Starting with the chair, we have the arrogant, nasty, and pontificating charlatan Rep Pearson.
I’m talking about the father, not the son. There are too many “problem political families” in NH, as most Granite Staters know, and the Pearson family does not receive as much attention as the Sununus or the Greggs (more on them in a moment). Chairman Pearson was the HHS chair last time around, and he was extremely condescending, long-winded, and rude with the gavel to members of the public, members of this committee, and other reps (both former and future). Much can be said about him, but that could turn into a very long scenic side trip. I have reason to believe that he was reassigned from HHS to HCFLC by the Speaker in the same way a disgraced senior priest is often relocated to another zip code hundreds of miles away is by the Arch Diocese. Out of sight, out of mind, but let’s move on.
The vice chair, Patrick Long, a career politician, as seen here, is a member of the enemy camp. And he’s not the only enemy camp member in a position of responsibility. The clerk, Peter Petrigno, is even worse!
The first time Petrigno got my attention was shortly after the 10/13/21 executive council arrests. Elliot Axelman of the Liberty Block sent a post-incident survey to all 424 members of the legislature on what should be done about the Damn Emperor ordering unlawful arrests of his peaceful critics. Sadly, it received a bipartisan snub, for the most part, but some reps replied and even commented. Petrigno was one of the respondents and said some very hostile things about the 9 arrest victims. I am unfortunately unable to retrieve that spreadsheet containing his words, but anyone interested in fact-checking it is encouraged to contact Elliot Axelman. Petrigno also signed a May 2020 group petition to the Damn Emperor demanding that NH be masked.
And here’s where he changes his tune with regard to authoritarianism: the SB 272 House Education Committee hearing on 4/18/23. He and fellow HCFLC member and Milford Rep Maria “loca en la cabeza” Perez ranted their opposition to the Parental Bill of Rights. Petrigno said into the mic, “No one has the right to compel someone to do something against their will.”
Dude, what about “mask choice,” huh?
Maria Perez is in a league of her own regarding her mental fitness. Much can be found on her if you do your own internet search, which I encourage you to do. Why would the Speaker think such a lunatic would make good decisions that involve the well-being of kids?
And let’s talk about that Gregg in-law.
She’s got some domestic baggage that can’t possibly interfere with the ability to serve the best interest of ALL NH kids and families, now can it? And don’t let that son of a governor’s last name fool you into thinking she’s not a member of the enemy camp. And the husband is definitely in bed with Nashua’s ruling class as he was just elected to public works last fall.
Jodi Nelson won a special election, but like Bill Boyd, quickly showed her true colors as a RINO in the way she voted shortly after being elected.
What a disappointment, but let’s move on.
Queen Heather, aka Rep Raymond, had the school gavel and ruled the Nashua Board of Education with an iron fist, muzzling the students and her fellow members. I’m sure the recently ousted Paula Johnson has much to say about Heather, who called the police on Paula and took her drama show to national news, but just as relevant is her record with DSS. A kid in the system died on her watch, as I noted in my earlier piece on committee assignments.
What kind of responsible leader would allow such a blemished record in a committee tasked with serving “the most vulnerable?” I put those words in quotes because the enemy camp loves to use them when using said people as tools to advance their agenda. Similar questions need to be asked in many government bodies, panels, boards, commissions, departments, and courtrooms regarding the youth center scandal. I direct you to the multitude of articles by Claire Best here.
Committee members Debra DeSimone and Lorie Ball, though Rs on paper and possibly ok people at the time of committee selection have proven themselves enemies of RTK in the 2/1/24 roll call votes on HB 1002. Unless it’s a family privacy issue, RTK is for everyone.
As for the following reps, Bickford, McMahon, Grossman, Gibbons, and Levesque, they voted ITL on HB 1308, parental access to library records.
And I would be remiss to ignore an opportunity to lampoon a LEVESQUE anyway, just saying, no disrespect against Neil from St A’s.
Seemingly there are only two good eggs in the HCFLC that I can confirm, one of them, Sheila Seidel, only by the way she voted on HB 1308. Any additional praise for her is certainly welcome in the comments. And the other is Sandra Panek for her unwavering activism in election security reform. Sandra and Sheila can’t do the work of the whole committee, just like one member of a family can’t fix the whole family alone. I suddenly think about Minuchin and his theories on enmeshment and disengagement.
It’s late in the season. There are sure to be some senate bills coming to this committee later this spring, but readers should think about this toxic committee at election time and how to get some personnel changes to occur, if still necessary, after the election. Replacing the Speaker, followed by replacing the chair, vice chair, and clerk, might be a good place to start.
