State House Dome: House GOP trying to avoid culture war trap

Mar. 20—The trick for any New Hampshire House speaker in an even-numbered year is to figure out a way to avoid forced retirement.

This is no easy task since the legislative chamber has flipped party control five times in the last six elections.

House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, hasn't by any means locked in his reelection as speaker, but his leadership made a few deft moves last week behind the scenes to improve the odds.

For a conservative GOP speaker, the trick is not to get caught in a culture war trap.

Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley is lying in wait, hoping social conservatives can push the House even further to the right just as the voters start to pay attention.

Last week, there was a reasoned but controversial proposed change to the state's ban on conversion therapy that is meant to "fix" people who are gay, lesbian or transgender.

Clearly the word went out in the GOP caucus that this bill (HB 1077) was a conscience issue and that members were to vote as they see fit.

Translation: It's OK to kill it.

And that's what the House did, tabling the bill by a 197-147 margin.

Among those who gave the legislation a thumbs down included House Speaker Pro Tem Kimberly Rice, R-Hudson, House Finance Committee Chairman Karen Umberger, R-Conway, former GOP Executive Director and Rep. Joe Sweeney, R-Salem, House Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee Chairman Daryl Abbas, R-Salem, House Judiciary Committee Chairman Ned Gordon, R-Bristol, and House Public Works Chairman John Graham, R-Bedford.

You get the idea.

Exhibit 2 came a short time later last Wednesday when the House set aside the bill to permit local school boards to restrict sports teams to athletes of the same biological sex (HB 1180).

The House voted 175-167 to table the bill, and Packard allowed opponents to have a second bite of the apple when the first motion to table it failed by two votes.

Three House committee chairs were against passing this bill.

Both political parties have learned the hard way that when it comes to controversial social causes, do them in the first, odd-numbered year so it gives the majority time to make their case to the voters that they should remain.

Every vote counts

As the House went late into the night Wednesday and the topic was abortion, every vote counted, and the Democrats only had themselves to blame for coming up just short.

The House nearly passed legislation that would have carved out exemptions from the abortion ban for cases of rape, incest and fetal abnormality along with getting rid of criminal penalties for doctors who performed a later-term procedure (HB 1673).

The move failed, 165-163.

Let's examine why.

This vote came up close to 9:30 p.m. Wednesday.

A review of House roll call records revealed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, there were 156 Democrats present.

Less than two hours later when this showdown vote came up, their numbers were down to 150.

Those six who had left would have made the difference to pass the bill if they'd still been there.

Ironically, it was anti-abortion crowd that was chirping about absences in the House leading up to the showdown vote.

Cornerstone Action had warned House Republicans not to take a walk and abandon them.

"Here is our public promise to you. If New Hampshire's late-term abortion ban is gutted to the GOP absences, Cornerstone will investigate every Republican," the group posted on social media.

"We will post and circulate the names of those representatives who were too busy to save these six-month-old children from a gruesome death."

Whether effective or not, House GOP ranks didn't drop into Wednesday night.

Relations have become a bit frayed as Cornerstone has sent mailings into the districts of both Packard and House Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, on its favored legislation.

Standoff on redistricting

Gov. Chris Sununu said there should have been no one caught unaware after he vowed to veto the House and Senate-passed redistricting of the state's two congressional seats (HB 52)

"They can act surprised, but I was incredibly clear about this for months," Sununu said Friday.

Sununu felt the map was especially unfair to an ally, Littleton beer company owner Jeff Cozzens, who's seeking the GOP nomination in the Second Congressional District along with Sen. Harold French, R-Canterbury.

"Are we just going to give (Democratic Congresswoman) Annie Kuster a job for life in CD 2?" Sununu said.

Competitive districts lead to incumbents being more attentive to residents, he said.

"What happens to constituent service when those officeholders no longer are worried about keeping their jobs?" Sununu said.

The veto will surely be sustained, but then what?

There's an 18,000 difference in population between the two districts, which is less than 3% of the ideal.

All redistricting maps have to be within a least 10% plus or minus of the ideal size.

But Senate Redistricting Committee Chairman James Gray, R-Rochester, pointed out Thursday that federal rulings have advised states that congressional districts should come within three-fourths of 1% perfect.

The map Sununu said he'd veto has a deviation of two-hundredths of 1%.

It looked like Senate President Chuck Morse, R-Salem, had gotten a heads-up from Sununu. Less than 10 minutes after the Senate passed the plan, he asked a reporter if Sununu had put out a statement yet.

In another clear sign of intel, Senate Majority Leader Jeb Bradley, R-Wolfeboro, voted with the Democrats against the congressional redistricting map.

This frees up Bradley to become the Senate's broker in finding an alternative map that can meet with Sununu's approval.

Fond farewell to Cushing

Colleagues and the greater Seacoast community paid tribute last Saturday afternoon to the late House Democratic Leader Renny Cushing of Hampton with a memorial event in the Rivermill at Dover Landing.

During the lunch break last Thursday, Cushing's Democratic brethren had their own cathartic scene, singing "Solidarity Forever" as they stood around Cushing's front-row seat in Representatives Hall.

Sherman replacement eyed

Now that Sen. Tom Sherman, D-Rye, has jumped into the 2022 race for governor, attention is on which Democrats will try to represent District 24 in the future.

A healthy Cushing probably could have claimed that nomination if he had wanted it.

Now, it's wide open and liberal advocates are urging Rep. Debra Altschiller, D-Stratham, to get into the race.

There are many respected incumbents in that district, including Reps. Alexis Simpson and Julie Gilman, both D-Exeter, Dennis Malloy, D-Greenland, Jim Maggiore, D-North Hampton, Jaci Grote, D-Rye, and Mike Edgar, D-Hampton.

Sherman's district will become more Democratic with the Senate redistricting map (SB 240), since it adds the blue town of Exeter while dropping Seabrook/South Hampton, Newton, New Castle and Kensington, all with more registered Republican than Democratic voters.

Lou Gargiulo, the 2020 GOP nominee for this seat, has more than $50,000 in his campaign account from the last race in which he raised a record $360,000 that included $275,000 from his own pocket.

Morse not for gas tax move

Senate President and U.S. Senate candidate Morse didn't echo Sununu's support for temporarily suspending the state's 21-cent gas tax.

Morse knows that while the state treasury has a $191 million revenue surplus with four months left in the budget year, the highway fund is only $5.5 million or 3% over plan.

That's obviously due to far fewer miles traveled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Morse was the prime mover to shore up the highway fund in the current budget, giving it $50 million from general fund surplus in the budget trailer bill (HB 2).

Morse said last week there should be enough excess revenue for lawmakers to agree upon "permanent" tax cuts later this spring.

The House approved last week a bill again cutting the state's Business Profits Tax, this time a small reduction from 7.6% to 7.5% that would only cost $8 million in lost revenue (HB 1221).

Paid leave repeal looms

The House passed another bill (HB 1165) that's on the veto track that would repeal Sununu's signature voluntary Granite State Paid Family Leave Plan.

We know many House GOP leaders didn't like the plan and resented Sununu for insisting it had to be part of the global bargain on the state budget.

"That plan has significant deficiencies, many unanswered questions and is no longer needed," said Rep. Leonard Turcotte, R-Barrington.

Sununu said last Friday he'd veto that bill too, but it's unlikely to survive in the Senate.

Lump of coal to Merrimack

The bipartisan delegation from Merrimack tried but failed to keep the Department of Transportation from moving to end state ownership of Continental Boulevard and give it to the town.

The state agreed to maintain this 1.5-mile connector road in 1993, part of a trade with Merrimack whose officials wanted the road to help attract the headquarters of Digital Equipment Corp. and other companies.

In return, town fathers had to accept ramp tolls placed at all three F.E. Everett Turnpike exits in town.

Thanks to the skills of former Executive Councilor Debora Pignatelli, D-Nashua, Sen. Gary Daniels, R-Milford, and his predecessor, ex-Sen. Shannon Chandley, D-Amherst, over the past three years, the last of those tolls have gone out of existence.

The state lost that $1.7 million in toll revenue, and DOT says the town should take back this road.

"It is time to finish the breakup of this bargain," said Public Works Chairman Graham last Thursday.

Rep. Bill Boyd, R-Merrimack, and Rosemarie Rung, D-Merrimack, led the effort to try to strike this section from the 10-year highway bill (HB 2022) the House also passed.

Boyd said it will cost the town $200,000 in property taxes each year to maintain the road.

"It is outrageous and illogical as well as unjust," Rung said.

The House killed Merrimack's bid, 181-148.

Shaheen pans House

U.S. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., wasn't happy one bit after the House passed the Health Care Freedom of Conscience Act (HB 1080), which allows all providers to refuse to perform reproductive health services if they are morally opposed to them.

This would allow pharmacists to refuse to refill prescriptions for birth control pills, she said.

"The incessant attacks on women's reproductive health from New Hampshire Republicans are dangerous, offensive and downright wrong," Shaheen said.

"Granite State Republicans are not fooling anyone. This is not about health care or family values. It is about controlling women's bodies and telling women when and how they are allowed to start families, or what kind of reproductive health care they can seek."

Christie is back

Former New Jersey governor and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie returns to #FITN Monday to speak to the Politics and Eggs forum at the New Hampshire Institute of Politics on the campus of Saint Anselm College.

It was an April 2015 appearance at this forum that boosted Christie's candidacy. He went on to get the Union Leader's endorsement but dropped out the day after a deflating sixth-place finish in New Hampshire's presidential primary that Donald Trump easily won.

klandrigan@unionleader.com