New Hampshire House delays vote on “right to work” veto override

  Earlier this legislative session the New Hampshire House and Senate passed “right to work” legislation which would make New Hampshire the 23rd “right to work” state in the nation but the bill was vetoed by Governor Lynch. While the Senate passed the bill with a veto proof majority the House did not.

  House Speaker William O’Brien needed to swing the votes of roughly 15 Republicans who originally voted against the “right to work” bill in order to override the governor’s veto and he was confident enough that he could do so that he put the vote on the fast track and scheduled the vote for May 25th–today.

  The House Speaker believed that he was close to the number needed to override the veto but wasn’t quite there so he urged House Republicans who refused to change their votes to stay away from the State House for the vote so he wouldn’t need as many votes to override the veto. In essence their absence would be an override vote without an actual vote to put them on the record. In other words, William O’Brien was asking House Republicans to put the party ahead of the constituents these House Republicans are supposed to represent.

  Unfortunately for Speaker O’Brien, the attendance in the House was at its highest level of this session and because of this–knowing that he did not have the votes–he decided to delay the vote on the “right to work” veto override, declaring that this was not the appropriate time to hold the vote.

  Unions complained about this manuever:

Unions complained, saying O’Brien should be interested in holding a vote when attendance is highest, not when members who side with him are on hand are ready to vote.

  And you know what? This is the one time that I actually agree with the unions because this goes beyond my personal feelings on this issue; this is about the way our government is supposed to work, this is about the system. The State House was near full capacity, which means that most of the residents were represented today; this is the best time to take a vote on ANY issue because the outcome of the vote will most likely best represent the will of the people and yet William O’Brien decided that his political agenda was more important than the will of the people of New Hampshire.

   I would not let the Democrats in the Congress get away with something like this and I would not let Barack Obama get away with something like this so I cannot in good conscience support the House Republicans in their effort to persuade other House Republicans to disappear before the vote was taken because it would be in the best interest of their agenda.

  This is what the Democrats in Wisconsin did; they fled the state rather than vote on an issue they knew was a lost cause and I condemned them as cowards for doing this. There is very little difference between the actions of the Wisconsin Democrats and what Speaker O’Brien tried to do by asking Republicans to not show up for a vote and I cannot defend it.

New Hampshire Republicans do not need to stoop to the level of Wisconsin Democrats.