State Budget on the Brink and we get Guns in the State House?
It was just a short month ago that I was privileged to sit down with NH’s incoming Speaker of the House William O’Brien and Senate President Peter Bragdon to gain insight to their respective thoughts regarding the election day message from November.
I was heartened to hear both of them, quite emphatically stating, that the only mandate was to get the economy moving again and the state budget back on track.
“Our mandate is to get back to the fiscally conservative roots of our state,” says Bragdon told me. “But there wouldn’t be a mandate if we hadn’t gone through four years of unbridled taxing and spending.”
Speaker O’Brien said, “the Democrats never talked about gay marriage or euthanasia during the 2008 campaign, and voters didn’t like the surprise when they got into office. Our concentration must be centered around fulfilling our campaign promises.”
So I had to wonder about the attendance of both Senator Bragdon and Speaker O’Brien yesterday at a committee vote to repeal the ban on guns on the State House grounds. Whether you agree with the outcome or not, the perception runs contrary to the impression both gentleman left me with just one month ago. I sincerely doubt that there were many, if any, voters who went to the ballot box in November hoping this would be the new legislature’s first official act.