Norelli Denies Eaton The Chair
March 10, 201012:07 p.m. Wednesday, March 10
UPDATE-3:57 P.M.-Norelli has left the chair again. No, Eaton is not presiding. This time, it’s Public Works Chair Candace Bouchard (like Shurtleff, from Concord!, unlike Eaton, not ethically impaired).
Normally when House Speaker Terrie Norelli steps down from presiding (for whatever reason, she never explains why and unlike previous speakers, she does this every House session), Deputy Speaker Linda Foster takes over.
Apparently Foster has been sick for a while. Last time when Norelli stepped aside and Foster wasn’t available to preside, guess who took over?
You got it.
Democrat leader Representative Dan Eaton. (He did a fine job presiding!)
With Norelli stepping aside and Foster not available, the duty is not falling to ethically challenged Eaton at this very moment. You can stream it on line yourself.
Holding forth in the Speaker’s chair is Steve Shurtleff, Concord Rep and Chairman of the Criminal Justice Committee.
Unless we have a new pecking order, from Speaker to Deputy Speaker to Criminal Justice Chair (not likely), this spells trouble for Eaton.
Does this mean that despite the best efforts of Democratic Party leaders Ray Buckley and Mike Brunelle (what were they doing wasting Norell’s valuable legislative time in with the Speaker yesterday? purely political business sidetracking the Speaker?), Norelli has decided to throw Eaton under the bus?
If not under the bus, at least he’s been thrown off it.
Shurtleff, a really nice guy, is not nearly the exemplar of parlimentary rectitude that the disgraced Eaton was!
12:29 p.m. Norelli is back. Apparently, it was simply nature calling, but Eaton certainly did not get the call when nature called!
Amos Tuck
Mar 10, 2010
Great stuff!!!
TimothyHorrigan
Mar 11, 2010
Someone else who hasn’t been seen in front of the House since a recent scandal is Nancy Elliott (R-Merrimack.) The Republicans used to regularly utilize her as the spokesperson for their 49% of the Judiciary Committee, and is still the co-chair of the House Republican Alliance. She has not uttered so much as a peep since an apology several weeks ago.
Amos Tuck
Mar 11, 2010
So what does that say about your Democrats Timothy? Elliott made a gaffe. Eaton, from what we understand in the press, abused his power to thwart a state investigation
TimothyHorrigan
Mar 12, 2010
Baldasaro made a gaffe: he tried to improvise his speech and his mouth got ahead of his brain, and hence he misconstrued a true fact or two. The first true fact was that there is a $10,000 federal tax credit for adopting a child which any adoptive parent can claim, even a gay parent. The second true fact was that gay couples in a stable monogamous relationship could jointly adopt in New Hampshire even before gay marriage was instituted.
Elliott LIED: she didnt just misconstrue true facts. She made up totally false facts. That’s more than a gaffe: that a lie.
She also deliberately insulted one of her fellow Judiciary Committee members. Probably her current embarasssment is the only punishment she will suffer; but she could be censured or even expelled for what she did.
TimothyHorrigan
Mar 12, 2010
On a less contentious note; Norelli took a break from the speaker’s chair for a while on Thursday afternoon and turned the gavel over to… the minority leader, Sherman Packard. I think I remember him taking a turn up there last spring although until this week Dan Eaton & Linda Foster were this year’s only acting speakers.
Amos Tuck
Mar 13, 2010
Making a gaffe is one thing. Being under investigation by the attorney general for abusing your power is a totally different situation and that’s what we have with Eaton.
steve vaillancourt
Mar 15, 2010
So now we have the Speaker’s chair like an audition for American Idol. Packard got to sit there late last session as a simple courtesy at the end of the year, but to move people in and out while we’re in the middle of important business shows the low regard Norelli holds the office. If she can’t be there all the time (as other Speakers have been), she should find someone who can do the job, not have tryouts every week.
Looks to me like Candace Bouchard is the most competenet surrogate, much better than Linda Foster even.
Eaton was also good but Norelli has obviously, in a panic, thrown him to the back of the bus, if not under it. Kind of like Charlie Rangel continuing to serve as Ways and Means Chair.
Shawn Jasper
Mar 16, 2010
Talk about trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. I have served in the House for 8 terms and it is a long standing tradition in the second year of a session to give different members a turn at the chair. This Speaker may not have done it her first term, but given that it was the Dems first time in power in about 100 year, that is not surprising. I did it once as Majority Whip, basically the same position Dan holds now. Other than the Deputy Speaker it is normal for members to only preside once. All of our business is important to someone, it normal to change chairs during a busy day. The fact is that most Speakers allow their top leadership, including Chairmen the opportunity, but many decline.
steve vaillancourt
Mar 17, 2010
Pity poor Shawn. No wonder he’s coming to Dan Eaton’s defense because at the same time an ethics violation is sure to be filed against Rep Eaton, one will be filed against Jasper for for trying to coerce a freshman rep into voting his way by threating to have him removed from a committee. No further details because of the pending charge, but it’s good to see how ethically challenged, from either party, stick together.
The point is that Norelli had used Eaton the previous week; she backed away from him only when the scandal broke. The tradtion of allowing somenone in the chair usually comes the last week of the session, not when we’re in the middle of important business, as an 8-term member, albeit one not ethically challenged, should know.
Shawn Jasper
Mar 17, 2010
Gee did I miss something I said? I can’t find a defense of Dan in my post. Where is it written that when the Deputy Speaker is absent, the Floor Leader (Whip) is next in line? Actually the Majority Leader is the 3rd ranking member. Every Speaker does things differently, she may have started the rotation earlier than Steve thinks appropriate, but does that mean that she doesn’t want Dan in the Chair? Hardly!
I have been challenging Steve to file his charges against me ASAP for a month now. I welcome the chance to show that I did nothing un-ethical. The fact is that Steve is smart enough to know that nothing I did violated the ethic guidlines, but he is ethically challenged enough himself to use the threat of charges against Dan and myself to bring attention to himself. So Steve either put up or shut up!
TimothyHorrigan
Mar 17, 2010
Today Lucy Weber presided for about 30 minutes: she is the Vice Chair of Judiciary. The Speaker always takes a break or two during the day, because she is also the CEO of the State House complex (and of course because she is a human being who can’t stand there all day.)
The March 17 session was relatively short, a little over 4 hours in the afternoon: the House took the morning off because of finance hearings and because of a yearly Saint Patricks Day event.
Rep. Weber is a chair in her own right: the chair of the Legislative Administration Committee. Her own chair, David Cote, has health issues and physically would have had problems standing behind the podium, although I am sure he could do it with reasonable accomodations.
TimothyHorrigan
Mar 17, 2010
I had a brain fog: Janet Wall is the Vice Chair of Judiciary, although I think I have seen Rep. Weber serving as an acting chair.
steve vaillancourt
Mar 18, 2010
Donna Sytek was Speaker my first four years in the House; I remember her leaving the chair only once (I believe when she was speaking in favor of the Berlin prison bill). Gene Chandler was Speaker the next four years, and rarely left the chair, certainly not the revolving door aspect we have now. In the two years I served under Doug Scamman, he occasionally stepped aside, but almost always his deputy Ken Weyler tookt he chair as Deputy Speaker Linda Foster did last year. My point is that with Foster not here, Norelli went to Dan Eaton as her back-up. Once the scandal hit, she has thrown Eaton under the bus (or to the back of the bus) and gone to rotating chairs, no way for a House to run in my humble opinion.
Rep Weber is one of the top Dem go-to people, and she’s also chair of the Legislative Administration committee. I’m told that Norelli has a list of people she deems fit for serving in the chair; Weber clearly did a good job. Eaton clearly has been removed from the list, although after reading this, she may put him back on the list.
It’s no surprise that Rep. Jasper comes to Eaton’s defense, ethically challenged bullies stick together. Hey Shawn, the ethics charge will be filed at the approriate time; as I’ve suggested to you in emails. The statute of limitations has not run out, and with the focus on Dem Eaton, it would be irresponsible for a Republican (I am a most responsible Republican, most of the time) to put the focus on Jasper who is in my opinion even more ehtically challenged. It’s all in the timing, and it will happen-that’s a promise, stated publicly here.
Keep defending Eaton, Shawn; maybe with your help, Dems will be in majority again, and Eaton will get a chance to repay Rep. Jasper! Apparently they’re both into threats and repaying favors!
Shawn Jasper
Mar 18, 2010
I did not leave the above comment, so I have to assume that this is an edit, which tells me that attacks may be made on individuals here, but the other side of an issue can not get a opportunity to be heard. I never defended Dan Eaton, I was pointing out the flaws in Steve’s attacks. I am a Republican who believes that we can win elections based on the issues, there is no reason to resort to this type of garbage.
steve vaillancourt
Mar 19, 2010
Blah, blah, blah, Shawn, blah, blah, blah