Coalition of Democrats and Republicans Denies Speakership to O'Brien

A coalition of Democrats and Republicans has denied William O'Brien the Speaker of the House chair that he confidently expected would be his when the full House met in session.

A coalition of Democrats and Republicans joined together as I suggested a few weeks ago and elected the new Speaker of the House Shawn Jasper. Former Speaker Bill O'Brien and his people already are trying to undermine his authority and Rep Jasper will have to tread carefully but he should be able to shore up his majority fairly quickly by using his committee appointment authority and other powers to bring people together. This is a huge test for both Republicans and Democrats who won their seats speaking the language of cooperation, conciliation and bi-partisanship (and there were a lot of them). Now is the time to show that it was not just talk but that it was real. Both Shawn Jasper and Steve Shurtleff - the Democrat leader - are to be congratulated as well as Gene Chandler who put NH first by accepting a position under Speaker Jasper, despite his own hopes to be the Speaker.

Note: Reprinted from Facebook to provide an historical overview of the process.After I wrote this the Chair of the NH Democratic Party forwarded the idea to House Democrats and they successfully struck a deal with Representative Shawn Jasper.

After I wrote this the Chair of the NH Democratic Party forwarded the idea to House Democrats and they successfully struck a deal with Representative Shawn Jasper.