Aug. 8—WITH THE REGULAR business of the 2021 legislative session over, House Speaker Sherman Packard, R-Londonderry, and Majority Leader Jason Osborne, R-Auburn, did some housecleaning on their leadership team.
Many of the changes strengthen the hand of the conservative House Freedom Caucus. The bloc's support was key to passage of the two-year state budget last June.
The top line came with the sudden resignations from the House of both Finance Committee Vice Chairman Lynne Ober and her husband, Russell Ober, R-Hudson.
Both were in their ninth terms.
Lynne Ober played a king-sized role in June, chairing the committee that brokered a deal on the massive trailer bill to the state budget (HB 2).
Clearly, there were tensions at that bargaining table.
Osborne was no fan of Gov. Chris Sununu's voluntary family and medical leave benefit program.
Osborne also had been going to bat for House conservatives who wanted to expand the Legislature's authority and check a governor's power in dealing with future states of emergency.
Ultimately, Sununu got his family leave program. In turn, the House got the Senate to bend and give it some, but not all, they wanted on the emergency powers issue.
Despite rumors to the contrary, Lynne Ober said their resignations had nothing to do with the palace intrigue and everything to do with the couple's plans for the future.
"I had told Russ I didn't want to run last time but he really did so we agreed to give it one more go," Ober said.
"This is the right time for both of us to step aside and move on to other challenges."
State Rep. Peter Leishman, D-Peterborough, came onto Finance with Ober at the same time.
Despite their party differences, each was a clerk for the other when they ran subcommittees.
"She's got such an incredible work ethic and a level of integrity to all that she's ever done here," Leishman said. "We often didn't agree on issues, but this is truly a big loss for the House."
Packard and Osborne could not be reached for comment last week.
GOP insiders say some of this is the normal shifting that occurs after any new speaker's first session.
With the smallest majority for House Republicans in decades, however, Packard and Osborne had to consider rewarding GOP loyalty as they head into 2022, an election-year session that is sure to be even more partisan than the one that just ended.
Packard honored the seniority pecking order, promoting seven-term Rep. Karen Umberger, R-Conway, to replace Lynne Ober as vice chairman of Finance.
Rep. Jess Edwards, R-Auburn and a favorite of the House Freedom Caucus crowd, got Ober's seat on the powerful Legislative Fiscal Committee.
Rep. Tracy Emerick, R-Hampton, replaced Ober as chairman of the Finance subcommittee that deals with more than 20 general government departments ranging from Justice, Treasury and Information Technology to the Governor's Office and new Department of Energy.
In other committee moves:
— Rep. David Welch, R-Kingston, was replaced as vice chairman of the Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee by two-term Rep. Terry Roy, R-Deerfield, the sponsor and a lead negotiator for the House on emergency powers.
Welch, 81, angered GOP partisans with his opposition to Right-to-Work legislation, which died in the House last spring.
Packard promoted first-term Rep. Jennifer Rhodes, R-Winchester, to replace Roy as vice chairman of the Executive Departments and Administration Committee, which tackled most of those emergency powers bills.
— Rep. Bill Marsh, R-Brookfield, resigned as vice chairman of the Health Human Services and Elderly Affairs Committee and got a seat on the Election Laws Committee.
The retired ophthalmologist was a respected member of Sununu's COVID-19 reopening task force. He wasn't popular among the anti-mask wing of the House GOP caucus, however.
Packard promoted first-term Rep. Erica Layon, R-Derry to replace Marsh as vice chairman. — As we first reported, Rep. Michael Gunski, R-Goffstown, made official his resignation from the House as he's moving out of the district. Gunski had been vice chairman of the Resources, Recreation and Development Committee. First-term Rep. Robert Harb, R-Plaistow, was elevated to replace him.
Gov ponders entitlements
Democratic Party critics pounced on Sununu's comments last week on a conservative podcast.
Sununu said that if he does run for the U.S. Senate in 2022, one of his top goals would be to make Social Security and Medicare financially solvent for the long term.
"Twenty trillion dollars is a very real number. It's gotten so big that it's become unreal, but it's very real. And so I do look at those issues, and I do think I could help," Sununu said.
The conservative "Ruthless" podcast is co-hosted by two former aides to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — Josh Holmes, McConnell's former chief of staff and campaign manager, and Michael Duncan, McConnell's past digital director.
Sununu said fiscal conservatives on Capitol Hill need to tackle the topic even though they risk being the target of liberals who claim this would lead to cutting the safety net.
"The Democrats are going to run those ads anyway. No matter what happens, you might as well get a good result and actually fix the thing, too," Sununu said.
Democratic Party Chairman Ray Buckley said there's no doubt entitlement reform would be a major issue if Sununu ran for the Senate.
"Chris Sununu just made it perfectly clear that if he runs for Senate he will work to enact Mitch McConnell's long-held goal of cutting Social Security and Medicare for Granite Staters," Buckley said.
"That's just one of the many ways Sununu would serve McConnell at the expense of our state."
Exec Council flexes muscle
After seven months on the job, the GOP-led Executive Council has begun reasserting its oversight role even while supporting Sununu's initiatives.
A perfect case came last week, when Health and Human Services Commissioner Lori Shibinette found herself scrambling to defend the award of a four-year, $11 million contract to design a new-evidence based model to help keep at-risk youths from needing long-term, out-of-home care.
The rub was that in order to attract bidders, HHS offered vendors pre-payment from the state to create its network. In the case of this contract, that amounted to giving the winning bidder roughly $500,000 up front.
Councilor Ted Gatsas, R-Manchester, wanted nothing to do with it.
"This would never be done in private practice. Why do we have to offer them advance payment if they're getting $11 million from the state?" Gatsas asked.
Councilor Joe Kenney, R-Wakefield, said the council needs to carefully analyze the financial health of these providers. In 2017, debt-plagued Serenity Place in Manchester financially collapsed, and the state ultimately took control of the contract and awarded its business to Families In Transition.
In response, Shibinette showed that five different state agencies over the past two years had given out 39 contracts to providers with similar pre-payment clauses.
Sununu backed up his HHS boss. Making these changes has attracted new firms to bid on state projects, he said.
When he took office in 2017, Sununu said he found "internal politics" was discouraging companies from trying to get state work.
Shibinette said if the council rejects the contract, her agency will have to rebid the work, which will set this reform effort back months.
The council tabled the item.
Voucher applicants sought
The Americans for Prosperity Foundation has begun an extensive mail and digital ad campaign urging parents to apply for Education Freedom Accounts in time for the 2021-2022 school year.
The group is targeting 30,000 families statewide that it believes have school-aged children and meet the income eligibility criteria.
"We know many of these families aren't even aware this was in the state budget and we... are excited by the initial response," said Greg Moore, AFP's state director.
The vouchers are only available for families that make less than 300% of the federal poverty wage ($79,000 for a family of four).
More aides moving on
Last week, Sununu nominated Mark Sanborn of Laconia to become assistant commissioner of the Department of Environmental Services.
A longtime federal agency employee, Sanborn has for the past year worked in Sununu's Office of Strategic Services, which has become part of the new Energy Department.
He becomes the fifth member of Sununu's inner circle the governor has sought to move into another state agency role. Last week, the council confirmed his legislative director, Christopher Ellms of Concord, as the new deputy energy commissioner.
The other nomination of note last week was Erle Pierce of Concord for a seat on the three-person Lottery Commission.
Pierce, a Concord city councilor, served for many years as State House lobbyist and executive with Verizon Communications.
He would replace longtime commissioner and Rye auto dealer Paul Holloway.
Key hires at Amplify
Amplify New Hampshire is a new left-of-center nonprofit formed in July that has, among its top missions, ending Chris Sununu's political career.
The group started by hiring Craig Brown, a former top political adviser to Manchester Mayor Joyce Craig, as executive director and Liz Purdy, a longtime Democratic Party campaign operative, as a senior adviser.
Now coming aboard are two other communication aides with plenty of 2020 presidential experience.
Chris Moyer will become another senior adviser. His credits include media work for Cory Booker's presidential bid and spokesman for Molly Kelly in her 2018 run for governor.
Amplify's communications director will be Kelsi Browning, who had that role in Sen. Amy Klobuchar's New Hampshire presidential campaign.
GOP Governors eye NH race
The Republican Governors Association has named Chris Gustafson as the regional press secretary who will cover New Hampshire in the 2022 cycle.
This post could become higher profile next year if Sununu doesn't run for re-election, which would turn the governor's race here into a wide open, extremely competitive one.
klandrigan@unionleader.com
Kevin Landrigan is the State House bureau chief for the New Hampshire Union Leader and Sunday News. Reach him at klandrigan@unionleader.com.
