By ALLIE MORRIS
Monitor staff
The top House Democrat is accusing Republican Speaker Shawn Jasper of being “vindictive” for putting representatives on the Children and Family Law Committee who spoke out against the committee’s elimination.
Jasper reassigned the six Democrats from their current assignments to the newly revived committee that deals with adoption, divorce and foster care law.
“You listened to their passion on this. Why wouldn’t they want to be on the committee?” said Jasper, of Hudson. “I cannot imagine that was really a surprise to them, but apparently it was.”
House Minority Leader Steve Shurtleff said the reassignment was done without his knowledge and breaks with past tradition of consulting with Democratic leadership.
Jasper’s “decision to dictate the committee assignments of minority members in retaliation for comments in a floor debate is completely unprecedented, and threatens the House’s ability to work in the bipartisan way that Granite Staters expect,” he said in a statement.
Jasper supported a plan to get rid of the Children and Family Law Committee. He had said it’s hard to fill and its work can be done by other committees. But on Wednesday, Democrats rallied against the change and argued it would put children at risk. The House voted to keep the committee by a 196-172 vote.
On Thursday, Jasper named six Democrats to the committee who had spoken during the floor debate about its importance. They include Concord Rep. Mary Gile, who was the ranking Democrat on the education committee, and and Rep. Marjorie Smith, who was on the powerful finance committee.
Shurtleff said the move casts a “dark cloud” over the House. Jasper, for his part, said the Children and Family Law committee assignments had to be made quickly. Hearings begin next week.
(Allie Morris can be reached at 369-3307 or amorris@cmonitor.com)