Anti-vax, anti-business?

Perhaps you’ve heard that we’re in the second year of a pandemic, and once there was an end in sight but now … not so much.

So you could be forgiven for wondering why in the name of Jonas Salk there are actual elected representatives of the state of New Hampshire who have been — and still are — actively working to ensure that we get to Year 3.

Simply attempt to fathom why the GOP members of the Legislative Fiscal Comm. spent time actually discussing the possibility of withholding approval of $3 million grant for “critical access hospitals,” the 13 hospitals in rural areas that are the smallest in the state and the most in economic distress — thanks to Covid and to ongoing pernicious State House shenanigans with Medicaid payments.

BTW, the grant is to help the hospitals continue testing and cover other expenses related to Covid.

So the reason for the “discussion”? The rural hospitals — along with other larger hospitals in the state — have ether imposed or are considering imposing vax mandates on all employees. Which, when you think about it for a nanosecond, is a smart, sensible and sane policy for a healthcare facility in the middle of a pandemic.

The leading anti-vax-mandaters were Auburn rep Jess Edwards, a Free Stater who led the charge, and Gary Daniels, a senator from Milford and chair of the Senate Finance Comm.

Edwards’ logic? “This is a huge issue and we need our hospitals to be partners of this and not be adversaries of a workforce that should know whether or not they need to get the vaccine.”

Sure it’s a grammatically correct statement, but who the heck are the hospitals supposed to be “partners” with and what is “this?” The only guess to be hazarded is that the healthcare providers need to be partners in the effort to slow progress against Covid, which is pretty much what such “discussions” by political “leaders” are accomplishing.

And just FYI: Almost every one of the 13 hospitals is the largest employer in their community. And since when do GOP elected officials do their best to undermine the financial stability of businesses that are so essential to their community?

That ain’t what we used to call business-friendly.

“The future is always a long way off, and it’s very flattering that people want me to run, but I don’t know. I don’t know if Washington could handle me.”

– Guv Chris Sununu in response to a question about whether he’s planning to run for U.S. Senate.

You must remember this

Even political junkies, and people with memories that grab hold of the arcane and don’t let go, may not know the name Troy Price. But they likely know what he’s best remembered for.

TP was the chair of the Iowa Dem Party at the time of the debacle/snafu/meltdown that was the 2020 Iowa Dem caucus. Long story short: It took days for the results to be tabulated, and TP resigned shortly thereafter because he was the guy who made the decision to use a faulty app without a paper backup for a caucus that had never used tech before and that essentially no one was trained to properly use.

So you may be interested to learn that TP has landed on his feet — in NH. That’s because NH Dem Chair Ray Buckley has hired him as his new exec director.

RB says, with the hire, he’s hiring the kind of experience to begin “building a strong grassroots-focused party.” A good strategy, and fortunately there’s no app for that.

Doing the Concord shuffle

This is working out well so far, the creation of a state Department of Energy that was supposed to centralize and streamline energy policy in the state in place of the mishmash we had before.

Turns out the new NHDoE has had, er, staffing problems, with some state employees being shoved into new jobs and other jobs still unfilled. Sure sounds like a mishmash.

F’r instance: The Public Utilities Commission — which is now part of the NHDoE — has filled two of its senior adviser spots by grabbing analysts from the Office of the Consumer Advocate. Which has left the Consumer Advocate without any professional staff.

Thanks a lot, guys.

The situation has gotten so bad that GOP Exec Councilor Janet Stevens brought it up at a recent EC meeting.

“My question is: Was staffing depleted with the bifurcation of Energy and PUC?” she asked.

And what was the guv’s response? He called it “a great question.”

But because there was supposedly nobody at the meeting to answer the question, the answer wouldn’t be known until the next EC meeting on 9/1.

Come to think of it, since the guv was there, why couldn’t he answer the question himself?

After all, creation of the NH-DoE was his bright idea.

MAKING THE ROUNDS

If (or when) Scott Brown declares his candidacy for the GOP guv nod, will he make his official announcement in the North Country county of Sullivan?

Just to keep you in the loop: GOPer Dawn Johnson, the Laconia state rep, school board member and (if she is to be believed) non-reader of the neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer, is running for mayor of her hometown.

Yes, the guv — who up til now has been blockading any bid to legalize pot in NH — told Seacoast Online, in response to a question about whether he might change his mind: “We’ll see. (You) never know what will happen in NH.”

ICYMI: The SOS got his wrist slapped after a state audit said his office misappropriated $28,462 to buy a minivan using $$$ from the Investor Education Fund that it administers. He says the vehicle is used for investment fraud investigations, but the auditors pointed out the vehicle was purchased in June 2020, mid-Covid, and after the investor program had been suspended because of the pandemic. Must have been a car deal they couldn’t refuse.