Analysis: Ayotte's Veto Pen Puts Her In The Sununu Lane

By Michael Graham, NH Journal

Rock beats scissors, but pen beats stone.

When House Majority Leader Jason Osborne proposed legislation to create a study commission on his idea of transitioning all of New Hampshire’s public schools into charter schools, he argued the concept could empower parents, improve test scores and lower local property taxes.

“It’s becoming more clear every day that public schools should convert to charter schools,” Osborne said of the concept. “Fully state-funded. Ultimate local control. Everyone wins — taxpayers, students, parents.”

“This is a stone that can kill a lot of birds, metaphorically speaking,” Osborne added.

But with a stroke of her veto pen Friday, his fellow Republican, Gov. Kelly Ayotte, killed it.

“While I fully support education freedom allowing every child to be in the learning environment best for them, including innovative public charter schools, I cannot envision a future that does not include public schools. Therefore, I believe this study committee is unnecessary,” Ayotte wrote.

One head-scratcher for House Republicans was Ayotte’s comment about “a future that does not include public schools.” Soon after the veto message was released, Osborne posted on social media, “FYI, charter schools are public schools.”

Ayotte used “public schools” to mean traditional, community-based public schools, which is the common understanding of the school system, even though charter schools are indeed public schools.

Killing Osborne’s bill was just one of nine vetoes she issued Friday, including a veto of legislation creating state guidelines for dealing with pornographic and other inappropriate content in public schools, as well as a bill raising tolls on out-of-state drivers.

Friday’s vetoes bring Ayotte’s first-term total to 36 — and more are almost certainly on the way. No other governor in the modern era has come close to vetoing that many bills passed by a legislature controlled by the same party.

How big is Ayotte’s number? Compare it with Democratic Gov. John Lynch. In the 2011-2012 biennium, the legislature was controlled by a GOP supermajority. Not only was he receiving legislation from across the partisan aisle, but he also knew every veto was almost certain to be overturned. Every incentive was in place for Lynch to veto Republicans’ legislation.

His veto total? 16. The legislature overrode all but two.

Ayotte is vetoing more legislation passed by her own party than Lynch vetoed from GOP House Speaker Bill O’Brien.

GOP legislators are not hiding their frustration. For example, after Ayotte vetoed a so-called “bathroom bill” that would have banned biological males from women-only spaces, several Republican lawmakers took to social media to express their disappointment.

“Real equality means standing up for women and girls. It means recognizing that their voices matter, their privacy matters, and their opportunities matter,” said Rep. Lisa Mazur (R-Goffstown).

Sen. Victoria Sullivan told NHJournal she was disappointed by Ayotte’s veto of House Bill 434, a measure mandating how schools should handle parents’ concerns about school materials, such as books depicting graphic sex, that they believe are age-inappropriate.

“SB 434 was intended to extend that same common-sense approach to school libraries by making sure parents have a clear process when they have concerns about material that may be inappropriate or obscene,” Sullivan said.

“My hope is that we can continue working together on language that protects students, respects parents, and gives school districts a fair, transparent process for handling these concerns.”

The political question is why. Why veto legislation supported by your own party — particularly on issues such as men in women’s spaces and keeping inappropriate material out of schools that are important to members of the party’s base?

“She’s making a mistake. This is stuff the MAGA voters care about, and she’s going to need them in November,” one GOP State House source told NHJournal on background.

Others, however, say she is simply running the Sununu playbook. Gov. Chris Sununu signed constitutional carry into law and was aggressive on tax cuts — both very conservative positions. At the same time, he vetoed the same so-called “bathroom bill” Ayotte rejected, and he was more supportive of COVID-19 restrictions during the height of the pandemic than libertarians wanted.

The far right was frequently angry with Sununu. In the 2022 GOP primary, he lost 22 percent of the vote to right-wing challengers. He went on to crush his Democratic opponent, state Sen. Tom Sherman, 57-42 percent.

Ayotte has also signed legislation that conservatives have long sought: Education Freedom Accounts, a Parents’ Bill of Rights, and a ban on males in girls’ sports. Coupling those actions with vetoes of some more controversial social-conservative legislation would appear to put her in the Sununu lane for November.

If GOP turnout is low, as is likely given Trump’s dismal approval rating and the lack of MAGA-powered candidates in the federal races, the Sununu lane may be exactly where Ayotte needs to be.

This story was originally published by the NH Journal, an online news publication dedicated to providing fair, unbiased reporting on, and analysis of, political news of interest to New Hampshire. For more stories from the NH Journal, visit NHJournal.com.