Sweeney: Why Osborne Is My Choice For Speaker

By Joe Sweeney, NH Journal

Sherman Packard has presided over the New Hampshire House for six years with patience and class, and he leaves the chamber in better shape than he found it. He is not seeking the job again. That leaves House Republicans with the most consequential decision we will make outside of November itself. We should make it clearly, and we should make it early. I am supporting Jason Osborne for speaker.

Start with what the job actually is. The speaker of the New Hampshire House is not a ceremonial officer with a gavel and a good suit. He builds the committees. He sets the calendar. He decides which bills get a real shot and which ones die quietly on a consent calendar in February. In a 400-member body where a working majority can disappear because of a snowstorm in Coos County, the speaker’s judgment determines whether a session produces law or produces press releases. Anyone who tells you the job is mostly about presiding has never tried to hold a caucus together at 11 o’clock at night on a bill that half the members are afraid of.

Osborne has done that, over and over, for six years. I have served on his leadership team and watched it up close. He counts the votes himself. He tells members the truth about where a bill stands instead of letting them walk into an ambush. He takes the incoming fire so rank-and-file members do not have to. That is not glamorous work, and it does not make headlines, but it is the reason this majority has a record worth defending.

Look at that record. We repealed the interest and dividends tax, and New Hampshire is now the only state in the country with no income tax and no sales tax. We passed universal school choice and put parents back in charge of their children’s education. We held spending in line while Massachusetts and Vermont taxed their residents into the ground and then wondered why people were moving here. We defended the right to keep and bear arms. Every one of those wins required a floor strategy, a whip operation and a leader willing to absorb pressure. None of them happened by accident.

Now comes the harder part. A majority is not property. It is a lease that comes up for renewal every two years, and the next speaker will inherit a chamber where a couple dozen swing seats decide whether Republicans govern or watch Democrats govern. That makes the speaker’s race and the general election the same fight, and it makes the candidate’s willingness to do campaign work a legitimate qualification for the job.

Osborne is doing that work right now. He has spent this summer on the road with our candidates, helping them raise money, knock on doors and sharpen a message that wins in the towns where our margins are thin. More than 120 members and candidates have committed to him. That number is not a coronation. It is the product of a hundred conversations with people who have watched him operate and want him running the floor when the stakes are highest.

The next term will test us. Granite Staters are getting squeezed on housing, on energy and on the basic cost of living. We need to build more homes and permit them faster instead of studying the problem for another two years. We need serious energy infrastructure because a growing economy does not run on good intentions, and the regional grid is not going to fix itself. I sit on the House Finance Committee, and I can tell you the next budget will be written under real pressure as federal funding tightens. That work requires a speaker who understands the numbers, not just the procedure. Osborne has degrees in economics and mathematics. He reads the fiscal notes. He knows what a bill costs before he calls the vote, and he knows the difference between legislation that makes a point and legislation that becomes law.

Critics say he runs a tight ship. They mean it as a complaint. I take it as a qualification. A caucus of 200 independent-minded Republicans does not deliver tax relief, school choice and balanced budgets by accident. It delivers because someone is willing to set expectations, enforce them and take the heat when it comes. Discipline is not a character flaw in a legislative leader. It is the job description.

There is a version of the speaker’s office that manages decline gracefully. New Hampshire does not need that version. We need a speaker who grows the majority, moves the bills and remembers who sent us here.

Grow the majority in November. Then hand Jason Osborne the gavel.

State Rep. Joe Sweeney (R-Salem) is House Majority Floor Leader. He's also founder and chairman of Granite Solutions. He wrote this for NHJournal.com.

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.