NH Lawmaker Admits Holding Charter School Bill Hostage

To extract concessions in a budget debate

The latest politician to blur the lines between legislating and running a protection racket is Representative Dan Eaton, division chairman of the New Hampshire state legislature's powerful House Finance committee.

In what Charles Arlinghaus of the New Hampshire Union Leader generously described as "a rare moment of candor", Rep. Eaton recently stated during a committee hearing that he was going to hold up an entirely uncontroversial bipartisan charter school bill purely for political purposes. As he explained, "I'm looking at this as political. We have a [budget] negotiation [with the state senate] coming up in June and I want to have a trump card or two, and this is … a very healthy trump card."