For those who do not live in New Hampshire you may not be familiar with State Rep Lee Quandt. Rep Quandt is a very outspoken State Rep who is a life long conservative Republican who also is a truly devoted union member. He was a member of the State Employees Association until he retired from his career as a parole officer.
Rep Quandt has never held back when he talks about the leadership of the NH House, especially NH Speaker Bill O'Brien. Quandt was and still is one of New Hampshire's greatest advocates against Right To Work for Less. He stoop up against the NH Republican platform and opposed Right To Work. In the past he blasted Speaker O'Brien in his own blog and has taken to calling him "Bully" O'Brien.
In typical Quandt fashion the started his address to the NH AFL-CIO attendee with a shot at Bill O'Brien. He ask, "Are there any union mail carriers here?" After a quick response from the NH Association of Letter Carriers, Quandt ask, "did you finally get O'Brien his mail?" Of course Quandt is referring to the Facebook rant by Bill O'Brien when he implied that "Union Thugs" at the USPS were purposely delaying his mail (See story).
Rep Quandt was one of the 42 house Republicans who opposed Right To Work, and now as the elections are coming he offers a word of caution. He advised that we be careful when we are attacking the Republicans because when we do we are attack the same people who helped uphold the veto.
Even as a life long Republican Quandt is advocating against Ovide Lamontagne. Why because Ovide is already campaigning on the promise to bring Right To Work to New Hampshire. Quandt even talked to Ovide about Right To Work and Unions at a political event. He asked what are going to do about all the union Republican here in New Hampshire who would have nowhere to go? Ovide's response, as Quandt describes it, "he walked away". He does not even want to discuss it.
This is just one of the many reasons we do not want Ovide or Kevin Smith in the corner office. Quandt stated the fact that many union members in New Hampshire already knew, "if one of the Democrats doesn't win every thing we worked for is going down the tubes".
Rep Quandt truly understands the issues surrounding labor in New Hampshire. Quandt even said, "If ask any politician whats the NH Advantage and they tell you no sales or income tax, don't vote for them.... The NH Advantage is the workers!"
Now Quandt wants everyone to understand what the current NH House is doing to the NH Retirement System (NHRS). There are over 75,000 people currently in the NHRS. "If each one of those people realized how bad they have been attack and they went door to door in their neighborhood and got five votes... your talking about one-quarter of the NH population."
The best quote of the day was this:
"We cannot afford to loose this battle, if we do, everything you want for your future, your children, your grandchildren, is going down the tubes..."
You can see the full speech by Rep Quandt below.
Video -- Rep Lee Quandt Speaks at NH AFL-CIO Labor Day Breakfast