If madness is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, it may be time for N.H. House Speaker William O’Brien to get a little help.

As we had all predicted, O’Brien held a vote on New Hampshire’s newest so-called right to work bill (H.B. 1677). Predictably, it passed. Predictably, it didn’t get the two-thirds vote needed to overturn a governor’s veto. 

The vote count (198-139) was essentially unchanged from last year, leaving workers and labor leaders asking: What exactly was the point? 

“Speaker O’Brien has made absolutely no headway in pushing his pet piece of legislation with legislators and the public over the last year,” New Hampshire AFL-CIO President Mark MacKenzie said in the Nashua Telegraph’s report on the vote. “‘Right to work’ is just as wrong today as it was last year, and today’s vote reflects that.” 

The vote came just weeks after O’Brien and his allies promised to focus on jobs in the new legislative session. In a statement released after the vote, MacKenzie decried the Republican leadership for wasting more time on the speaker’s pet legislation. 

Poll after poll has shown that Granite Staters are sick of the 'right to work' fight and sick of politicians who put personal agendas before their commitment to New Hampshire. At a time when New Hampshire residents are looking to the legislature for action on jobs, we cannot spend another year arguing over 'right to work.'