Rep. Steve Shurtleff addresses the House during a day-long process to select the new speaker of the House at the State House in Concord on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff) Rep. Steve Shurtleff addresses the House recently. He was picked as MADD’s legislator of the year.
Rep. Steve Shurtleff addresses the House during a day-long process to select the new speaker of the House at the State House in Concord on Wednesday, Dec. 3, 2014. (ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor staff) Rep. Steve Shurtleff addresses the House recently. He was picked as MADD’s legislator of the year. Credit: ELIZABETH FRANTZ / Monitor file

Concord — Weeks away from campaign season, whether the Democratic “blue wave” flips the New Hampshire House this November — or materializes at all — remains an open question. But Steve Shurtleff isn’t waiting to find out.

Joined by more than a dozen colleagues on Monday, the House minority leader and Penacook resident announced his bid for speaker of the House, pressing a case for a change in leadership he said would be collaborative and bipartisan. And he took time to rattle off the Democratic priorities, from public school funding to gun control, that he said would bring voters to the polls and define the next legislative term.

That kind of change in the House would require political upheaval. Republicans and Libertarians have a 45-seat advantage over Democrats, with nine seats currently vacant, a high bar for the party to switch control. But House Democrats say they’re confident that the signs so far — a relatively low presidential approval rating and a string of recent state election flips from red to blue — are stacking in their favor.

And Shurtleff said that if the House does change hands, he’s the person to lead the pack.