Before deciding to run for Senate, Pat had been elected for six terms to the New Hampshire House of Representatives. His first term he represented Stratham, Exeter, and North Hampton. After the 2010 census, redistricting occurred resulting in districts being made smaller, so for the next five terms he represented the Town of Stratham. During all 12 years as a State Rep, Pat was on the Ways and Means Committee. He quickly rose to the position of Vice Chair, working behind the perennial chair who was a State Rep for 26 years.

As Vice Chair Pat chaired the committee numerous times and was responsible for bringing consensus on bills about within his caucus. During budget time, he was counted on to be the voice to bring about consensus on revenue projections between the political parties, that were used by the Finance Committee. Pat was known for taking on the challenge of reworking bills that had some merit but needed fixing. He chaired many sub-committees that took badly written bills and made them bills ready to be passed. During full committee hearings the chair would always look at him initially to ask the first question of those testifying. Pat’s skill as a legislator led to him being on or chairing 13 Joint Committees with the Senate or Commissions which included senators but also non-legislator stakeholders. The diverse issues he dealt with are as follows:

• Chairman, Commission to Study the Legalization and Commercialization of Marijuana
• Chairman, Commission to Study Utility Distribution Property Valuation by Municipalities
• Chairman, Commission to Study the Health and Environmental Effects of 5G
• Chairman, Commission to Study the Worldwide Reporting of Business Taxes
• Chairman, Commission to Study the effect of Recent Changes Made to Charitable Gaming Laws
• Chairman, Commission to Study the Assessing of Power Generation Assets for Municipal Taxing
• Chairman, Joint Committee with the Senate on Tax Expenditure Review
• Chairman, Joint Committee with the Senate on Rear Facing Car Seats
• Member, Commission to Assess Tax Apportionment Between the States
• Member, Commission to Study Controls Over Charitable Gaming
• Member, Commission to Study the Seacoast Cancer Cluster
• Member, Joint Committee with the Senate to Respond to the S. Dakota v Wayfair United States Supreme Court Decision
• Member, Joint Committee with the Senate on Citizen Engagement

Pat was also assigned, as a member or chair, to numerous conference committees between the House and Senate at the end of a session year to reach agreement between the two bodies on final bill language. He was also a member of the Rockingham County Delegation, which is the legislative body of the county, where he chaired many budget subcommittees, and was on the Executive Committee. In addition, he along with one county commissioner, and the county financial office, were a committee of three who came up with the plan to spend the $60 million in American Rescue Plan money from the federal government.