Like Cinderella, North Carolina legislators were keeping an eye on the clock as it approached midnight Friday. Adjournment was ticking away, with two of the most important bills of the session (other than the budget) still on the floor. But is was long after midnight—about 5:32 a.m. Saturday—when the sergeants at arms opened doors to both House and Senate so that Speaker Joe Hackney and Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton could simultaneously adjourn sine die.
House members are saying it. Senators agree. It is time for the members of the North Carolina General Assembly to go home. It appears adjournment will occur on July 9. Most members immediately will be cranking up re-election efforts.
There are no salary increases for state employees, including teachers. The state payroll will be trimmed by 1,600, most through attrition, but not all. Gov. Perdue has warned that if the economy continues to shrink, more cuts will come by executive order.
As budget conferees grind on into late hours, it seems likely that a state spending plan will go to the floor of the House and Senate next week. If the budget is adopted on second reading Tuesday and third reading on Wednesday, the plan will be in place by July 1—the start of the new fiscal year for the state. It will be the first time in almost a decade since the deadline has been met.
They are crafting the budget in Raleigh and the process often isn’t pretty. The Senate wrapped up a version a couple of weeks ago and now the House appropriations committees are digging into the figures. This week, the Education Appropriations Committee unveiled their version of a $10.7 billion spending plan. There are changes from the budgets submitted by the governor and the Senate, but compared to past efforts they are remarkably similar.
Three mainstream Republicans and 29 Democrats this week approved what amounted to a bipartisan North Carolina Senate budget. The three Republicans are Stan Bingham, a Davie County businessman, Fletcher Hartsell, a Cabarrus County attorney, and Richard Stevens, former Wake County manager. All Democrats supported the $18.98 spending plan. Unifour area senators Austin Allran and Jim Jacumin, who is retiring, were among the 17 senators who just said no.
If North Carolina voters are angry and ready to make sweeping changes, they didn’t show it at the polls Tuesday. The overwhelming majority of incumbents won in their primaries. Maybe the revolution is coming in November.
In Catawba County, two incumbent commissioners who had been targeted by a right-wing GOP faction were renominated. Kitty Barnes, chair of the County Board of Commissioners, made a strong showing in the low turnout, followed by Lynn Lail, prominent businesswoman. They will be joined on the November ballot by Randy Isenhower, ultra-conservative son of former state legislator, Stine Isenhower and close friend of Sen. Austin Allran. Allran supporters were still heated over Barnes’ attempt to unseat the state senator in 2008.
Next week at this time we will have a good idea of where we are headed. But how we will get there may not be clear. The primary elections will have a message, especially in Catawba County which has paid tribute to the gods of the Republican party for the last four decades.
Traditional Republicans—those who are fiscal conservatives but more open on social issues—are being challenged by an angry faction within their own party. County Commission Chair Kitty Barnes, Commissioners Lynn Lail and Glen Barger, Sheriff candidate Coy Reid, and Clerk of Court Al Jean Bogle, all have opposition candidates recruited by a faction that includes supporters of U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry, State Rep. Mark Hilton, and State Sen. Austin Allran. This faction controls most of the offices in the Catawba County Republican organization.
Next week, with Easter observance over, politics will pick up the pace. State and local candidates in primaries will be intensifying efforts to gain recognition…and paint opponents as despicable people unworthy of public office. Think the current race for 25th Judicial District Attorney. Charges hurled by both camps in the GOP primary could be the script for a Class B movie or TV reality show.
Prediction: the GOP primary battle for the 10th Congressional District race will attract national attention.
The North Carolina Republicans demonstrated that grass roots work pays off. For the first time in recent history, there is a Republican candidate for all 50 Senate seats. Republicans up for seven senate seats have no opposition, including Austin Allran of Hickory and Debbie Clary of Shelby. The Senate minority leader Phil Berger also will coast into office in November.
To gain a majority, Republicans will need 26 seats and seven are in the bank. Several other seats will go to Republican primary winners.
February’s arrival also heralds the filing season for the 2010 elections. Democrats, still struggling in an area that is wedded to the GOP brand, will have a limited field of candidates. But on the Republican side, it appears that a primary looms for every contested seat at the local level.
Especially bitter is the race for District Attorney. Charges and counter charges already are appearing on internet blogs. Incumbent Jay Gaither is accused of engineering a private court session where only one case was heard before Judge Gregg Hayes: that of a doctor accused for complicity in an accident in which a truck driver was killed. The Hickory doctor left the scene. The verdict: a minor misdemeanor conviction. Also there are stories circulating of drinking bouts in Buncombe County, attempts to intimidate a highway patrolman and more.
