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Republicans Jim Martin and Pat McCrory joined Democrats Jim Hunt, Mike Easley and Bev Perdue yesterday in speaking out against two of the six amendments proposed by the Republican-dominated General Assembly that are planned to be on the November ballot. Current Gov. Roy Cooper's administration has sued to keep the two targeted amendments off the ballot this November, uniting the current and former governors on the matter that would shift gubernatorial powers to the state legislature.
One amendment would shift much of the power to fill judicial vacancies from the governor, who has wide latitude now to pick judges. Instead, if voters approve the proposed amendment, the legislature would pick two finalists for each open seat on the bench, and the governor would have to pick one of those two.
The other amendment sets up a new bipartisan state board of elections appointed by the General Assembly, and it also asserts that the legislature has the power to appoint members to hundreds of boards and commissions currently handled by the executive branch.
Thanks for sharing this news item and a summary of it, but what's your opinion of it?
My initial impression is that I'd be very skeptical of trusting the current legislators when it comes to monkeying around with the constitutional separation of powers and I'm leery of their ulterior motives.
Thanks for sharing this news item and a summary of it, but what's your opinion of it?
My initial impression is that I'd be very skeptical of trusting the current legislators when it comes to monkeying around with the constitutional separation of powers and I'm leery of their ulterior motives.
Totally agree. I'm voting no against all the amendments. It's just a power grab for the Republicans in the General Assembly who want to increase turnout on their side this year without having much to show for their work and limit what the governor can do in office. Hastily drawn and poorly written (the other four besides the two here are facing court challenges), it's state politics at its most cynical. At least for now, since we keep on seeming to go downhill further every time I think we've hit rock bottom.
I'm cautiously optimistic we can defeat all of these amendments and at least end the Republican supermajority come November, especially given the missteps of the current chief executive. But we won't know for sure until then.
It's very interesting to see Governors who were pretty divergent in their views and the way they did things come together.
Maybe I'm being overly nostalgic but it makes me miss the political era when Governors Martin and Hunt were in office and their relationship with the legislative branch was very different. While the very nature of those roles means they aren't exempt from political battles between the branches of government, it didn't seem to have the level of gridlock and toxicity that exists today.
It's very interesting to see Governors who were pretty divergent in their views and the way they did things come together.
Maybe I'm being overly nostalgic but it makes me miss the political era when Governors Martin and Hunt were in office and their relationship with the legislative branch was very different. While the very nature of those roles means they aren't exempt from political battles between the branches of government, it didn't seem to have the level of gridlock and toxicity that exists today.
I agree but the thing that gets me about Pat joining the group is that he had no problem supporting the GA when they were scrambling to limit Cooper’s power before he even took office.
North Carolina already had a system where the Governor is all but toothless. If these amendments pass as is, they might as well make the state bird the Governor!
I agree but the thing that gets me about Pat joining the group is that he had no problem supporting the GA when they were scrambling to limit Cooper’s power before he even took office.
I didn't agree with McCrory at all when he did that. I think it was perfectly good for him to join with the other four past Governors on the opposition to the legislator's action this time around, but your point is well taken. It's better to have more consistency in holding stedfast to the due process system and the way the separation of powers are set up, not just when it suits a political motive.
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