Good for McCrory for vetoing absurd legislation
Published May 31, 2015
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, May 29, 2015.
Good for Governor Pat McCrory for vetoing the absurd legislation passed by the House this week that would allow magistrates and other public officials to refuse to marry gay couples based on an undefined “sincerely held religious belief.”
All eyes are now on House and Senate leaders to see if they will try to override the veto, though a joint statement from Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore said they “respect but disagree” with McCrory and the statement didn’t mention any plans to hold an override vote.
The understated tone is a departure for Berger, who hasn’t been reluctant to sharply criticize McCrory in the past, fueling speculation that there may not be an override effort.
The Senate easily has the votes if Berger does bring it up. The outcome in the House is not so clear with the fate of the veto override resting with ten members who had excused absences but did not vote this week.
Adding to the confusion was House Rules Chair David Lewis, who voted against the bill on second reading and for it on third reading. It’s unusual but not unheard of for members to change their votes on controversial bills but it is very rare for a key member of the House or Senate leadership team to flip-flop on such a closely watched vote.
Another interesting wrinkle came from a business owner in Catawba County. Equality NC reports that John Pope, the CEO of Cargo Transports that employs 750 people, said in a letter to McCrory that he would take his $20 million in business out of the state if the discrimination bill becomes law.
It is also worth remembering amid all the hopeful news that nothing can erase the offensive debate on the House floor this week, where Rep. Bert Jones called marriage equality a perversion and compared it to someone marrying their mother.
Jones, in case you are wondering, is co-chair of both the House Health and House Elections committees.
But McCrory’s veto is good news, even if as some suggest, it is politically motivated and part of his effort to appear more moderate as his 2016 reelection bid draws closer. That means that McCrory realizes that the public does not support discriminating against gay couples who want to get married. And that is progress.
The question now is does this veto mark an important shift for McCrory, who has long claimed to have “stepped on the toes of the Right and the Left” but until now had never really confronted the Right in any meaningful way.
There are signs that he might be willing to be more aggressive overall in taking on the General Assembly. Sarah Ovaska with NC Policy Watch reports that McCrory had some harsh words for lawmakers in an appearance Friday before the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina to sell his proposal for $3 billion worth of bonds for transportation and state government infrastructure.
McCrory told the group that support among state lawmakers for the bonds was soft and that legislators are “scared of their own shadow” and that he wouldn’t let a handful of legislators block progress regardless of what party they are from. Ouch.
That doesn’t exactly sound like a governor who will be allowing legislative leaders to treat him as almost irrelevant, as they have in the last two and a half years.
It’s also worth noting that McCrory seems to have decided either that working behind the scenes to influence the General Assembly doesn’t work or that he is not good at it.
The magistrates bill should have never reached his desk. He is not only the governor, he is the titular head of the Republican Party in the state and has many legislative and political levers to use to impose his will on his fellow Republicans currently in charge of the House and Senate before bills are ever passed.
It has been an interesting week in Raleigh. If McCrory backs up his newly tough talk with more displays of common sense like he showed Thursday, it promises to be an even more eventful summer.
