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GENERAL ASSEMBLY NEWS
The Latest: 2 bills OK’d by legislature heading to Cooper
Charlotte Observer // AP // July 24, 2018
Summary: The Latest on the North Carolina legislature holding a special session to consider ballot language for constitutional amendments (all times local): The General Assembly has wrapped up for now its work on legislation addressing language being placed on state ballots this fall about proposed constitutional amendments and court races. Republicans controlling the House and Senate voted during Tuesday's special session for two bills and sent them to Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper's desk. Lawmakers could meet again in Raleigh very soon if Cooper vetoes the legislation, which appears likely based on Democratic opposition to the measures.
Key details missing from constitutional amendments
Reflector // Colin Campbell // July 24, 2018
Summary: In what will be the biggest demonstration of direct democracy in North Carolina since 1970, voters this November will decide the fate of six different changes to the state's constitution -- ranging from a voter ID requirement to a reduction in the governor's appointment powers. In a state where legislators run in gerrymandered districts, a constitutional referendum can help determine what a majority of voters really want. But there's one major problem with this year's approach: The details of how the amendments would work won't be available until after the election. Essentially, state lawmakers are trying to sell you a car, but they're refusing to unlock the doors and let you check out the features on the dashboard.
Our Opinion: N.C. General Assembly's special session is about nothing but power
Greensboro N&R // Opinion // July 24, 2018
Summary: Your North Carolina General Assembly steamed into special session on Tuesday allegedly to adjust the words that would appear on ballots this fall to help you understand proposed constitutional amendments. But not even the legislators’ word proved genuine. Rewording wasn’t their full intent in spending your dollars to change a law they wrote in 2016 and didn’t think about when they adjourned on June 29. To be sure, some saw a need to adjust who writes what for those ballot “captions” that help you understand what you are voting to add (or not) to your Constitution.
Democrats spar with Republican leaders over NC ballot language
WCNC // Rad Berky // July 24, 2018
Summary: Democrats sparred with the Republican leadership of the General Assembly during Tuesday's special session. The session was called by the Republicans who control both the House and Senate to consider who should write the descriptions attached to six Constitutional Amendments what will be on the ballot in November. In the past, there would be a three-member commission that included at least one Democrat to write the blurbs. Republican leaders, however, say they were afraid there would be an attempt to “politicize” the work of the committee.
NC Republicans change what voters will see on ballots about their amendments
N&O // Lynn Bonner // July 24, 2018
Summary: Six proposed constitutional amendments likely will be on the fall ballot without titles after Republican state lawmakers decided that the questions would be accompanied only by the words “Constitutional Amendment.” A 2016 law gave responsibility for writing the titles to the Constitutional Amendments Publication Commission. Republicans said they were taking over the job because they were worried that the commission was under pressure to politicize them. The House passed the bill 67-36. The Senate passed it 27-14. If Gov. Roy Cooper vetoes it, the legislature is prepared to override the veto quickly. Republicans who control the North Carolina legislature called a special session for Tuesday with less than 24 hours notice to write the captions. They also proposed a change to judicial elections that would require state Supreme Court candidate Chris Anglin to run without a party affiliation next to his name. Anglin was a Democrat who changed his party affiliation and filed to run as a Republican. The state GOP executive director called Anglin “the enemy” in an interview.
Dems predict surprise judicial measure inspecial session
WRAL // Laura Leslie // July 24, 2018
Summary: State lawmakers met Tuesday to take over the job of writing the ballot titles for the six proposed constitutional amendments going before voters in November. Republican lawmakers say the special session is needed because they suspect the two Democratic members of the three-member commission tasked with writing the titles could choose wording that casts the amendments in a negative light. But Democrats are skeptical. Many say they're expecting other measures to surface, including one that would once again change the rules for the state Supreme Court race in November.
Why don’t Republicans want voters to know this Supreme Court candidate is a Republican?
N&O // Will Doran, Colin Campbell // July 24, 2018
Summary: Two Republicans are running for a seat on the North Carolina Supreme Court this November, but Republican state legislators don’t want voters to know that. A bill filed by state Senate Majority Leader Harry Brown would not allow Chris Anglin to be listed as a Republican on the ballot. But the incumbent in the election, Supreme Court Justice Barbara Jackson, would still be listed as a Republican. The Democrat in the race, Durham civil rights attorney Anita Earls, would also continue to be listed as a Democrat. Republican officials have said they fear Anglin is a secret Democrat who’s only pretending to be a Republican to split the GOP vote and turn the court’s 4-3 liberal tilt into a 5-2 advantage. That would happen if Earls defeats Jackson. Anglin, who was a registered Democrat until June and whose campaign consultant is Democratic operative Perry Woods, has denied those allegations.
NC Republicans worry their own law could backfire
Charlotte Observer // Editorial Board // July 23, 2018
Summary: North Carolina’s Republican legislative leaders will spend tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars on Tuesday to get around a law they themselves passed just two years ago. That doesn’t sound conservative to us, but it’s part of a pattern in Raleigh: Leading legislators, when inconvenienced by law, precedent, tradition or common decency, obliterate it and do it their way.
Hurricane Matthew recovery grant: $236M. Projects finished so far: Zero.
N&O // Colin Campbell // July 24, 2018
Summary: Months after lawmakers blasted Gov. Roy Cooper’s administration for failing to spend any of a $236.5 million federal grant to help Hurricane Matthew victims rebuild, no projects using the funds have been finished yet, North Carolina Emergency Management said last week. The continued delays prompted House Speaker Tim Moore to announce Monday that he’s reinstating a legislative oversight committee. “As serious questions remain unanswered regarding the slow pace of the Cooper Administration’s recovery effort, it’s critical that we continue our committee’s oversight to ensure folks get the help they need,” said Rep. John Bell, a Wayne County Republican and chairman of the committee.
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GOV. COOPER NEWS
Gov. Roy Cooper thanks sheriffs at convention in New Bern
Sun Journal // Bill Hand // July 24, 2018
Summary: Gov. Roy Cooper made a stop at the North Carolina Sheriffs’ Association Training Conference to thank the state’s top county enforcement officers for their work and to offer a few thoughts on how to make things better for the county lawmen. Roughly 75 sheriffs were in attendance with other law enforcement representatives and family members at the three-day conference at the Riverfront Convention Center on South Front Street. “Nothing is outside the scope of being sheriff of a county,” Cooper told the audience. “You are there to protect people from crime, to help young people, to respond to emergencies and disasters. You are looked upon as the rock that people depend upon. I’m grateful for the work that you do.”
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NCDP NEWS & MENTIONS
Democrats say special session is unconstitutional and meant ‘to deceive voters’
N&O // Will Doran // July 24, 2018
Summary: North Carolina Democrats probably won’t be able to stop anything their Republican rivals have planned for Tuesday’s session of the state Legislature, so they’re turning to other measures to object. The Legislature previously approved six amendments to the state constitution that will appear on this November’s ballot, all backed by the Legislature’s veto-proof Republican majority. During the special session, they planned to decide what would appear on the ballot to describe those amendments — bypassing a group of state officials controlled by Democrats.
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OTHER
Raleigh man beaten by law enforcement sues state
WRAL // Matthew Burns // July 24, 2018
Summary: A Raleigh man beaten by law enforcement officers during an April confrontation filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the state Department of Public Safety. Kyron Dwain Hinton is seeking unspecified damages in the complaint filed with the North Carolina Industrial Commission, which handles tort claims against the state. State law caps damages awarded by the Industrial Commission at $1 million.
Hurricane Matthew Recovery
Matthew recovery: Two years later, victims still await money
Fayetteville Observer // Greg Barnes // July 24, 2018
Summary: State and federal lawmakers are becoming increasingly frustrated over the time it’s taking North Carolina to get disaster relief money into the hands of victims of Hurricane Matthew. On Monday, state House Speaker Tim Moore reauthorized the House Select Committee on Disaster Relief to investigate the delays following news that the state had missed another deadline to deliver millions of dollars to hurricane victims. A few weeks earlier, on May 25, members of North Carolina’s congressional delegation signed a letter to Gov. Roy Cooper asking why the state still controls most of the $404 million in federal Community Development Block Grant Disaster Relief funds nearly two years after the hurricane dumped more than 12 inches of rain and displaced about 3,765 people in eastern North Carolina. According to the letter, North Carolina is so far behind in allocating the money that it is in jeopardy of losing millions of dollars in funding, which must be used by August 2023. State disaster-recovery officials deny that any money is in danger of being lost. The hurricane, on Oct. 8, 2016, swamped Lumberton, Fair Bluff, parts of Cumberland County and many other areas of eastern North Carolina, leaving 28 people dead. In a release from Moore’s office, state Rep. Brenden Jones, a Republican from Columbus County, called for renewed hurricane recovery oversight. Jones, co-chairman of the House Select Committee on Disaster Relief, said the committee will convene and “do everything we can” to assist hurricane victims still awaiting money to rebuild their homes.
NC Attorney General
N.C. attorney general appealing ruling that allows Duke Energy to hike rates for coal ash cleanup
Greensboro N&R // Taft Wireback // July 23, 2018
Summary: The North Carolina Department of Justice has filed formal notice with state utility regulators that it will appeal a recent ruling that allows Duke Energy to charge customers for cleaning up its coal ash waste. In a 15-page notice, Attorney General Josh Stein alerted the North Carolina Utilities Commission that his office would ask the state Supreme Court to reject $546 million in coal ash clean-up costs that the commission’s June 22 order would allow Duke Energy Carolinas to pass along to customers in new rates. On behalf of Stein, three assistant attorneys general told the commission in the Friday filing they were appealing the matter because Stein “considers the decision to be unlawful, unjust, unreasonable or unwarranted because it is in excess of the commission’s authority; affected by errors of law; unsupported by competent, material and substantial evidence in view of the entire record as submitted; and arbitrary or capricious.”
NC Education
Superintendent’s reorganization shakes up the agency that oversees NC public schools
N&O // T. Keung Hui // July 24, 2018
Summary: State Schools Superintendent Mark Johnson is using his newly granted powers to reorganize the state education agency that works with North Carolina’s 1.5 million public school students. Johnson announced Tuesday that he’s creating new deputy superintendent positions to oversee the reorganized divisions of the state Department of Public Instruction. The restructuring comes after the state Supreme Court upheld in June a 2016 state law transferring some of the powers of the State Board of Education to Johnson. “As most of you know, since becoming state superintendent, I have advocated a strategy of bold innovation and true urgency at the N.C. Department of Public Instruction to support our state’s educators and students,” Johnson, elected superintendent in 2016, said in an email Tuesday to DPI employees.
Trade War
Trump tapping $12 billion to help farmers affected by tariffs
Greensboro N&R // Ken Thomas, Paul Wiseman // July 24, 2018
Summary: The government announced a $12 billion plan Tuesday to assist farmers who have been hurt by President Donald Trump's trade disputes with China and other trading partners. The plan focuses on Midwest soybean producers and others targeted by retaliatory measures. The Agriculture Department said the proposal would include direct assistance for farmers, purchases of excess crops and trade promotion activities aimed at building new export markets. Officials said the plan would not require congressional approval and would come through the Commodity Credit Corporation, a wing of the department that addresses agricultural prices.
Election Security
State details plans for $13M in election security upgrades
WRAL // Tyler Dukes // WRAL
Summary: State officials will spend more than $7 million over the next two years to upgrade and secure the decade-old system that forms the backbone of the state's elections. They'll use several million more in mostly federal dollars to fund additional auditing and cybersecurity measures as the state works to harden election systems in the wake of nationwide Russian interference in 2016.
Voting Access
New initiatives make voting more accessible to senior citizens
Christian Science Monitor // Matt Vasilogambros // July 24, 2018
Summary: Kathleen Henry, 80, wants all her neighbors to vote, even if they can’t drive, read, or remember as much anymore. Soon after the former civics teacher moved to the Greenspring retirement community here in 2003, she took a leading role in running the campus’s polling place and registering voters. Just this year, Ms. Henry said, she’s registered 72 residents as new voters. If a resident doesn’t have an up-to-date government form of identification – as is the case for 18 percent of citizens over 65 – Henry works to bring in a county official to take their picture to comply with Virginia’s voter ID law
NC Economic Development
Is Vertex off the rails? Wilmington company struggles to meet promises
Star News // Tim Buckland // July 24, 2018
Summary: Rail carmaker promised 1,300 jobs when it came to town, but hasn’t met those expectations. Approaching the gate at Vertex Railcar Corporation and snapping a few photos of the sparse number of cars in its parking lot gets you shouted at by a security guard, who brusquely tells you to go away. Four years ago, the rail-car manufacturer rolled into Wilmington with fanfare. The announcement of its arrival featured an appearance by then-Gov. Pat McCrory and promises by CEO Donald Croteau of more than 1,300 jobs. In the last couple of years, though, the company has become more silent. “We currently don’t accept any” interviews, company spokeswoman Iris Zhang said in an email late last week.
Democratic Party
Democrats Are Moving Left. Don’t Panic
NY Times // Michelle Goldberg // July 23, 2018
Summary: In November, several outright Nazis and white supremacists will appear on Republican ballot lines. Arthur Jones, a founder of a neo-Nazi group called the America First Committee, managed to become the Republican nominee for Congress in the heavily Democratic Third District in Illinois. The Republican candidate in California’s 11th District, John Fitzgerald, is running on a platform of Holocaust denial. Russell Walker, a Republican statehouse candidate in North Carolina, has said that Jews descend from Satan and that God is a “white supremacist.” Corey Stewart, Virginia’s Republican Senate nominee, is a neo-Confederate who pals around with racists, including one of the organizers of the violent “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville last year. The longtime Iowa Republican representative Steve King has moved from standard-issue nativist crank to full-on white nationalist; he recently retweeted a neo-Nazi and then refused to delete the tweet, saying, “It’s the message, not the messenger.”
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