The special session called by the legislature today is little more than another power grab by the Republicans in the legislature. It was set in motion by a letter written by Rep. David Lewis that is based on lies, half-truths and rumors and will end with the legislature removing one more check on their power. It’s another shameful day in North Carolina political history.
Lewis wrote a letter to Speaker Tim Moore saying the commission charged with writing the language for proposed constitutional amendments was under pressure from outside groups. He said they were “facing pressure to write politicized captions.” Unless Lewis thinks twitter is pressure, he created that statement from whole cloth. Lewis also claimed that the commission was delaying their duties by meeting just a day before the deadline. Again, he either made that up or is listening to rumors from his conspiracy-minded base.
Secretary of State Elaine Marshall, the head of the commission and one the state’s most respected leaders, rebuked Lewis’ assertions in her own letter. Contrary to Lewis’ claim, the commission has a meeting scheduled for July 31, well ahead of the deadline. Marshall flatly denied that she was under pressure from any groups or individuals to write biased captions. As she pointed out, Lewis is the one who is interested in the outcome of the amendment vote, not her and the legislature writing the captions will cost far more and take more time than allowing the commission to do it’s job.
Marshall is a leader with broad respect. She has long served the state and the people regardless of political persuasion and has regularly received support from both Democrats and Republicans. Nobody questions her ability to do her job or her commitment to put her obligations to the people ahead of partisan interests. The legislature, in contrast, has spent the better part of this decade trying to rig elections to favor Republicans.
Lewis is a sad political story. He has become little more than partisan hack with a dubious relationship to the truth. He’s used lies, innuendo and social media rantings as an excuse to grab more power for the legislature. He’s no longer an honest broker. Instead, he’s an example of what’s wrong with our politics. He’s been in Raleigh too long and amassed too much power with too little accountability. He may have arrived in the legislature with good intentions and a desire to help the state but he’s been corrupted by the system. He’s allowed himself to sink to such a level that he would write a letter with so little basis in truth purely for the political gain of his party. And like the President of the United States, he’s lost the ability to be shamed. Now, that’s a shame.
Thomas Mills is the founder and publisher of PoliticsNC.com. Before beginning PoliticsNC, Thomas spent twenty years as a political and public affairs consultant. Learn more >
As always, thank you Tom for elucidating so well what we are up against. However, you give Mr. Lewis too much credit: ” He may have arrived in the legislature with good intentions”. That ilk of Republicans arrived with no good intentions after their2010 electoral success while we were asleep. Before they worked on anything else, they trumped up Amendment One to satisfy their base and to stir the divisive potful of hate that they exploit. Following that they installed the most extreme racial and political gerrymandering in the country. The map of our Congressional districts makes us the laughing stock of the country. Then they passed the Monster Voting Law to disenfranchise vulnerable North Carolina citizens. If you need any further evidence regarding their lack of “good intentions”, watch Berger and Moore giggling like school girls about the disempowerment of the North Carolina governor. Third video link in this story. They succeeded in castrating Pat McCrory. Roy Cooper is more of a man than Potty Pat by far. Apologies for my sexist language.
https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article215357305.html