In North Carolina, defeated GOP governor signs law to weaken his Democratic successor

A protester shouts as she is arrested outside the House gallery during a special session of the North Carolina General Assembly in Raleigh on Friday.

By Matt PearceStaff Writer

Dec. 16, 2016 5:35 PM PT

Defying protesters and legal threats from his successor, North Carolina’s outgoing Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Friday signed a hastily passed bill designed to strip power from the incoming Democratic governor and his party. A second bill with similar intentions now awaits McCrory’s signature.

McCrory, who lost a narrow and bitter election to Democratic state Atty. Gen. Roy Cooper in November, signed the bill minutes after its party-line passage in the GOP-dominated Legislature, where left-leaning protesters had gathered Thursday and Friday to protest.

At least 39 demonstrators were reportedly arrested Friday after disrupting deliberations and being barred from the legislative chambers. One of them was a man with a large, bushy white beard and a Santa hat.

The elections-related bill, SB 4, was part of a wave of legislation that Republican lawmakers introduced in a surprise special session Wednesday night, some of which is designed to limit Democratic power.

In addition to combining the state election and ethics agencies, SB 4 changes the rules for establishing the partisan makeup of state and local election boards — in effect tilting power away from Democrats shortly before Cooper takes office.

Currently, the party of the governor gets to hold a 3-2 majority on the five-member state election board and a 2-1 majority on the three-member county election boards. The new law expands those boards to eight and four members, respectively, giving equal representation to Republicans and Democrats. The law also adds party designations to future elections for the state Supreme Court, where Democrats just gained a 4-3 majority.

McCrory did not immediately issue a statement along with his signing of the bill.

Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger angrily accused the news media of “covering up” the context of his party’s sweeping administrative proposals in a Facebook post he published after the Legislature approved the bills, though he acknowledged that Republicans were trying to limit Cooper’s power, as has been widely reported.

“Given that Gov.-elect Cooper has stated on the record his intention to emulate President Obama and circumvent the legislative process by governing through rule-making and executive orders, why is he surprised the legislature is taking steps to protect its constitutional authority?” Berger wrote. “Past actions are often predictors of future actions, and Gov.-elect Cooper has done nothing to give the expectation that he will behave any differently in his new role.”

In response to McCrory’s signing of the first bill, Cooper signaled that he was going to keep good on an earlier threat to take legal action against the Republicans’ moves, which Democrats have called unconstitutional.

“The courts will have to clean up the mess the Legislature made, but it won’t stop us from moving North Carolina forward,” Cooper said.

The GOP-led General Assembly also approved a second bill, HB 17, that would require Senate approval for the incoming governor’s Cabinet appointments and would remove his ability to appoint trustees to the state’s university system. Several hours later, McCrory still had not signed or vetoed the bill, according to the Legislature’s website.

After being barred from the legislative chambers, protesters gathered outside the doors.

A video from the Raleigh News & Observer showed the Rev. William J. Barber II of the North Carolina chapter of the NAACP knocking on the door as demonstrators chanted, “What are you afraid of? People’s house!” Behind him, protesters held signs that said, “Respect the vote! New governor, our voice!” and “Say no to power grabs.”

After officials threatened to arrest protesters knocking on the doors, the demonstrators kept knocking anyway, submitting themselves to arrest. “I knock on this door for freedom! I knock on this door for democracy! I knock on this door for North Carolina,” one protester said in a speech to dozens of protesters.

He was quickly handcuffed and led away by police as the crowd shouted, “Shame! Shame! Shame!”

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UPDATES:

5:35 p.m.: This article was updated to report the arrests of protesters and to include comments from Republican Senate President Pro Tempore Phil Berger.

2:35 p.m: This article was updated with a comment from Gov.-elect Roy Cooper.

1:40 p.m.: This article was updated with additional background on the legislation signed into law.

This article was originally published at 12:10 p.m.