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Monday: Where's the love?
posted at 2007-06-04 23:59 | Last modified 2007-11-14 10:38
House Democrats successfully stood together tonight to reject the Senate's budget plan and send the measure to conference committee for more work. The vote was 68-47. Dems even picked up three GOP allies in rejecting the plan - Guilford Rep John Blust, who says the Senate's 1.2B borrowing is excessive, plus Alamance Rep Cary Allred and Gaston Rep Debbie Clary, whose motives are less clear.
No Debate
House GOP members were hoping for a robust floor debate on Senior Budget Chair Mickey Michaux's motion not to concur. They were sadly disappointed. Michaux called the question as soon as he introduced his bill, much to the chagrin of House GOP leader Paul Stam, who tried to derail the motion with a call for a five minute recess. No luck for Stam, either on the recess or the bigger vote.
The failed coup
Stam (R-Wake) said last week he believed he had the votes to carry the Senate budget, and only found out otherwise this morning. Stam blames Senate Dems for not picking up the ball and calling their peers in the House to argue for their plan. He says he got no help, which he says proves the Senate leadership didn't take their own proposal seriously. You can hear his comments (approx 3 minutes) here.
On the House side, rumors swirled all day that Senate Dems had actually been calling House Dems to argue *against* their own budget. Senate Majority leader Tony Rand had a different take on that, of course. When I asked him about it, his initial response was, "H*ll, no. Good God Almighty, why in the world would we want to get mixed up in all that?"
Good question. Especially when the Governor had already signaled he'd veto the Senate bill if it came to his desk. There may be some Democrats who'd like to make a statement, but fewer who'd cut off their nose to spite their political face.
More than a vote
It was a very, very good night for House Speaker Joe Hackney. You could see this as more than one vote on one bill. Had the GOP succeeded in poaching enough Dem votes to support the Senate budget, it would have amounted to a vote of no confidence in Hackney's leadership. But that isn't what happened. Hackney and his team kept the caucus in line, wrangling votes out of some folks who had their own reasons for voting otherwise.
Squelching a potential palace coup might have gone to other lawmakers' heads. But Hackney was a gracious winner, saying diplomatically that both House and Senate bills need work, and he hopes the conference committee can preserve the best of both. You can hear his brief comment here.
Tuesday's hot tickets
9:00 - Senate Budget "Big Chairs" meet in 605 to start looking at items in contention between House and Senate budgets.
9:30 - Republicans hold a press conference to lament the failure of the Senate budget.
10:00 - House J1 takes up the "Fire-Safe Cigarette" (?) bill, requiring cigarette makers to design cigarettes to go out if unattended.
10:30 - NC Retail Merchants Assoc. gives America's Second Harvest food bank a 90K check.
11:30 - It's Ag Day with Ag Chief Steve Troxler and a cast of dozens. Release is here.
2:00 - House Energy looks at a proposal to require state utilities to include 20% renewable energy in their portfolios.
3:00 - The full Senate takes up a same day voting proposal.
5:30 - Gov. Easley and the Council of State hold a reception for Dem lawmakers. (Wonder why now? They've been in session for 5 1/2 months...)
Coolest story of the day...
...bar none. "True love waits"? Maybe so, especially if feathers are involved. Check it out.
Comments? Drop me a line.
