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Governance
On Tuesday Governor Cooper vetoed a bill that broadly strips power from multiple executive branch offices to which Democrats were elected this cycle. The 131-page bill is nominally a Hurricane Helene relief bill, but the vast majority is devoted to measures like removing appointment power from the governor and limiting the attorney general’s ability to advocate against Republican-passed laws. This week and next the legislature may vote to override Cooper’s veto, though the outcome of such a vote is not uncertain given that three NC House Republicans from western NC voted against the bill last week. You can learn more about the contents of SB 382 in this NC Newsline explainer.
Voting Rights
On Tuesday the State Board of Elections certified most results of the November 5 election. Only a few races with pending recounts remain uncertified, including the NC Supreme Court race between Justice Allison Riggs and Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin and an NC House race where Republican Rep. Frank Sossamon currently trails Democrat Bryan Cohn by 233 votes. That NC House race that could determine whether Republicans retain a supermajority in the state legislature. Griffin also filed a last-minute motion on Tuesday before the certification hearing to disqualify a Democratic member of the SBE from considering his challenge to over 60,000 ballots, claiming that her husband’s work as an attorney with Riggs represents a conflict of interest. Because of this last-minute motion to disqualify, discussion of Griffin’s challenge to the ballots was postponed.
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