NCGA Promising Busy Afternoon Session as Tucker Announces Retirement | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: The author of this post is Dan Way, who is an associate editor for the Carolina Journal, John Hood Publisher.

    They came. They went. They're coming right back.

    The House convened briefly Thursday morning to hear veto messages from Gov. Roy Cooper, stood at ease for about a half-hour then unanimously passed by a 76-0 vote a joint Senate resolution to adjourn.

    House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said the House will reconvene at noon to take up several legislative matters. Some of those would require committee action, he said, and would be discussed during a Republican caucus immediately following adjournment.

    Moore did not specify what those measures would be.

    The Senate also is set to reconvene at noon.

    Shortly after the Senate adjourned, Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Union, announced he would not seek re-election to his District 35 seat.


Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Union, announced Thursday that he would retire after the 2017-18 session of the General Assembly adjourns. (CJ photo by Dan Way)
    Tucker was first elected in 2010. He is a co-chairman of both the Senate Finance Committee, and the Select Committee on Nominations. He gained attention as sponsor of constitutional amendments to limit the state income tax to 5.5 percent, and protecting the right to hunt and fish, as well as bills to relax the state's certificate of need system whose regulations prevent medical providers from opening clinics or buying high-price equipment.

    "I have long believed in term limits for judges and politicians. After serving four terms in the N.C. Senate, the time has come for me to allow others to step in and serve Union County and our state," Tucker said in a written notice of his retirement. He said he is leaving confident that Republicans have put policies in place to keep North Carolina moving forward.

    Tucker said in 2000 he stepped down as a Union County Commissioner to raise his son and daughter.

    "Next year my grandsons will begin T-ball. I know of no greater undertaking than that of playing a central role in their lives," he said. "They are only young once."