Waiting for McCrory | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's note: Brant Clifton shifts his attention back to governing North Carolina in his "bare knuckles" Conservative online publication known as The Daily Haymaker.

    The mainstream media tells us that Gov. Pat McCrory has 38 bills sitting on his desk waiting for signatures or vetoes:

    [...] Lawmakers adjourned for the year on July 26, leaving the governor with a stack of pending legislation, including a sweeping measure that makes dozens of other changes to the state's election laws.

    McCrory did not mention the elections bill Tuesday morning and did not stop to speak with reporters on his way out of the Council of State meeting.

    However, during the meeting, McCrory called out two measures remaining on his desk as getting particularly close review. One is a regulatory reform measure, which touches upon subjects important to dozens of industries, including smoking and health regulations for bars and the review of all existing administrative rules crafted to implement state laws. The other is a technical corrections bill for the state budget. [...]

    In the meantime, this wait has created an opening for our rather useless attorney general to remind people he's still here. Roy Cooper is circulating a petition urging a McCrory veto of the voter ID legislation. Never mind that Cooper's job description requires him to defend the state when it gets sued - and we know a lawsuit is coming on this particular bill.

    On one hand, Cooper's move gives Republicans an opportunity to discredit him as being little more than a leftist political hack. On the other hand, it's pretty clear that Cooper has ambitions for 2016 that may include the race for governor or US senator. (Senator Richard Burr comes up for reelection in 2016. Sources out of Forsyth County tell me there is a strong possibility Burr will not seek another six years in DC.)

    Clearly, there are three options for our rookie GOP governor. Option One: Gov. Pat signs the bill, shuts Cooper up, and moves on. Option Two: Gov. Pat does nothing, and the bill becomes law on its own. Option Three: Gov. Pat vetoes that sucker.

    Option One earns Gov. Pat some brownie points with conservatives - a group he really needs some help with right now. Option Two gives conservatives what they want, and helps Gov. Pat with moderates and lefties by putting some distance between him and the bill. (I don't know how much help it will earn him. The folks who are screaming the loudest about voter ID were in Walter Dalton's corner in 2012.) Option Three ruins Gov. Pat's honeymoon and ensures the long knives come out for him and the rest of the NCGOP establishment.

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