Not a great week for McCrory

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, November 22, 2013.

It hasn’t been a great week for Governor Pat McCrory. It started out well enough, with McCrory basking in the glow of generally favorable headlines after his weekend dog adoption event at the governor’s mansion.

That was part of what seems like a new public relations offensive from McCrory, appointing new education committees to show he is concerned, talking up a raise for teachers, cutting every ribbon in sight.

McCrory visited the California headquarters of Facebook Monday and went on line for half an hour to answer questions, though he only answered six of the more than 200 that were asked and avoided most of the contentious ones.

After more of what his office billed as an economic development mission, McCrory headed to the Republican Governor’s Association meeting in Arizona.

It’s not clear if the taxpayers also funded that political part of the trip. That stop included an appearance on MSNBC where McCrory said the controversy about the voter suppression law he signed this summer was “much ado about nothing” and that 80 percent of people in the state support the new government-issued photo ID requirement at the polls.

McCrory rarely mentions the numerous other provisions in the law, among them the end to same-day registration at early voting sites, the end to pre-registration for 16 and 17 year olds, the weakening of campaign finance disclosure laws, and the increase in how much wealthy individuals can contribute directly to campaigns.

He did try to defend the shortening of the early voting period in the new law, saying that the requirement that the early voting sites stay open for more hours takes care of the concern about the reduction of days.

It is true that the majority of people in the state support a photo ID requirement in theory, but they have also serious concerns about the way North Carolina’s new applies it.

Polls show that 70 percent of voters support allowing voters who forget their ID or don’t have one to cast a ballot anyway if they can provide a Social Security number than can be verified before their ballot is counted.

North Carolina’s new law does not include mechanisms like that for voters without IDs to cast a ballot. Most states with voter ID laws do.

Voters also oppose the other provisions that McCrory never mentions.

The new voter suppression law is a lot of things, but much ado about nothing it is not.

(McCrory told the crowd at the North Carolina Awards ceremony Thursday night that he barely made it to the event because he was just returning from an economic development trip to California. He barely made it because he was returning from political posturing at the Republican Governor’s Association, but why let a little thing spoil a talking point?)

Meanwhile, McCrory’s appointments continue to raise eyebrows, and not just his decision to appoint a staffer of the John Locke Foundation to the MLK Commission even though the Locke Foundation wants the commission abolished.

On the recommendation of Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, McCrory appointed Francis De Luca, head of the right-wing Pope Civitas Institute, to the state ethics commission. De Luca also runs an allied group called Civitas Action. That is a purely political organization that raises money and runs ads to elect candidates to the General Assembly primarily by attacking candidates the group does not support.

One of the roles of the ethics commission is to determine which allegations of wrongdoing by legislators have enough merit to proceed to the legislative ethics commission.

That means De Luca, while running ads trying to get legislative candidates elected or defeated, will have a say in which ethical complaints against legislators can proceed, not to mention that he will receive all sorts of confidential information about lawmakers that he could pass on to the lawmakers political opponents.

And De Luca wasn’t the only appointment that raised questions. Officials with McCrory’s Department of Environment and Natural Resources named Bryan Gossage to head the new incarnation of the Clean Water Management Trust Fund even though he lacks the background in conservation and “management of surface water resources” that the law requires for the job.

Gossage, who was previously working in McCrory’s Department of Commerce, has a background in marketing and public relations and he ran unsuccessfully for the General Assembly in 2008 after serving on the Apex town council. A DEHNR spokesman says it was Gossage’s experience on the council that makes him qualified, since Apex was experiencing a severe drought while Gossage was serving.

And if that’s not enough, he also drinks water occasionally. That probably counts too.

And finally, news about the state’s ill-advised school voucher scheme that was included in the state budget that McCrory signed will force the governor to answer some interesting questions.

Myrtle Grove Christian School in Wilmington announced recently that no gay students or students with gay parents will be allowed to enroll. The school is eligible to receive public funding from the voucher program in the fall.

Does McCrory support using taxpayer money to fund schools that openly discriminate against gay and lesbian students and gay parents? Somebody needs to ask him—maybe at the next ribbon cutting.