Session tweets

by Patrick Gannon, The Insider, published in The Daily Reflector, October 6, 2015.

If you follow the N.C. General Assembly and aren’t on Twitter, you should be. Most state government news gets broken via Twitter today, and legislators, lobbyists and reporters go there to share information and — often — snark about legislative happenings.

With that in mind, here are seven tweets from the final hours of the 2015 General Assembly session that sum up that day that goes down in state history – one way or another.

1) From WRAL reporter Mark Binker (@Binker) at 3:06 p.m. Sept. 29: “Don’t know that I’ve ever heard a sitting member have to stand up and announce they’re not carrying a gun.”

A bulge under the sport coat near the waistline of Rep. Larry Pittman, a Concord Republican, led one Twitter user to question whether Pittman, an outspoken gun rights advocate, was carrying a concealed weapon on the House floor. That caused Pittman to respond angrily. “This bulge is a camera case that I use to carry my cell phone in,” Pittman told his House colleagues. “It is bulky. ...Whoever is tweeting out that I am illegally carrying a gun, you owe me an apology . . . and you need to tell people that you were wrong.”

2) From Rep. Grier Martin (@GrierMartin), a Raleigh Democrat, at 8:48 p.m. Sept. 29: “In HB318 debate, Rep. Charles Graham reminds me my ancestors were original illegal immigrants.”

Graham, a Lumberton Democrat and Native American, clearly didn’t like that bill, which is awaiting action by Gov. Pat McCrory. It restricts the types of identification non-citizens can use for various purposes and bans cities and counties from adopting so-called “sanctuary city” policies that are seen as welcoming to undocumented immigrants.

“None of you would be here had my ancestors not accepted you,” Graham said. “My ancestors opened our arms to you. We could have chopped your heads off. We could have scalped you. ...That did not happen.”

3) From Associated Press statehouse reporter Gary Robertson (@garydrobertson) at 6:57 a.m. Sept. 30: “$2B bond package, March referendum, go to McCrory’s desk.”

Plenty of news happened that final day. Among the most important: Bills putting a $2 billion bond package for state building projects and parks on the ballot March 15, along with the presidential and statewide primary elections.

4) From Amy Auth (@AmyAuth), a staffer of Republican Senate leader Phil Berger, at 12:33 p.m. Sept. 30: “So honored to work for an amazing group of statesmen who are doing wonderful things for our state.”

This tweet linked to a news release touting legislation the Senate was proud of, such as spending less taxpayer money in the state budget than the House wanted to spend, putting more cash in savings, futher lowering corporate income tax rates, increasing starting teacher pay to $35,000, making dramatic changes to the state’s Medicaid program, expanded insurance coverage and access to treatment for autistic children, prohibited the sale of baby parts and allowing magistrates and registers of deeds employees to opt out of performing all marriages if same-sex unions violate their religious beliefs.

5) From Jason Husser (@JasonHusser), a pollster at Elon University, at 9:31 a.m. Sept. 30: “#NCGA ends session at 30 percent approval.”

It’s not all good news for the Republican-led Legislature. In April, the approval rating was 33.3 percent, so it went down a little as the session dragged on. The same Elon poll showed the approval rating of Congress at 9 percent, so the General Assembly is three times better than Congress. For what that’s worth.

6) From Jen Jones (@followjenjones) of EqualityNC at 11:37 a.m. Sept. 30: “Say what you will, today I’m naming my first-born [next] cat, John Blust.”

This is a long story, but Jones was giving credit to Rep. John Blust, a Greensboro Republican, for helping derail a bill that the LGBT community opposed vehemently. The legislation, some believed, would have repealed nondiscrimination ordinances passed by cities across the state, as well as restricted local governments from passing other policies aimed at protecting their residents. Blust fought the provision because of the process used by members of his party to try to get it passed stealthily on the last day of session. He won.

7) From Jeff Tiberii (@j_tibs), a reporter at WUNC, at 4:20 a.m. Sept. 30: “At 4:18 am, after eight months @NCLeg has (finally) adjourned for the year. I feel like Andy Dufresne.”

Tiberri linked to a video from the scene in “The Shawshank Redemption,” when the lead character crawls through a foul-smelling sewer pipe to escape from jail, then emerges from the other side a free man.

And that’s how we all felt at 4:18 a.m.

Patrick Gannon writes about North Carolina government and politics for the Capitol Press Association

http://www.reflector.com/opinion/other-voices/gannon-sessions-tweets-3004187.