Three leaders, but how many agendas?
Published January 14, 2015
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, January 13, 2015.
One of the most interesting moments of the 2014 legislative session came in front of the Executive Mansion late last June, when Governor Pat McCrory and House Speaker Thom Tillis appeared together with education advocates at a rally to tout a new teacher pay raise proposal that differed sharply from the plan the Senate was pushing.
Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger was not invited to the event that he later called a gimmick and McCrory openly criticized the Senate proposal to pay for a larger teacher raise by firing more teacher assistants and making far deeper cuts to Medicaid than the House proposed.
McCrory, Tillis, and Berger are all Republicans of course, but they seemed to have different agendas that day and much of the legislative session on important issues like coal ash, business incentives and Medicaid reform.
Governors and legislative leaders have certainly disagreed before, but it’s fairly unusual for key House or Senate leaders to publicly criticize a governor of their own party. It happened several times last year, with the dispute usually between McCrory and the Senate leadership.
It didn’t help their relationship that McCrory later filed a lawsuit against the General Assembly over the way a commission overseeing the way the state’s handles coal was created.
As the 2015 General Assembly session convenes, there’s no indication that McCrory and Senate leaders have mended their rift and on several key issues sharp differences remain.
McCrory is openly talking about devising a way to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act, an idea that Berger and other key Senators adamantly oppose. McCrory is also strongly pushing lawmakers to restore the state historic tax credit program, which Senators like Bob Rucho see as backtracking on the 2013 tax reform package that eliminated it.
One big question for this year’s session is how new House Speaker Tim Moore will fit into the mix. Moore was a key lieutenant for Tillis, but that doesn’t mean he’ll always agree with McCrory. Moore too has said the state should not expand Medicaid for example and signed up to co-headline a fundraiser with Berger before the session, something Tillis didn’t do.
Moore has also joined with Berger to fight marriage equality in the state, asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on appeals of federal decisions allowing same-sex marriage. McCrory seems to have accepted the reality that marriage equality is here to stay whether he likes it or not.
Moore is certainly no progressive. He not only voted for the reactionary agenda of the last four years, as House Rules Chair and a key member of Tillis’ leadership team, he defended every bit of it, including the absurd procedural moves like adding abortion restrictions to a bill about motorcycle safety and frequently cutting off debate or limiting public input on controversial bills.
But now Moore is in charge and we’ll find out not only if he will run the House the same way as Tillis but if he’ll wind up standing with McCrory in the fights that are likely coming with the Senate. His staff and his committee appointments may provide some clues.
Moore’s already named his top aide, tapping Clayton Somers as his Chief of Staff. Somers most recently was the head of the North Carolina Turnpike Authority and worked until March of last year for the North Carolina High School Athletic Association.
He also gave money to politicians of both parties, contributing to Moore as well Democrat Mark Bibbs’ unsuccessful 2012 campaign for the House. That might cause a stir in the far-right corners of the House and Senate Republican Caucuses.
There’s one other huge difference this year as the three top Republicans pursue their personal and political agendas. Last year the House Speaker was running for the U.S. Senate and it was hard not to view every decision through that filter.
Neither Moore nor Berger has announced any future political plans but McCrory is all but certainly running for reelection in 2016 in what is widely expected to be a heated battle regardless of who the Democrats nominate. Attorney General Roy Cooper is already running.
That means how Berger and Moore interact with McCrory and how they respond to his agenda will be even more closely scrutinized. None of this is necessarily good news for progressives, but it is a safe bet that McCrory wants to claim a few wins for moderate positions before 2016 rolls around.
He likes to claim he “steps on the toes” of the Left and the Right all the time, but folks in Raleigh know better. He rarely disappoints his right-wing base. It will be interesting to see if his looming reelection bid makes him try to change that and how Moore and Berger respond. Stay tuned.
