North Carolina State Politics: A Primer

News Type: Other — Sun Jul 1, 2007 12:17 AM EDT

politics, north-carolina, legislature, general-assembly

NC Legislative Building

I just got done interning in the North Carolina House of Representatives. Before I went, I knew, of course, what I had been taught in Civics class Sophomore year of high school - the House met, debated and voted on bills that had been approved by committees, which were then passed to the Senate, if they hadn't been there already, then signed by the Governor. I learned so much more, and I will share some of the more interesting points with you.

Once an important bill reaches the floor, its fate is pretty much already decided. Even if it is something contentious, like extending a .25c sales tax for 30 days (H.B 2044, which was the Continuing Budget Authority, which made sure the State kept running while House and Senate committees bickered on the budget for 07-08 Fiscal Year.) on which the vote appears to be close, everyone knew what was really going to happen.

If you really want to figure out what's going on, go to committee meetings. There, the Senators or Representatives actually learn what is going on behind the technical jargon of the bill about 40% Slopes and NC GS maps (H.B. 1756, which was pretty confusing, I must admit). Sometimes, it's pretty boring, with Representatives wondering, publicly, if the Dept. of Transportation realized that their printout of a proposed Blue Ridge Parkway specialized motorcycle license plate (S.B. 1036) was larger than life size. They also occasionally let rules of decorum totally fall to the wayside while they make fun of Sen. Ellie Kinniard (D-Orange) behind her back for proposing that a bill (S.B. 1359) to allow motorcyclists to run red lights that don't detect their presence because the light is induced by weight or a magnetic sensor also include bicycles. Plus, you might end up on TV - you could see me staring off into space while standing behind one of the speakers in a committee meeting on Legislative Week in Review on WUNC.

Once a year, a certain Representative brings an ice cream maker and makes (read: tells pages to make) ice cream for all legislators and staff who want it. But sometimes, Eastern North Carolinians bring hog @!$%# in a wading pool to impress upon the legislators to get hog farmers who spray waste or store it in cesspools to clean up their act.

Constituents rarely visit their congresspeople to share their concerns. If they did, they'd make an impression.

Those legislators really love to honor people. Every day, they'd spend 15 to 30 minutes honoring dead guys, radio DJs, Highway Patrol cadets, the National Guard or other random people. It's nice, I'm sure, but it gets annoying when the clerk is reading for 30 minutes: "Whereas, W.W. Finlator was a really nice guy. Whereas, W.W. Finlator was pastor at First… zzzzz…."

The Senate is boring. They spent so much more time on ceremony and their pages looked funny, standing perpendicular to the Senators, who were sitting at funny curved desks. But maybe I'm biased because Sen. Clodfelter spent 35 minutes talking about S.B. 3 which would set a very low minimum for renewable energy/energy efficiency measures and would allow power companies to raise their rates to build new power plants, even if they don't actually build them. Did his horribly long-winded speech do any good? I suppose not, because all the Senators were all surfing the internet or asleep. However, the bill did pass 97-1, with our friendly, principled Sen. Kinniard voting against.

Even on the floor, during Session, legislators aren't paying attention. They are either having side conversations, getting pages to buy them milkshakes from the cafeteria in the basement, eating from the massive bowls of candy they have on their desks, or using their laptops.

Cross-posted on my website: Durham Political Youth.

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{"commentId":850687,"authorDomain":"chum"}

Chum

Constituents rarely visit their congresspeople to share their concerns. If they did, they'd make an impression.

This is so true. I need to schedule a visit.

{"commentId":850687,"threadId":"123350","contentId":"812013","authorDomain":"chum"}

#1 - Mon Jul 9, 2007 1:11 PM EDT

{"commentId":870595,"authorDomain":"pev"}

Pev

"Whereas, W.W. Finlator was a really nice guy. Whereas, W.W. Finlator was pastor at First… zzzzz…."

Whereas...W.W. Finlator was my Latin teacher. Or rather, his son, who was also named W.W. Finlator.

{"commentId":870595,"threadId":"123350","contentId":"812013","authorDomain":"pev"}

#2 - Mon Jul 16, 2007 5:27 PM EDT

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North Carolina State Politics: A Primer

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