The wrong kind of reforms
Changing the way the General Assembly operates and how legislators are elected always seem to be on the minds on some members of the House and Senate.
Rep. Bruce Goforth wants four-year terms instead of the current two years, calling it a way to reduce the costs of campaigns. Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand wants to limit the length of legislative sessions, presumably to make it easier for people to serve.
Session limits have passed the Senate before and failed in the House. Rand's bill is almost certain to pass the Senate again this year, as a majority of Senators has signed on as co-sponsors. Most proposals to limit sessions allow only 120 days for a long session, held in odd-numbered years, and 60 days for the short session held the following year.
The debate every year is the same, lawmakers complaining that the state is in danger of losing its citizen legislature, the chance for everyone to serve, not just people with independent wealth or a business they own.
The reality that many Senators can't face is the same every year too, that the citizen legislature ended a long time ago, as a glance at the cars in the parking deck under the legislative building makes clear.
Session limits won't help. There are some lawmakers who are not wealthy or retired, but not many middle class people have a job they can leave for four months one year and two months the next, not counting all the trips to Raleigh for study commissions and other meetings. And nobody with a low-wage job can even consider it.
Legislative pay is still roughly $13,951 a year, so it's not like you can quit your job and come to Raleigh. Session limits by definition also limit debate and increase the power of legislative staff and lobbyists.
Four-year terms don't make sense either and wouldn't necessarily reduce the cost of campaigns. They would reduce the power of voters and the accountability of lawmakers and that's not exactly what we need these days.
Rand and Goforth are right about one thing. Average people cannot afford to run for the General Assembly and can't afford to serve if they are elected. The answer is to raise legislative pay, consider making the job full time, and provide public financing so candidates' chances aren't defined by the ability to raise big money. Surely that is just around the corner.
A survey of the power club
If you want to get an idea of who is in the power club in North Carolina, the lobbyist registration division of the Secretary of State's office is a good place to start.
The General Assembly session began Wednesday, so lobbyists have been registering fast and furiously in the last couple of weeks. There are currently 595 lobbyists registered to patrol the legislative halls, representing 571 clients, everybody from Bank of America to Blackwater to the North Carolina Portable Toilet Group.
Bank of America has 20 lobbyists signed up, more than any other single company. Now we know where some of that bailout money has gone. A handful of big law firms dominate the lobbying scene. Poyner and Spruill in Raleigh represents 33 separate interests, including local government, waste disposal companies, and the health care industry. One of its lobbyists is former legislator Marvin Musselwhite.
The Raleigh firm of Manning, Fulton and Skinner has 29 lobbying clients, including insurance companies, pharmaceutical interests, the well-connected PAC at UNC-Chapel Hill, and the North Carolina Realtors Association.
One of its lobbyists is John McMillan, former top staff member for Lieutenant Governor Bob Jordan, and Barbara Cansler, the wife of former legislator and former lobbyist and current Secretary of Health and Human Services Lanier Cansler. Dizzy yet?
McGuire Woods has 28 clients, including pharmaceutical companies, the University of Phoenix, and community health care. One of its lobbyists is John Merritt, former Chief of Staff to Governor Mike Easley, and Harry Kaplan, who is now also in the media business as a partner with a subsidiary of the News & Observer. Talk about blurry lines.
Eleven cities have their own lobbyists in Raleigh, as do six counties and one local school board. Here's an idea to save money. Maybe legislators can represent the local governments in their districts.
More from the fringe
And what would a week be without inflammatory and offensive speech from Jeff Taylor, the Charlotte staffer of Raleigh's most well-known conservative think tank.
Taylor has previously written that he wanted a public official and his wife to die and called former Governor Mike Easley a liar and a fascist.
His continued his dignified approach recently, this time calling Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight names, wishing that global warming would "flood this coastal cretin out of office."
Cretin, Nazi, liar, and wishing someone and their wife dead. That just defines credibility, don't you think?
