Election puts focus on lt. gov.’s power
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
By Staff
Jordan Schrader
As long as the governor stays healthy, North Carolina’s lieutenant governor has just one constitutional duty: wielding the gavel of the Senate.
That position as Senate president was long ago stripped of most power to influence legislation. But a viewer of two debates this month might not realize that.
Presiding over the Senate is a “very, very important job,” said Pat McCrory, the Republican running for governor against the current lieutenant governor, Democrat Bev Perdue, whom he casts as a member of the state’s “power elite.”
Robert Pitte-nger, the Republican candidate for the lieutenant governor’s race, shares that expansive view of the job.
“I will promise the people of this state that we will have an open government,” Pittenger said in his debate against his opponent, Rutherfordton Democrat Walter Dalton.
Pittenger, of Charlotte, argues he could reshape debate on the Senate floor to give voice to the minority party, which likely will be the Republicans. Democrats prevented GOP senators from offering most changes they wanted to this year’s budget.
But it’s unclear he could be successful in that role, which would pit him against President Pro Tem Marc Basnight, who controls the Senate, and Majority Leader Tony Rand, who has led the Democrats in cutting off debate. (more…)
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