Gov. Josh Stein issues his first vetoes. Will GOP be able to override them?
North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein used his veto stamp for the first time on Friday, and he did it three times.
He vetoed a bill that would eliminate the law requiring permits to carry a concealed handgun as well as two bills to expand cooperation with immigration authorities.
Good morning and welcome to our Sunday Under the Dome newsletter, which focuses on the governor. I’m Dawn Vaughan, The News & Observer’s Capitol bureau chief.
I have more details about the permitless conceal carry veto in my story.
And my colleagues Avi Bajpai and Kyle Ingram have coverage of the two immigration bills that were vetoed.
House Speaker Destin Hall told reporters this past week that if Republican have the numbers for a successful override, “we’ll go ahead and take up the overrides. I know our whip is looking at attendance now, and so it really becomes an issue of, do we have everybody here or not?”
Hall said that he intends to override every veto, and is willing to wait until they have the numbers to do it, even if that’s “later on down the road.”
That could mean calling the vote when Democrats are absent, too, putting pressure on lawmakers to attend every session.
With Stein in Paris for air show, Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt was acting governor
Stein was out of the country this past week, attending the Paris Air Show. His office didn’t announce the trip until after he returned home Thursday afternoon. Stein was there with business leaders, Department of Commerce Secretary Lee Lilley and the Economic Development Partnership of North Carolina.
At a protest outside the Executive Mansion on Wednesday urging Stein to veto the immigration bills, some speakers alluded to the fact that he was in France.
The trip came after Stein and other state leaders announced that JetZero, the jet maker, was coming to Greensboro and bringing more than 14,000 jobs.
Stein’s absence meant that, according to state law, Lt. Gov. Rachel Hunt was acting governor.
Both Stein and Hunt are Democrats. But the governor and lieutenant governor don’t run as a ticket, and sometimes they are from different parties, as they were when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson were both in office.
The state Constitution says: “During the absence of the Governor from the State, or during the physical or mental incapacity of the Governor to perform the duties of his office, the Lieutenant Governor shall be Acting Governor,” and state law lays out the order of who is in charge next.
After the governor and lieutenant governor, the next person is the president of the Senate, but the lieutenant governor is also the president of the Senate. The Senate president pro tempore, currently Phil Berger, leads the Senate but is not mentioned in the succession provision.
Senators signal confirmation of Stein’s Correction secretary, with reservations
Senate Republicans advanced the confirmation Thursday of Stein’s choice for secretary of the Department of Adult Correction.
Leslie Cooley Dismukes has been in the job since January, when Stein took office, but is subject to confirmation by the Senate. It’s not a given, as the Senate previously deep-sixed one of Cooper’s nominees. But most of the time, it’s a chance for senators to scrutinize a pick, even if they ultimately let them keep their jobs.
Senators criticized Dismukes during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing over her lack of experience in adult corrections, though ultimately approved her confirmation.
“I respect the governor’s choice of Ms. Dismukes. She’s very qualified lawyer,” Sen. Warren Daniel, a Morganton Republican, said.
Dismukes has been an assistant U.S. attorney, criminal chief of the N.C. Department of Justice and interim director of the State Crime Lab. Stein is the former state attorney general.
“One of the things that just personally has concerned me is that it seems like the leadership team of the department has been more populated with lawyers who came (from) the DOJ with her ... more than people with correctional experience,” Daniel said during committee.
The Department of Adult Correction was once part of the Department of Public Safety, but lawmakers separated it out as its own agency a few budget cycles ago.
Senate Resolution 767, confirming Dismukes, is likely to pass this coming week.
Politics reporter Avi Bajpai contributed to this newsletter.
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