North Carolina GOP's power grab to limit Democratic governor

BipolarFuk

Demoted
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North Carolina Republicans narrowly lost the state's governor's race, and now, they're rapidly stripping away the Democratic winner's authority and influence.

The unprecedented power grab led to chaos in Raleigh on Thursday, where hundreds of protesters crammed into the state Capitol building. Some were arrested.

The Republican-led legislature this week called a surprise special session, rolling out bills to limit Gov.-elect Roy Cooper's ability to make Cabinet appointments, remove state and county election boards from Democratic control, slow legal battles' path to the state Supreme Court -- where a majority of justices were appointed by Democrats -- and make the state Supreme Court elections partisan rather than non-partisan.

Another bill would block Cooper from appointing any members to the state Board of Education and to the board of trustees for the University of North Carolina system. It would reduce the number of appointments up to the Cooper administration from 1,500 to 300.

The moves come after a bitter governor's race that saw Republican incumbent Pat McCrory wait weeks before conceding that he'd narrowly lost.
Cooper urged lawmakers to "go home" in a Thursday news conference.

"Most people might think that this is a partisan power grab. But this is more ominous," Cooper said.

He promised to fight the GOP's moves, saying lawmakers "will see me in court."

Cooper's denunciation came hours before protesters streamed into the state Capitol building to resist the Republican moves.

Republicans, meanwhile, admitted their moves were the result of Cooper's victory over McCrory.

"I think, to be candid with you, that you will see the General Assembly look to reassert its constitutional authority in areas that may have been previously delegated to the executive branch," Republican Rep. David Lewis told local reporters. He said that "some of the stuff we're doing, obviously if the election results were different, we might not be moving quite as fast on."
 

Smitty

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Maybe we're just numb to your constant cries of wolf that when it matters it falls on deaf ears.
 

2233boys

Not So New Member
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Apr 7, 2013
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2,793
This is a pretty applicable explanation of our entire country's broken political discourse.
It is really poignant in this years election. For years we democrats have been decrying the GOP candidate as Evil, and the end of the world. People tuned out.

Romney and McCain were at least Competent, now we have a incompetent jackass as POTUS

I blame my party for doing everything they could to push a half ass candidate, who wasn't liked, and for screaming the sky is falling every cycle, numbing people.
 

BipolarFuk

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North Carolina is no longer a democracy: report

North Carolina is no longer a democracy: report

North Carolina can no longer be considered a democracy, according to a new report from the Electoral Integrity Project (EIP), which rated the state's overall electoral integrity at the same levels of those in authoritarian states and "pseudo-democracies" such as Cuba, Indonesia and Sierra Leone.

The state scored 58 out of 100, with ratings so poor on the measures of legal framework and voter registration that it tracked closely with those in Iran and Venezuela. The state got a score of 7 out of 100 for the integrity of voting district boundaries.

According to the report, North Carolina was the worst state for unfair districting in the United States and the worst ever analyzed by the EIP in the world. These ratings mean that the state can no longer be considered a democracy.

The EIP, created in 2012, uses a system measuring 50 elements to the election process including legal framework, access to polling and how ballots are counted. Since it's creation, the EIP has measured 213 elections in 153 countries.

Some issues listed in the state of North Carolina included a large number of unopposed incumbent state legislators in the general election, poor districting that the EIP said displaces power and the GOP's veto-proof control as a majority in the state.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/north-carolina-is-no-longer-a-democracy-report/ar-BBxv4Ou?li=BBnb7Kz
 
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