The New York Times described the push by North Carolina’s legislature to limit executive power as “a brazen power grab.” The Atlantic labeled the Republican effort “unabashed.” And CNN called the move “an unprecedented power grab.”
But history is more likely to remember the episode as a throwback to the 1980s. That’s because parliamentary warfare between branches isn’t new in North Carolina. After all, Democrats perfected it.
After Cooper’s upset win over Gov. Pat McCrory, Republicans are clearly bitter. They’re just not original. Lawmakers drafted several bills to limit Cooper’s authority. Most significantly, Republicans want to limit the number of state employees who serve at his pleasure. They also want Cooper’s Cabinet picks to undergo a Senate confirmation process.
But despite media reports, this partisan sniping isn’t unusual. In fact, the whole rerun makes David McClennan nostalgic. A politics professor at Meredith College just a few miles fom the Capitol building, he says the infighting “has been a longstanding tradition.” And he tells the Washington Examiner that 2016 continues to look more and more like 1985.
Back then Democrats weren’t as deferential to incoming governors. They welcomed Gov. Jim Martin into office by overhauling the entire State Personnel Act. By limiting his hiring and firing authority, Martin was only able to bring 300 “policy-making employees” into office with him, ensuring that the administration remained predominantly Democrat during his tenure.
These employees are the wheels and the cogs of the executive branch, Drake Maynard explains. A consultant at the Office of State Personnel during the Martin administration, he says at will hiring allows the governor “to see if the people who are in these positions are the kind of people who will help get his initiatives going.” And without that authority, Martin’s executive branch was significantly checked.
More than three decades later, North Carolina Republicans are trying to rerun the play that Democrats first pulled off. They’re trying to reintroduce a hiring and firing cap, limiting the number of appointments Cooper can make from 1,500 to 300. And that seems relatively tame in comparison to the other reforms Democrats tried in 1980s.
With majorities in the General Assembly, Democrats launched a bid to rewrite the rules and Martin out of office. Less than a year into the governor’s first term, they tried to muscle through a referendum that would keep him from running for a second term. North Carolina historian John Hood described the legislation “as a brazen attempt to deal the governor and his Republican Party a body blow.” Luckily for Martin, it failed.
Today Republicans’ other demand isn’t as novel as new term limits. It’s just the law. In fact, the GOP’s only guilty of cribbing it from the state’s Constitution. Article III Section VIII states that to build his Cabinet the governor “shall nominate and by and with the advice and consent of a majority of Senators.” Though out of use recently, the statute remains authoritative.
By clawing back power from the executive, Professor McClennan argues that the legislature is operating according to design. “North Carolina has always had a weak governor, ever since the first Constitution in 1776,” he says. “Even after two revisions the Constitution has kept a lot of power in the General Assembly.” Following that precedent comes with significant risk though.
Republicans are gambling that the electorate will award them for their obstruction. They’ll find out soon enough. Two back-to-back elections are on the horizon that could slim the GOP’s majorities in the General Assembly. And while they’ll have to explain why they ambushed Cooper, no one can say what they did was unprecedented.
Philip Wegmann is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
