RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) – North Carolina’s Republican-dominated legislature took extraordinary steps Thursday to reduce the powers of a Democratic governor-elect, defying raucous protests and threatened legal challenges days before he takes office.
GOP lawmakers ignored chanting protesters disrupting House floor debate on the second day of their surprise session, which Democrats angrily called a power grab to weaken Roy Cooper once he becomes governor Jan. 1. The state’s attorney general, Cooper beat incumbent Republican Gov. Pat McCrory by barely 10,000 votes and vowed to fight back against GOP initiatives of recent years, particularly a law McCrory signed last March limiting LGBT rights.
“It appears the sole purpose is to undercut the power and authority of Gov.-elect Roy Cooper before he takes the oath of office,” said Sen. Floyd McKissick, a Democrat representing Durham.
Lawmakers want to scale back the team Cooper can bring into office, require their approval for top administrators at state agencies and erase the governor’s ability to shape elections boards statewide, which under current law would become controlled by Democrats in 2017.
On a day when hundreds protested, at least 16 arrests were reported when Speaker Tim Moore ordered the gallery cleared during one particularly noisy disturbance. Those arrested were led away in plastic handcuffs, with supporters in the nearby rotunda chanting, “this is what democracy looks like.”