NC Republicans, flexing new powers, roll out major appointments bill
Legislative Republicans named seven new superior court judges, 13 Board of Transportation members and other key appointees in bill that could pass as soon as Wednesday.
Posted — UpdatedRepublican lawmakers, flexing new legislative powers, rolled out a list of dozens of new state appointments Tuesday, including seven new superior court judges as well as replacement members for most of the state Board of Transportation.
Appointees in the bill are a well connected lot, as legislative and gubernatorial appointees often are.
The new legislation includes appointments for seven of 10 judgeships the General Assembly created in the latest state budget — something Democratic lawmakers cried foul over, since superior court judges now are elected or appointed by the governor.
The new judgeships wouldn't take effect until Jan. 1, and the three remaining appointments will be made later, lawmakers said.
The special superior court judgeships in this bill would go to:
- Clayton Somers, a vice chancellor at UNC-Chapel Hill who was House Speaker Tim Moore’s former chief of staff.
- District Court Judge Beth Freshwater Smith, a Republican who ran an unsuccessful campaign last year for the state court of appeals.
- Former acting U.S. Attorney William Stetzer.
- District Court Judge Clifton H. Smith.
- Attorney Matthew T. Houston.
- Attorney Hoyt Tessener.
- Attorney Jessica Locklear.
Cooper spoke out about the appointments Tuesday, noting that lawsuits over constitutional issues – like the one pending now over Senate Bill 512 – are decided by three-judge panels that, in the future, can pull panel judges from these new legislative appointments.
The appointments bill would also appoint former state Sen. Tommy Tucker, R-Union, and former state Rep. Bill Brawley, R-Mecklenburg, to the N.C. Utilities Commission, which approves electricity rates.
Senate Bill 512 allowed the General Assembly to reconstitute the N.C. Board of Transportation. The bill introduced Tuesday includes 13 of those appointments. Cooper retained six appointments under SB 512, which lawmakers passed into law over his veto. Some Board of Transportation members would be reappointed under the new appointments bill, including former state Sen. Kathy Harrington, former state Rep. Leo Daughtry and former state Rep. Chuck McGrady.
The appointments bill would also name members to a newly created board for NCInnovation, which got $500 million in the new state budget to boost economic development in the state by funding ideas that emerge from state university campuses.
The bill also includes appointments to the UNC Health Care System’s board of directors, the State Board of Community Colleges, various UNC campus boards of trustees and other state boards.
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