Cooper vetoes bill to target protesters, change masking rules, loosen campaign finance

Calling it an attempt to let billionaires buy the state's elections, Gov. Roy Cooper vetoed a wide-ranging bill Friday that would change campaign finance laws — and the laws for wearing masks in public — while also subjecting protesters to additional criminal and civil penalties.

Cooper's veto message didn't address the part of the bill related to protesters, but he criticized the other parts about mask wearing and campaign finance.

The bill passed the legislature earlier this month along party lines, with Republicans in favor and Democrats opposed. Some Democrats walked out and refused to vote on the bill at all, in their own form of protest.

"This legislation creates a gaping loophole for secret, unlimited campaign money in the middle of an election year," Cooper wrote. "While voters are kept in the dark, this scheme allows anonymous out-of-state billionaires to flood North Carolina with campaign contributions to rescue extreme right-wing candidates that Republicans now fear will lose."

Republican lawmakers have said the campaign finance changes will help them create a more even playing field in the race for governor to replace the term-limited Cooper. Democratic nominee Josh Stein has raised millions more than Republican nominee Mark Robinson, according to the most recent campaign finance filings.

The latest records show Stein had raised $19.1 million as of February, with $12.7 million left to spend. Robinson had raised $10.7 million in that same period, with $4.5 million left to spend.

GOP can override

Just as Cooper avoided addressing the part of the bill that deals with increased penalties for protesters, Republican defenders of the bill have largely avoided addressing the campaign finance changes. Sen. Danny Britt, R-Robeson, said he and other GOP lawmakers plan to override Cooper's veto and pass the changes into law.

"Bad actors have been using masks to conceal their identity when they commit crimes and intimidate the innocent," Britt said in a written statement Friday. "Instead of helping put an end to this threatening behavior, the governor wants to continue encouraging these thugs by giving them more time to hide from the consequences of their actions. I look forward to casting a vote to override this veto and allowing those with actual health concerns to protect themselves and others."

Republicans have successfully overridden every veto Cooper has issued since last year when the GOP gained a veto-proof supermajority in both chambers, following the surprise party swap by Charlotte-area Rep. Tricia Cotham. She campaigned as a Democrat in 2022 but switched sides to the Republican Party soon after taking office.

Targeting protesters, masks

Republicans in the state Senate passed an earlier version of this bill that would've enacted a total ban on people wearing masks in public for health reasons.

They said doing so would make it easier for police to search or arrest protesters who wear masks to demonstrations — lawmakers accused the protesters of taking advantage of pandemic-era norms around mask-wearing — and they initially dismissed concerns about the broader ramifications for anyone else who would've been affected.

But a public outcry resulted in GOP lawmakers in the state House of Representatives pushing back, led by several who represent districts that will be competitive in this year's elections.

The compromise they agreed on would still allow people to wear masks in public for health reasons, but with stricter rules than are currently in place.

Instead of allowing any mask to be worn for "ensuring the physical health or safety of the wearer or others," the new language Cooper vetoed Friday would say people may only wear "a medical or surgical grade mask for the purpose of preventing the spread of contagious disease."

Critics say if that becomes law, people could be arrested for wearing masks to avoid allergens while doing yard work — or if they do have concerns about a contagious disease but wear a mask that a police officer doesn't believe to be proper medical-grade equipment.

"The legislation also removes protections and threatens criminal charges for people who want to protect their health by wearing a mask," Cooper wrote in his veto message.

The mask-wearing changes aren't the bill's only attempt to crack down on protesters. It would also significantly ramp up the criminal penalties for anyone who blocks a road while protesting. And it would allow for civil lawsuits against the organizers of protests that end up blocking roads, even if those organizers weren't physically present.

Some critics have called the changes an unconstitutional First Amendment violation, intended to scare people away from protesting against the government in the first place. Lawsuits could be filed if the bill becomes law over Cooper's veto.

Green light for Super PACs

The campaign finance changes are highly technical, but broadly would allow federal Super PACs to give unlimited amounts of money to state political parties — which can in turn pass along unlimited amounts of money to candidates.

That has major implications, given current campaign finance laws in North Carolina. Some relevant part of current law include:

• Individual candidates can't take more than $6,400 from any single donor. But they can receive unlimited amounts of money from their political party.
• Political parties can also receive unlimited amounts of money from donors. So can Super PACs.
• Individual candidates are banned from taking money directly from corporations or anonymous donors. But Super PACs aren't.

The bill would therefore clear the way for people to circumvent existing laws and get unlimited amounts of money to candidates, by using the state parties as a sort of middleman. 

The bill says Super PACs that receive money from corporations or unions wouldn't be allowed to use that money to pass along in North Carolina. They'd have to keep it segregated in a separate fund.

Republicans say that should make it clear that while individual people could take advantage of the new rules, corporations couldn't. Democrats aren't convinced. They point to a memo from the State Board of Elections, which appears to conclude that Super PACs would be allowed to pass along money from so-called social welfare nonprofits.

More commonly referred to as "dark money" groups, those nonprofits are allowed to take money from corporations or unions. But they can also keep their donors secret. So there'd be no way for the public to know whether corporate money, or how much of it, would be making its way to any politicians.

If those critics' reading of the proposal is correct, it would mean that corporations —or any wealthy donors who wished to remain anonymous —could skirt existing state laws to secretly put an unlimited amount of money into a candidate's account by passing the money first through a social welfare group, then a Super PAC, then the candidate's political party.

Two Super PACs expected to play a big role in this year's elections in North Carolina, potentially spending millions of dollars on the race to replace Cooper, are the Democratic Governor's Association and the Republican Governor's Association.

Republicans have said that since the DGA operates differently than the RGA, and is currently allowed to make more contributions in North Carolina because of state law, the law needs to be changed.

"What we’re seeking to do is level the playing field," House Speaker Tim Moore said when the proposal was first made public.