@NCCapitol

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 2023-10-24T23:01:20+00:00 - Updated 2023-10-25T00:57:34+00:00

Travis Fain

, WRAL state government reporter

Republican 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.

Senate Bill 761 is the latest move in a battle over key appointments between Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican legislators, who passed legislation this year stripping some of the governor's ability to place allies on influential boards.

The appointments bill filed Tuesday must pass the House and Senate for the appointments to go through. That could happen as soon as Wednesday. But the bill that allowed the shift in appointment power, Senate Bill 512, is targeted in a lawsuit scheduled to be in court next week for a temporary injunction hearing. Depending on what the three-judge panel in that case decides, some of these appointments may not be seated.

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 GOP legislature creates new judge positions that the people can’t vote on, appoints the judges themselves, sets their salaries and allows them to rule on cases that challenge the constitutionality of laws the legislature passes," the governor said on social media. "Wonder how those cases will turn out?"

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.