(The Center Square) – Saying the potential law would “rescue extreme right-wing candidates” from election loss, Gov. Roy Cooper on Friday vetoed a bill involving campaign finance and wearing of personal masks.
The bill originally filed March 1, 2023, changed significantly over time, and in part due to the events in the state reactionary to a war in the Middle East between Hamas and Israel.
The addition of a campaign finance law in the language – as apart as those two topics may be – came late in the process and stoked considerable and expected backlash.
Various Criminal and Election Law Changes, also known as House Bill 237, “creates a gaping loophole,” Cooper said in his veto message Friday morning.
“This legislation creates a gaping loophole for secret, unlimited campaign money in the middle of an election year,” he 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. The legislation also removes protections and threatens criminal charges for people who want to protect their health by wearing a mask.”
Cooper’s 97th veto, a state record, came just before expiration of the time allowed. Governors, per state law, have 10 days from receiving a bill to either sign into law, veto, or allow to become law without a signature. The day received is day zero.
In this session, Cooper has issued 22 vetoes. Nineteen overrides have been successfully executed by the Republican majority chambers. His vetoes of House Bill 834 last Friday and House Bill 198 on May 23, as well as HB 237, are unlikely to be tried before Labor Day per reports of lawmakers with personal plans during the back half of summer.
Three-fifths majority or more is required by each chamber to override. Republicans have exactly that in the Senate (30 of 50) and House of Representatives (72 of 120).
Republicans say the bill levels the playing field among major parties; before Cooper’s message, Democrats had already said it allows outside influence to determine election winners.
Corporations cannot give money directly to candidates, per state law. They can give directly to federal political fundraising committees known as 527 organizations and do so in unlimited amounts.
The late change allows the 527 organizations, named because of the associated tax code, to donate to state political parties. Those respective parties can take in unlimited donations and give unlimited amounts to their candidates.
The bill initially drew sharp rebuke centered on the rights of immunocompromised people and their families. The version the governor got and rejected answered that with a change in language, allowing people while in public to wear “medical or surgical grade masks” to prevent spreading illnesses. Lawmen can ask a person to remove it for identification purposes.
People wearing masks in public, and those blocking roads or emergency vehicles, are singled out in the proposal. Protests in the state about fossil fuels have led to road blockages, and university campuses – notably the Polk Place quad at Carolina – have been contentious areas linked to the war between Hamas and Israel.
State law involving masks dates back 71 years to activity by the Ku Klux Klan. When the COVID-19 era came, lawmakers agreed to a change that corresponded to recommendations of federal and state health officials led then by Health Secretary Mandy Cohen. She’s since left to fulfill an appointment from President Joe Biden to be director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
When first filed 15 months ago, the proposal only included language on criminalizing money laundering, and enhancing sentence when convictions involved a defendant “wearing a mask, hood, or other clothing device to conceal or attempt to conceal the defendant’s identity.” Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, and the sides have fought since sparking protests and demonstrations with many involved choosing to hide their identity.
