I don’t know N.C. House Speaker Joe Hackney well, but I have had professional dealings with him for nearly 15 years. They’ve always been pleasant and cordial, and I’ve always had the sense that he operates in an above-board way.
That’s why this morning’s News & Observer editorial, “Joe says no,” struck me as particularly useful. In criticizing Hackney’s decision to block the Open Government Act, the newspaper points to one of the key problems in both the House and Senate: too few people hold too much power.
When a Jim Black abuses power, it’s easy to write it off as one bad apple spoiling the bunch. But Hackney doesn’t seem like a bad apple to me. He’s a hard-working straight shooter (as far as I know). He just has too much power to dictate what will and will not be considered by his 119 colleagues.
That’s why the N&O‘s editorial might prove useful. Perhaps it will help spur more people to consider the most straightforward solution to the problem of one person holding too much legislative power. When the new General Assembly returns to Raleigh in January, lawmakers on both sides of the aisle can agree to rewrite their rules so that legislative leaders have less power to block legislation.
