RED LIGHT, GREEN LIGHT: Thom Tillis, NCGA’s heavy-handed traffic cop

by Brant Clifton • April 30, 2013

In the run-up to the 2010 elections, we heard a lot of sob stories from NCGA Republicans about how heavy-handed and unfair the Democrats were to them when they ran the legislature. A Republican legislator from Cabarrus County has stepped forward to shed some light on how House leaders are badgering conservatives and helping to water down conservative initiatives.


Rep. Larry Pittman (R) made his remarks at a recent Tea Party meeting in his district (fast forward the linked video to about the 12:00 minute mark).

Some of the more interesting revelations from Pittman’s remarks:

Apparently, the speaker’s office has a color-coding system they apply to bills before sending them to committees for discussion. ”Red” means the bill is going NOWHERE. ”Yellow” means its going nowhere FOR NOW. ”Green” means Speaker Thom approves wholeheartedly. Pittman said all of his efforts to reform the state’s concealed carry law and protect the Second Amendment are currently coded “Yellow.”

Remember the whole “official religion” hoopla? Pittman gave an interesting inside take on the affair. He told the crowd the bill’s sponsor realized he made some errors — in the wake of the initial publicity — and wanted to amend it to make it a whole lot more kosher. Pittman said THAT legislator was approached by ” a source close to the speaker” who told THAT legislator he needed to cease and desist with the bill or his future legislative endeavors will NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER NEVER EVER see the light of day. It’s nice to see that an unelected hack pulling in a taxpayer-supplied salary bullying an elected representative of the people. I guess all that talk about never going back to the iron-fisted dictatorial ways of Richard Morgan, Jim Black, and Marc Basnight was just THAT — talk.


Pittman told his audience that many decisions within the House majority are made in light of Speaker Thom’s upcoming Senate campaign. Legislators are seriously and frequently told to back off certain tactics that might cause problems for the Senator-in-Waiting. Wow. The lower chamber of our state legislature has been morphed into an arm of the Tillis for Senate campaign.
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