#NCGA: A short session surprise?

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • February 12, 2014 

A piece of legislation that has raised the ire of Civitas and other Tea Party-aligned groups,  and has been voted down twice in the state House, has been resurrected and sent to the House Rules Committee.  According to a rather surprising source — who has a vote in the House GOP caucus — it’s eligible to be voted on in the General Assembly’s short session.  

The legislation I am taking about is H440 — The North Carolina Benefit Corporation Act.  It’s come up in the legislature in 2011 and in 2013.  Tea Party groups have attacked this legislation as an instrument of the United Nations’ Agenda 21.  Civitas went after it as being antithetical to capitalism. 

Benefit corporations are  not currently recognized by the state of North Carolina. But this legislation is seeking to change that.

What’s the big deal about Benefit Corporations, also known as B-corps?  A really smart guy with a fancy-pants Raleigh law firm dishes the dirt for us: 

READ IT HERE.

Thom and Bru: Mutual back-scratching at its best

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • February 11, 2014

Thom Tillis and Harold Brubaker have quite a special political bond. They are the only two Republican speakers of the North Carolina House since Reconstruction.  The two became very close upon Tillis joining the House in 2006.  On the eve of Brubaker’s 2012 departure from the House to take up lobbying, Tillis publicly described Brubaker as “my mentor, a trusted colleague, and a dear friend.”

It’s 2014 and Harold Brubaker is going gangbusters in his lobbying business.  What’s intriguing is how much influence he appears to still have in the speaker’s office TWO YEARS after leaving office.

READ THE ARTICLE.

#NCSEN: Tillis “mentor” in midst of Outer Banks fishing fracas

The Daily Haymaker, by Brant Clifton • February 7, 2014

Commercial fishermen along eastern North Carolina have been knocking heads for some time with state regulators.  Local fishing interests fear that regulations pushed by environmentalists with pull in Raleigh are endangering their livelihood and threatening the local economy.

The Coastal Conservation Association (CCA) of North Carolina is blamed by locals for the current regulatory environment.  One factor that might have won the CCA its success in Raleigh  their lobbyist in Raleigh, until September 4 of last year, was none other than former state House speaker and Thom Tillis “mentor” Harold Brubaker.

For those not so familiar with this ongoing fight in the east, soak in the words of longtime Outer Banks GOP leader Browny Douglas in his plea to state senator Bill Cook: 

READ MORE.