Under The Dome: Legislators return to Raleigh for one day with no politics, just pageantry

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Hi everyone, Will Doran here with another weekly Under The Dome newsletter on everything from this week in state politics.

The N.C. General Assembly briefly returned to Raleigh this week for lawmakers, both old and new, to be sworn in to office.

Luckily for all the guests, they even held the swearing-in ceremonies on a Wednesday — which true insiders will know is when the legislative cafeteria serves its famous fried squash!

Three main takeaways

▪ All the old, familiar faces are still in charge for at least the next two years — no House speaker drama here, unlike in Washington.

▪ But there will also be some new faces around, like in the majority-female Senate Democratic caucus, and the GOP House caucus that, for the first time in many years, won’t be 100% white.

▪ No bills have been filed yet, and no feisty debates. That won’t start happening until the end of this month. Wednesday was all just about celebrating with family.

An evening with the most powerful people in politics (and us)

The N&O and N.C. Insider are hosting a “2023 legislative preview” event featuring both House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate leader Phil Berger.

And you’re invited.

Moderated by Insider Editor Lars Dolder, the event will take place at Caffé Luna in downtown Raleigh from 5:30 to 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 25.

We’re going to let subscribers to The Insider (our specialty state politics publication) get the first chance at tickets. But ticket sales will soon be open to everyone.

So stay tuned! And as an added bonus, heavy hors d’oeuvres will be served, plus there’ll be an open bar for beer and wine.

What to expect this session

You can hear more on this from Moore and Berger at that event later this month, but here’s a sneak preview.

A few of the issues we suspect may be hot topics of debate this year include:

▪ abortion

▪ medical marijuana

▪ Medicaid expansion

▪ sports betting

▪ redistricting

▪ changes to elections and voting rights laws

▪ how public schools teach issues like race and gender

Republicans almost have a veto-proof supermajority at the legislature now, so it’s going to be high-stakes from here on out.

And any veto fights will likely be supercharged by new rules proposed in the House, which will let Republicans call a vote on a veto override without even a minute’s notice.

Overriding a veto by the governor doesn’t take 60% of the legislature, just 60% of whoever’s present and voting. So the new rule (if and when it’s approved permanently) would mean that if a Democrat steps off the House floor to use the restroom, or maybe doesn’t come to Raleigh at all one day — even if for a good reason — then Republican leadership could swiftly act to push through a veto override vote. Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan has more details on that here.

More from our team

▪ There’s an interesting detail in Luciana Perez Uribe Guinassi’s latest story: When state officials were debating the recent decision to switch the State Health Plan from Blue Cross to Aetna, they signed NDAs swearing them to secrecy about the decision. They’re now citing those NDAs to avoid some of our questions.

▪ Remember that photo with a Republican U.S. House member grabbing another by the mouth as he tried to approach Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz during the heated speaker votes? That was North Carolina’s Richard Hudson, and our D.C. correspondent Danielle Battaglia has more on what happened.

▪ Across the state in the last decade, worker deaths have spiked to “well above the national average” while at the same time, workplace safety inspections have plummeted, Ames Alexander and Gavin Off of The Charlotte Observer report.

▪ What do Republican legislators want for new abortion restrictions, now that Roe v. Wade has been overturned? Details are starting to trickle out, and Avi Bajpai has the latest on backroom talks.

Thanks for reading. See you next week. In the meantime, tune into our stories, our tweets and our Under the Dome podcast for more developments.

— By Will Doran, reporter for The News & Observer. Email me at wdoran@newsobserver.com