Procedure to Play Role In House Speaker Fight

The race to become the next speaker of the N.C. House is heating up as legislators begin to take sides concerning the best process to conduct the selection.

Some supporters of House Minority Leader Leo Daughtry, R-Johnston, the GOP caucus's nominee, say they support a process that drops the candidate receiving the fewest votes in each round of voting until one of the candidates receives a majority.

But other representatives say they think all candidates should remain on the ballot in succeeding votes if a majority is not received in the first vote.

Rep. Sam Ellis, R-Wake, a Daughtry supporter, said he thinks those candidates receiving the fewest votes should be dropped in the interest of time.

Ellis said that other Republicans who do not support dropping candidates with the least votes are simply trying to disrupt the system.

"I don't know who these wild-card people are who have more ambition than respect for the system," he said.

The speaker must be elected by a majority of legislators present for the vote. If there are no absences, a candidate would need 61 of the 120 votes to win.

There is no precedent if a candidate in the race does not receive a majority during the first vote, said Gerry Cohen, the N.C. General Assembly's bill drafting director. "Before 1995 the House was overwhelmingly ruled by one party so it was never an issue, but now the two parties are very close in number of members, so there may be different factions in each party," he said.

Daughtry said he has not made a decision as to what type of process he would support but will base his decision on what type of process is better for the Republican Party.

Rep. Richard Morgan, R-Moore, who also is running, said he disagrees with dropping candidates from the ballot.

"My opinion is that Representative Daughtry does not have the votes to be elected Speaker on opening day and cannot get the majority to be elected," he said.

Morgan said a motion to remove candidates receiving fewer votes was a ploy by Daughtry's outside advisers to ensure his victory in the race. Some legislators say that the splintering within the GOP, which holds a two-seat majority, might help a Democratic candidate, though likely not enough to win the election.

Rep. Verla Insko, D-Orange, said that opinion is fluid within the House and that anything could happen in the race. "I think that the situation has potential for helping the Democratic Party, but we only have 59 votes so whether or not it will be enough, I can't predict," she said.

Insko said she would support keeping all candidates on the ballot because it will not automatically eliminate minority party members unable to get a majority of votes.

House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, is the Democratic nominee for the next session. Black's press secretary, Danny Lineberry, said the speaker is not taking a position on what type of rules should be established if a majority is not received by any of the candidates.

But Morgan said he thinks Daughtry's unwillingness to keep the race open to all candidates is representative of how he would work in office.

"I think it's a pretty good sign as to what you might expect under a Daughtry speakership," he said. "Rather than having an open process where it is the most democratic, you see an attempt to close shop and shut down the process to stifle competition."

The State & National Editor can be reached by stntdesk@unc.edu.