Gov. Roy Cooper of North Carolina, a Democrat, on Tuesday vetoed a bill passed by the state’s Republican-controlled legislature that would strip his office of important powers and shift more authority to G.O.P. officials.
Republicans, who have a legislative supermajority and could override Mr. Cooper’s veto, presented the bill as focused on relief for areas of North Carolina devastated in September by Hurricane Helene. But only 13 of the legislation’s 131 pages deal with storm aid, and both Republicans and Democrats in the state’s hardest-hit areas opposed the measure and called for more recovery funding.
The rest of the bill amounts to a significant power grab by Republicans, who are likely to lose their supermajority next year, and with it the ability to force legislation past the veto pen of the incoming Democratic governor, Josh Stein. Mr. Stein, the state attorney general, handily won this year’s race to succeed Mr. Cooper, defeating Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican whose highly controversial past torpedoed his candidacy.
“This legislation is a sham,” Mr. Cooper said in a statement, arguing that the bill was unconstitutional and “does not send money to Western North Carolina but merely shuffles money from one fund to another in Raleigh.” He said that while “this legislation was titled disaster relief,” it would take away the next governor’s power to make appointments for key posts and reduce the influence of other Democratic officials.
The bill’s many provisions include shifting authority over the state election board from the governor to the auditor — who will be a Republican next year and who would likely create a G.O.P. majority on the five-member board. The legislation would also limit the governor’s ability to fill vacancies on state courts; curtail the ability of the attorney general (also a Democrat next year) to challenge laws passed by the legislature; and make it harder for voters to fix errors with their mail ballots.
The veto sets up an extraordinary test of priorities and unity within the legislature’s Republican ranks. The party has just a single-vote supermajority in the lower chamber, and key Republicans will wrestle with whether increasing their party’s power is worth supporting a bill that some see as falling short of the hurricane relief their constituents need.
