Another bald-faced power grab?

Even a lot of people who are sympathetic to the rightward tilt in state public policy in North Carolina of late were shocked and embarrassed by the General Assembly’s recent effort to enact a controversial power-grab bill that would fire dozens of duly-appointed board and commission members. Now, it appears there is a local, Wake County version of this effort in the General Assembly.

As reported by Raleigh’s News & Observer late last night, a new bill from Senator Neal Hunt (pictured at left) would change the rules of how school board members are elected in the capital county in a way that is clearly designed to alter the board’s power structure and move things in a conservative direction.

It’s hard to believe that anyone could advance such a blatant power grab with a straight face. Even the Republican chair of the Wake Board of Commissioners expressed some surprise at the sweeping scope of the proposal. Given their record thus far in the 2013 session, however, it appears that neither shame nor embarrassment are conditions that tend to afflict the conservative ideologues running the show on Jones Street.