Carter Wrenn posted on May 29, 2012 17:47
Back in the old days when Marc Basnight and Tony Rand ran the General Assembly a cohort of Democratic lobbyists who controlled scads of money their clients could give candidates had the legislature wired up;--though no one quite realized it at the time that world came crashing down on Election Day in 2010 when the Democrats lost their majority.
But no sooner had all that Democrat ‘wiring’ melted then a new cohort of lobbyists with Republican leanings descended on the legislature and the ‘car inspections bill’ says a lot about what’s happened since.
The bill to end mandatory inspections of new cars was a Republicans’ dream. It was less regulation. Lower fees. Less government. It stopped government taking money from one group and giving it to another. It was practical. Made common sense. And even the press liked it.
And it never got out of committee.
It was killed dead as a doornail by lobbyists for people who do car inspections.
As one retired legislator said, The legislature’s been re-wired.