2/12/2017 State G.O.P.

Leaders Move Swiftly as Party Bickers in Congress - The New York Times

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U.S.

State G.O.P. Leaders Move Swiftly as Party

Bickers in Congress
By ALEXANDER BURNS and MITCH SMITH FEB. 11, 2017
When Republicans in Kentucky seized total control of the state government last year ,
Damon Thayer, the majority leader in the State Senate, began asking around for advice
from counterparts in other capitals where the party already dominated both the legislative
and executive branches.

How should we handle all this power? he wanted to know .

One answer impressed him, Mr . Thayer said, from a senior Republican lawmaker in
Wisconsin: Move quickly .

Kentucky Republicans have done just that, swiftly passing laws to roll back the
powers of labor unions and restrict access to abortion. But they are only getting started, Mr .
Thayer said in an interview: They also plan to make sweeping changes to the education and
public pension systems this year .

And they have plenty of company .

While Republicans in W ashington appear flummoxed by the complexities of one-

party rule, struggling with issues from repealing the Af fordable Care Act, known as
Obamacare, to paying for President T rumps promised wall on the Mexican border , rising
party leaders in the states seem far more at ease and assertive. Republicans have top-to-

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bottom control in 25 states now , holding both the governorship and the entire legislature,
and Republican lawmakers are acting with lightning speed to enact longstanding
conservative priorities.

In states from New England to the Midwest and across the South, conservative lawmakers
have introduced or enacted legislation to erode union powers and abortion rights, loosen
gun regulations, expand school-choice programs and slash taxes and spending.

State Senator Scott L. Fitzgerald of W isconsin, the Republican majority leader , said
conservatives in the states had taken the party s national victories in November as a
directive to shake up government.

That has been amped up as a result of Donald T rump being elected president, he
said. Theres a higher expectation no w.

If Republicans in the states have taken Mr . Trump as an inspiration, in some respects

they are also lar gely unburdened by hi s personality and his political whims. Republicans in
Congress are plainly struggling to overcome deep internal disagreements and to balance
traditional conservative goals with Mr . Trumps distinctive priorities. But for Republicans
in state capitals, these are comparatively remote considerations.

Some Democrats fear that while their own party is consumed nationally with fighting
Mr. Trump, leaders and activists may be too distracted to throw up ef fective roadblocks to
the ideological agenda that Republicans are ramming through at the state level.

Progressives cannot af ford to forget about whats happening in our backyards, said
Nick Rathod, executive director of State Innovation Exchange, a Colorado-based liberal
group focused on state legislatures. Some of it is even more egregious than what is
currently happening in W ashington, D.C.

Republicans have gained power rapidly in the states since the 2008 presidential
election, winning 33 governorships and in many instances entrenching themselves in
power through legislative redistricting.

Riding to office on a wave of disconte nt with the Obama administration, headstrong

governors in states like W isconsin and Ohio embarked on a ferocious quest to transform
their states, repeatedly battling powerful unions and popular backlash. Sidelining

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Democratic lawmakers and grinding down liberal interest groups, these Republicans may
have helped pave the way for Mr . Trumps victories in a string of traditionally blue
Midwestern states last year .

Acting fastest at the moment, though, are four states where Republicans won total
control of the government only in November . In addition to Kentucky , Missouri and New
Hampshire became one-party states with the election of Republican governors, and
Republicans in Iowa snatched away the State Senate, where Democrats had held their last
grip on power.

In all four states, Republicans are racing to strip back the influence of labor unions, a
key Democratic constituency .

In Missouri, where union membership has waned, Gov . Eric Greitens, a telegenic
former member of the Navy SEALs, signed a right to work bill into law on Monday ,
denying unions the power to require that workers at companies they represent pay dues or
their equivalent as a condition of employment. In Kentucky , Gov. Matt Bevin signed a
similar measure in January , along with the repeal of a law that kept wages high on public
construction projects. And in New Hampshire, State Senator Jeb Bradley , the Republican
majority leader, said so-called right-to-work legislation was a top priority .

In Iowa, Republican leaders announced this past week that they would pursue
sweeping changes to the collective bar gaining rights of public employees . State Senator
Bill Dix, the new Republican majority leader , said his party had campaigned on such
changes which would cut deeply into unions negotiating power and intended to
make good on its commitments. He said Republicans would also seek to change state laws
governing health care and to enshrine in the State Constitution the right to bear arms.

Iowans expect us to take action, Mr . Dix said.

His counterpart in New Hampshire, Mr . Bradley, a former member of Congress,

echoed that language, but cautioned in an interview that Republicans had to move
deliberately and not just fast.

We cant just start bonfires that we ca nt put out, he warned. But we can certainly
move forward with a conservative agenda that s a reasonable conservative agenda.

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Democrats and labor unions, which in the past have been able to thwart conservative
legislation with the help of a supportive governor or a bloc of allies in the legislature,
describe the onslaught in newly Republican states as overwhelming.

Theyre killing us here in the state of Missouri, said John Stif fler, executive
secretary-treasurer of the St. Louis Building & Construction T rades Council.

Some unions in the state, shut out of power , are attempting to put the so-called right-
to-work law up for a direct vote in a 2018 referendum. For the moment, Mr . Stiffler said,
union leaders are seeking to meet with Mr . Greitens in the hope of finding a compromise
on other policies, like prevailing-wage legislation.

Were trying to find a way to get even a small audience with him, Mr . Stiffler said
of Mr. Greitens.

The Republican agenda in the states goes well beyond limiting unions. Party leaders
in Kentucky, New Hampshire and Mis souri have signaled that they plan to expand school-
choice and charter school programs and, in some instances, to pursue tort reform and to
place new regulations on voting.

Beleaguered Democrats see each policy as devised to undercut one of their core
political constituencies: teachers, trial lawyers, minority voters or young people.

In several states that the party has controlled for a longer span, Republican governors
have also announced aggressive plans to overhaul the size and functions of government,
including a Wisconsin welfare-overhaul proposal, backed by Gov . Scott Walker, and a
large program of tax cuts in Florida, c hampioned by Gov. Rick Scott. Both men were first
elected in 2010.

Republicans in a number of states are also pushing a deeply conservative social

agenda.

In New Hampshire, Mr . Bradley had l ong been pushing a bill to let people carry
concealed guns without a permit; repeatedly , it passed both legislative houses only to be
vetoed by Gov. Maggie Hassan, a Dem ocrat.

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We had no chance of overriding her veto, lamented the silver -haired Mr. Bradley,
but Ms. Hassan was elected to the Senate in November . The gun bill cleared the legislature
again on Thursday, and the new Repu blican governor, Chris Sununu, has every intention
of signing it, David Abrams, a spokesman of his, said.

In Kentucky last month, Mr . Bevin, 50, an activist with close ties to the Tea Party,
signed a set of new restrictions on abortion, banning the procedure after 20 weeks and
requiring that every woman who seeks an abortion under go an ultrasound first.

Iowa Republicans have advanced a bill to defund Planned Parenthood; Missouri

legislators have filed a barrage of anti-abortion bills, including one that would ban the
procedure entirely, in defiance of the S upreme Court. In a handful of states including
Missouri and Texas, lawmakers are considering legislation that would designate public
restrooms and locker rooms as gender -specific.

And as Mr. Trump attempts to crack down on sanctuary cities at the national level,
lawmakers in states like T exas and Tennessee have proposed measures to force
municipalities to enforce federal immigration law more assertively .

Democrats and their allies, including groups like Planned Parenthood, often have little
recourse in these states but to rally popular outcry and or ganize for the next election, or to
challenge Republican-enacted policies in court.

They have succeeded from time to time, including in North Carolina last year , ousting
a Republican governor , Pat McCrory, who signed legislation gutting anti-discrimination
protections for gay and transgender people. In 2013, V irginia voters broke a Republican
monopoly by electing a Democratic governor , Terry McAuliffe, who campaigned in part
against abortion restrictions passed by a Republican-controlled legislature.

And in deep-red Louisiana, voters elected a Democratic governor , John Bel Edwards,
in 2015, to succeed the unpopular Bobby Jindal, who pursued a hard-line agenda and
briefly ran for president.

Mr. McAuliffe, one of a growing number of Democrats who have called on the
national party to devote more attention to state elections, said Democrats should recognize

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the role governors play in heading of f the kind of conservative legislation they find deeply
offensive.

Mr. McAuliffe, who has used his veto pen 71 times, said V irginia Republicans had
pushed nuttier, more socially divisive legislation than even North Carolina.

This isnt scare tactics this is actu ally happening, Mr . McAuliffe said. If you
had a Republican governor , he would have had to sign them, and think where we would be
today.

In Iowa, a Democratic state senator , Janet Petersen, said the zeal of the new
Republican majority had broken a mood of passivity among rank-and-file Democrats. On
the Planned Parenthood issue alone, Ms. Petersen said her of fice had received about 1,500
emails from alarmed constituents.

If theres one positive thing to come out of this horrible legislation, she said, it s
that complacency is gone.

A version of this article appears in print on February 12, 2017, on Page A1 of the
New York edition with the
headline: G.O.P.-Led States Race to Cement Their Priorities.

2017 The New York Times Company

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