Speaker Carter Fires Back At Hubbard On Voter ID Delay
by March 30, 2013 6:38 am 83 views
In case you missed it, Sen. Bryan King offered some harsh criticism to House Speaker Davy Carter on Thursday for a delay on the vote to override Gov. Beebe’s veto of his voter ID bill. Carter said the delay was due to a busy House calender before a long three-day Easter weekend.
But it seems things heated up even more in an email exchange. King’s criticism and the House delay sparked former Rep. Jon Hubbard (R-Jonesboro) to send a pointed e-mail to Carter regarding his decision to delay. You will recall that Hubbard lost his re-election in a district Republicans probably should have won after some of his bizarre writings surfaced.
“Knowing the significance of the vote in the House to overturn Governor Beebe’s veto of SB2, I cannot understand how, or why, you chose to delay this important vote from taking place in a timely manner? This matter should have been moved, without question, immediately to the TOP of the House agenda for Thursday, March 28, 2013, but for reasons known possibly only to yourself, you chose to relegate this important matter to a later date and time,” wrote Hubbard.
“The position of Speaker of the House is one which should not be entered into lightly by anyone so chosen to hold this position. However, your decision to lay aside this Governor’s blatant attack upon this critical piece of conservative legislation, one which would help to preserve the very integrity and the sanctity of the voting process itself, loudly suggests that you have not taken the position of House Speaker with the seriousness it deserves,” continued Hubbard.
But Carter was having none of this and he responded to Hubbard while copying several dozen of his House Republican colleagues.
“Jon, the wonderful thing about being re-elected is that I like my colleagues have a vote. Frankly, I don’t give a damn what you think,” responded Carter.
BOOM!
The whole thing is interesting and again underscores the point I have made for months that both sides are being overly emotional on a law that simply requires a voter to show photo identification when they vote. Regardless, I fully expect the House to override the veto and for the bill to become law. Yelling at Carter probably won’t help the cause.