CHARLOTTE – I first heard the exciting news – of the 69-50 vote in the N.C. House against a lottery referendum – while discussing that very issue on Charlotte news-talk powerhouse WBT-AM’s “Spires and Krantz” program. We were talking about the constitutionality of a referendum and its implications for the fall elections when the station’s news staff cut in to report the breaking news.

I have to admit I was stunned. Once it became obvious earlier in the day that House Speaker Jim Black did not have the votes to pass a lottery referendum within a budget bill, and he then split the two issues, it was pretty much a foregone conclusion that a stand-alone vote on the lottery would fail. Presumably Black and the lottery-fixated Gov. Mike Easley figured that they needed a recorded floor vote against the lottery so they can use the issue against recalcitrant legislators in the fall elections (not that I think the stratagem is likely to succeed).

So why was I stunned? Because the vote was so lopsided. A sizable 14 Democrats crossed over to vote against the measure, compared to only three Republicans voting in favor. I think a lot of people assumed that the last several weeks of furious lobbying by the Easley administration must have succeeded in winning over at least a couple of Democratic lottery opponents. To hold the vote with the outcome not at all close was to admit a level of incompetence in advancing his agenda that I did not expect from Easley.

Another thought that occurred to me during the course of the WBT-AM show was that while the outcome was dramatic, it faded quickly from the discussion. Frankly, the lottery is already yesterday’s news. It has been rather obvious for a rather long time that, no matter how the governor and speaker finagled it, they weren’t going to get the lottery passed. We’ve heard the same old arguments over and over again. They don’t improve with age or repetition.

Indeed, the dishonest cry of “but how can you vote against the will of the people to decide?” (it got used again today in this AP coverage of the vote: http://www.herald-sun.com/state/6-267840.html) has moved beyond the merely annoying into the territory of infuriating. These politicians have absolutely no interest in allowing voters to decide other matters of equal or greater import, such as whether to impose a constitutional tax or expenditure limitation on our bumbling legislature, or to limit their terms, or to ban racial preferences in the public sector, or, God forbid, to enact campaign finance reform. Many of these same lawmakers back in 1999 didn’t even want North Carolina voters to have their traditional right to vote on billions of dollars in UNC and community college bonds. The people’s right to vote, my foot. Lottery supporters could hardly be more contemptuous of real public sovereignty.

OK, enough about the lottery today. As I said, it’s yesterday’s news. Please read the posts on our site about today’s big news – the lawsuit filed by six counties and three municipalities against the Easley administration to claw back the local funds it pilfered from them. This is a huge story, involving public finance and political blackmail and legal maneuvering and politics.

And stay tuned for tomorrow’s news: the potential political consequences of Easley’s seizure of the local tax funds and of his administration’s handling of the issue since then. These issues promise to play significant roles in the coming legislative elections – unlike, I suspect, today’s lottery vote.