Good morning lottery watchers
Well, if you're into reading tea leaves, the prospect for a lottery getting passed today just got a little less murky.
The Senate Rules committee met briefly this morning and, among other things, passed the lottery bill onto the full Senate. (Quick legislative lesson: the rules committee is where legislation that leaders like goes to be revived or quickly sent to the floor and where legislation the leadership doesn't like goes to die.)
At any rate, the committee action by itself doesn't mean much. But afterward Sen. Tony Rand, the majority leader in the Senate, seemed more upbeat than he has in a while when asked about the lottery.
"If we're ever going to do it, the time has come," Rand said.
Sen. Katie Dorsett, a Greensboro Democrat and member of the committee, said that passing the lottery bill out of Rules was a sign that a vote would come soon.
For those of you who have forgotten the score: There are 50 members of the Senate and if all 50 vote, 25 votes are needed for a tie, which Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, a lottery supporter, would break. Until now, five Democrats and 21 Republicans have announced opposition to the bill, giving lottery opponents 26 votes.
To win, something in that dynamic, which has been the status quo for a while now, will have to change.
The Senate starts its session at noon, so stay tuned.