Stem cells: during session and the campaign
Cross-posted from Capital Beat.
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Stem cells: during session and the campaign
Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue has brought the somewhat volatile topic of stem cell research into the gubernatorial campaign, both through a policy statement on the topic and a recent ad:
When asked about the ad last night, McCrory said, "I've never heard her bring up this subject in her eight years as Lt. Governor."
However, the topic has come up.
Greensboro Rep. Earl Jones, a Democrat, ran this bill, which was a tamer version of earlier proposals. The latest draft of the bill, which passed the House but died in the Senate, would only have lead to research guidelines for stem cell research. Earlier proposals would have put state funding in to embryonic stem cell research.
State funding is now something that Perdue says she favors.
More background on that legislative discussion here, here, here and here.
I asked Jones about the issue coming up in the campaign and said that Perdue was supportive when the bill crossed over from the House to the Senate.
"She called me directly," Jones said. "Perdue was very supportive, she was the first person in the Senate to call me."
Jones, rightly, said his bill got bogged down by the political debate surrounding embryonic stem cells. In particular, some people who oppose abortion tend to oppose embryonic stem cell research and bring intense and vocal pressure to bear.
You can find more on the topic from the National Academy of Sciences and the Boston Globe, which has a whole page dedicated to the topic. (It's a bit out of date now, but worth a read anyway.) Also, the topic seems to be bubbling up in the presidential campaign.
Comments (2)
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Some leader. She called the bill sponoser? Any evidence she called any actual Senators to solicit their support? Any evidence of any press conferences she held to support the legislation? How about the Senate bill entroduced by Rep. Walter Dalton that also died in the Senate? Her record is actually not very good.
Posted on September 10, 2008 2:37 PM
First off, let me say I'm shocked *shocked!* that someone with an "@patmcrory.com" e-mail address take that tact.
To answer the question re: Dalton's bill:
* Jones bill was filed first and got hearings first. Typically, the first house to move on a piece of legislation gets to send it across first.
* Dalton's bill appears to have been strictly an appropriation bill, which have not traditionally gotten their own hearings. Rather, they're included in the final approps package.
Posted on September 10, 2008 2:47 PM