GEORGIA: State Senator Calls For Veto Override

From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

Minutes after Gov. Nathan Deal said he would veto the ‘religious liberty’ bill that reached his desk less than two weeks ago, state Sen. Mike Crane [photo] called on his fellow lawmakers to overturn the governor’s decision.

Crane, a Newnan Republican running for Congress, said Deal’s announcement Monday “is another example of how the political class is bought and paid for by corporations and lobbyists. Rather than standing up and protecting the 1st Amendment, the political class would rather sacrifice those rights to keep the money flowing.”

Lawmakers adjourned for the year Thursday. There are ways, however, they could return to Atlanta before January. The governor can order them back — which is unlikely.

Barring that, the state Constitution says legislators can decide to return on their own. Three-fifths of the members of both the House and Senate have to “certify to the governor in writing … that in their opinion an emergency exists in the affairs of the state.”

That would require 108 members of the House and 34 members of the Senate to call themselves back in. House Bill 757, the source of all this hubbub, received the votes of 104 of the 118 Republican members of the Georgia House and of 37 of the 39 Republican members of the Senate.

VIDEO: From the day Crane was sworn in. Scary. And this guy is running for Congress.