Sneaky Republicans Hiding Their Tracks

During yesterday's debate over teacher pay raises, Rep. Linda Whittington (D-Schlater) introduced an amendment that would grant a clean pay raise to teachers. Whittington, it should be noted, once served on the House Education Committee but was removed when Speaker Gunn (R-Clinton) decided to remove her from the committee in order to pass charter school legislation last year.

Whittington's amendment was defeated during Wednesday's debate, but the trick the Republican leadership took to hide the vote record is particularly troubling.

The vote report for Amendment No. 1 (the Whittington clean pay raise amendment) says it was a voice vote when, in fact, it was not. The House had a recorded vote, which is located below.

Speaker Gunn clearly does not want to have the Republicans on record voting against a teacher pay raise. When backed into a corner on a hot-button issue, Gunn pulls an Orwellian trick like this to pretend like the vote simply never happened.