While Washington is enveloped in battles over President-elect Donald Trump’s nominees, a different but equally raucous appointments battle boiled over this week just 300 miles down US-1 from the nation’s capital.

North Carolina Republicans, seeing their veto-proof supermajority slip away by a single legislative seat in the state House, are trying to override outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s disapproval of a bill that would move gubernatorial authority over the NC Board of Elections to the State Auditor’s office.

The Senate overrode the veto but not without an uproar that led to the gallery being cleared. The House is poised to attempt its complementary override, but the GOP’s plans have hit a snag there.

The proposal was part of a bill chiefly geared toward Hurricane Helene relief, and was lambasted by Democrats as a power grab, in part due to the fact the GOP flipped the executive branch office with Auditor-elect Dave Boliek – but failed to see their gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson best Gov.-elect Josh Stein.

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However, Robinson – as the Senate’s presiding officer – moved to clear the gallery after raucous protestations and chants of “Shame, Shame, Shame!” erupted above lawmakers preparing to vote on the veto override. Robinson has thus far had to do so twice, according to Carolina Public Press.

As the eventually successful vote was about take place, a woman shouted “[the law] destroys the will of the voter – it’s voter suppression!”

“It restructures the entire state constitution.”

Robinson, without raising his voice, spoke into his mic that the woman was “disrupting … the legislative process.”

When a gallery-watcher shouted that the bill lacked any “reasonable relief for hurricane victims,” Robinson banged his gavel and called out, “Clear the gallery.”

“Everybody’s gotta go,” he said, as police calmly ushered spectators out, threatening those who remained with arrest.

“You can bang that gavel,” one man was heard taunting Robinson as he left.

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North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)

State Sen. Natasha Marcus, D-Huntersville, was heard on video captured by the Raleigh News-Observer calling out to Robinson that he could not clear the whole gallery, because many people were respectfully watching the vote, and saying the capitol is “the people’s house.”

Before he vetoed the bill, Cooper told NBC Charlotte that the legislation “really didn’t provide immediate and direct funding to western North Carolina” despite being labeled as Helene relief. He called it a “massive power grab.”

Jim Stirling, a research associate at the North Carolina-based John Locke Foundation, has done a deep dive into the controversy, and his group filed an amicus brief with lawmakers in a recent lawsuit related to the matter.

“It is not under the purview of the governor to execute all laws. The other executive agencies of the executive branch or indeed other executive elected officials are in charge of executing law. Not just the governor,” Stirling said.

“Under [Cooper’s] argument, he says effectively that all appointments must be under him because he’s in charge of executing the law, and he has the power of appointment on this.”

Overriding the veto, however, could render part of the lawsuit moot, he said.

The lawsuit will “probably need to be restarted based on the argument that these appointments must be under the governor, not any other executive agency (like the auditor),” he said.

Neither Cooper nor Robinson responded to a request for comment. 

In moving election boards’ appointment power to the state auditor’s office, the state board’s activities would remain independent of Boliek and the executive branch, but his office would control its appointments and funding, according to NBC Charlotte.

What would change would be the current Democratic control of the elections board, an official told the outlet. The state auditor would also be able to appoint chairpersons in all 100 Tarheel State counties.

Currently, Cooper – and would-be Stein – also appoint the state board’s members, who must consist of three majority-party and two minority-party individuals.

Attempts to move appointment powers away from the governor’s office have been subject to lawsuits in recent months and years. The most recent ruling, in Cooper v. Berger, held that an attempt to move appointment powers to the legislature unlawfully infringed on the executive branch’s express power in that regard.

A prior case, McCrory v. Berger – bearing the name of Cooper’s predecessor, Republican Gov. Patrick McCrory – resulted in a state supreme court ruling holding that some appointments made by legislators violate separation of powers.

In the state House, three Republicans from the Helene-ravaged western part of the state voted against the bill, with one, Rep. Mark Pless of Canton, saying it had nothing “that was going to send money to the many needs in Western NC – it was simply moving money from one account to another.”

Pless, however, said the election board appointments portion appears “allowable by the legislature,” according to FOX-8. The veto-override in the lower chamber, therefore, could come up just short if the trio do not change their original positions.

Back in January of 2017, my wife Leela June and I were driving from Washington, D.C., to the Snowshoe ski resort in West Virginia.  Just two months earlier, then New York City businessman Donald J. Trump had shocked the nation and the world with his well-deserved – and desperately needed – election as president of the United States.

As I have written about in the past for this site, I had long been a fan of businessman Trump. In 1987, while a writer in the White House of President Ronald Reagan, I read Trump’s book “The Art of the Deal” and honestly believed it to be one of the best “real-world” business books ever written.

As my wife and I continued our drive that day in 2017, most of the conversation centered on Trump and his pending transition to president. As my wife drove, I went into my regular lecture that “Billionaire Trump needed none of this.”

“Why should he enter the political arena when he can live a life of peace and luxury while growing his global business empire?” I asked. “Why should he subject himself to partisan attacks, false hoaxes and personal smears by an entrenched elite fearful that they could not control or sway him? Why should he risk all that he built over the last few decades in the pursuit of an office so many told him was unattainable?”

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While watching the road, my wife smiled and said: “Now go ahead and answer your own questions.”

I smiled back and gave her the answer she had heard numerous times before: “Because, as then businessman Trump looked around and saw the country he loved falling apart at the seams, he asked himself two questions: ‘If not me, who? If not now, when?’ Precisely because he had decades of unrivaled success and experience and precisely because he had made himself a multibillionaire, he did come to believe he had the gifts, the intelligence, the experience, the connections, and the patriotism to turn the country around.”

As we continued our drive and got deeper into – and higher – into West Virginia, the temperature continued to drop while the landscape transitioned into a winter wonderland of snow-covered trees as far as the eye could see. That spectacular vision immediately refocused my mind on Christmas.

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As a child, I grew up in abject poverty and was homeless often. As a 6-year-old, I had obtained a tiny plastic Nativity scene that came to mean everything to me and launched my spirituality. That same year, during the Christmas season, when the constables came to evict us yet again, they found me hiding in a closet clutching that Nativity scene to my chest.

As I got older, Christmas for me became about helping the least among us. 

President Trump speaks on the phone sharing updates to track Santa’s movements from the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) Santa Tracker on Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2018. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Jumping back to the drive to the ski resort in West Virginia, as I continued to look in awe at the snow-covered landscape, I suddenly turned to my wife and blurted out: “What if a multi-billionaire used his gifts to save Christmas for the neediest among us?”

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We had printed out driving directions and I immediately flipped the paper over to its blank side and began to furiously sketch out the plot for such a story.

That plot involved multibillionaire main character Christian Nicholas, whose life has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. As Christian struggles to find real meaning in life despite his vast wealth, his older brother Paul, a minister in Texas, reminds him of the one and only time in Christian’s life when he was truly happy.

That time was when, as a small boy, he saved every penny all year to buy and deliver Christmas presents for needy children on the Army base he lived on with his military parents. His brother then implored Christian to “become like Santa Claus all over again. Save yourself by helping others.”

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“Saved” by his minister brother’s desperately needed reminder, the literal-minded billionaire decides that his life’s mission will now be to build a real-life “Santa’s Workshop” at the North Pole. A flight of imagination that will not only save him, but also a select number of adults from around the world who have applied to be his “Santa’s Elves.” Adults from every walk of life who have also lost their way and are in anguished need of salvation.

The multibillionaire then uses his vast experience, wealth and drive to reach out to his vast array of contacts in the private and governmental sector to assemble the team needed to build such a complex. Together, all soon experience firsthand the faith, hope and charity that unites us as human beings, while bringing joy to thousands of needy and abandoned children the world over.

President Trump and first lady Melania Trump cheer after lighting the 2017 National Christmas Tree. (AP)

That story, inspired by the conversation about then President-elect Trump, became the book: “The North Pole Project: In Search of the True Meaning of Christmas.”

We all have gifts which can make a difference. Fictional Billionaire Christian Nicholas used his to bring hope and joy to thousands of children and adults. President Trump is using his to try and save a nation.

This Christmas season – and beyond – which gifts of yours can make a difference for those most in need? Merry Christmas.

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When we focus on survival, life becomes pretty straightforward. Food, water, shelter, health, and hopefully the warm embrace of a loved one. That’s what we truly need.

If we are blessed to have all those, then I know you agree we have a lot to be grateful for this Christmas. 

But what if a less evident, less material, and largely unrecognized factor is equally important to human survival? Based on my experience as a faith-based leader who’s traveled to more than 50 countries, mobilizing churches to respond to wars and natural disasters, I believe there is. 

That less evident factor is hope. If we truly understood its power, we’d package it up and stuff it into every survival kit the world over. 

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Hope was actually the focus of this past Sunday of Advent, on December 1, for Christians around the world, and it was a pivotal part of the Angel’s announcement to the shepherds of the birth of Christ.

In Luke 2:9-12 we read, “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid. I bring you good news that will cause great joy for all the people. Today in the town of David, a Savior has been born to you; he is the Messiah, the Lord.’” 

In their day, shepherds were outcasts, poor, and downtrodden. Their lives were hard, and they had little to look forward to. But the fact that God chose to reveal the birth of Christ to them gave them hope. And this news spurred the shepherds to action. 

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I’ve personally witnessed how hope empowers the human spirit to prevail. People can weather just about anything. As long as they have hope. Hope gives human beings the confident expectation that a better day is coming. It enables us to live victorious through life’s tsunamis with our heads above the water, rather than under it.

For one very recent example, just consider Chimney Rock, North Carolina. 

In September, Hurricane Helene’s intense rains triggered catastrophic flooding in Chimney Rock and all throughout parts of Appalachia. Roads were washed out; homes and businesses were flooded. Residents in remote regions were literally cut off from civilization, and a staggering 126,000 homes sustained damage.

Flash forward to today, and when you make your way down Main street in Chimney Rock you’ll still see that most of the businesses that are fortunate to be standing are still boarded up. Peek inside, however, and you’ll see a flurry of activity. 

The town’s alive with a glorious orchestra of pounding nails. Fresh two-by-four framing has gone up, and pristine drywall has already replaced the damaged interiors. 

As Chimney Rock Mayor Pete O’Leary recently said, “It’s been constant construction, constant cleaning, constant traffic on the road with dump trucks and big vehicles. We were hit hard and we need a lot of assistance to get back on our feet, and we’re very hopeful that assistance will be forthcoming.”

Did you notice that he said “hopeful”? It’s what all of us desperately need in times of adversity. 

Our team at CityServe has been active in a five-state region hit by the storm, with a special focus on western North Carolina and Chimney Rock. We’ve mobilized chainsaw crews to clear out debris and set up aid stations to distribute food and water. We also helped coordinate the delivery of special cargo that Ivanka Trump brought to North Carolina: 300 StarLink devices requested by President-elect Trump and provided by Elon Musk. They were distributed to first responders who used them to reconnect with residents who’d lost communications.

But I’d submit that Ivanka’s arrival, and the arrival of many other philanthropists and charitable organizations, brought something that — while less tangible — may have been even more important. They brought hope. Residents of North Carolina’s wild and beautiful hill country knew they’d not been forgotten; that helped sustain their hope.

To be clear, much work remains and countless repairs are still needed. Mayor O’Leary estimates Chimney Rock’s Main Street will not reopen until sometime this spring. 

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But here’s what I can tell you: In the face of heartbreak and devastation, Chimney Rock will ultimately emerge bigger and better than ever. How can I be so sure? 

Because while it’s true many there have lost loved ones, their homes and businesses, their hope is alive and well. If you think Helene can keep them from celebrating the Holidays this year, think again. 

Want to take stock this Christmas of all our blessed nation has to be grateful for? I’d say start with the resilient residents of Chimney Rock. Their hopeful spirit in the wake of a devastating flood stands as a shining example for all of us. With the help of friends and neighbors, they’re piecing their community back together one nail, one dry-wall section, one plywood slab at a time. 

For the shepherds at the very first Christmas, the Lord made it a point to reveal himself to those who needed good news the most. So, as Americans help those who need it most right now, we’re learning an important lesson about hope this Christmas. We’re learning that no matter the hurdles, hope is always possible. 

May the people of Chimney Rock be a lesson to us all. Their endurance shows us that as long as the beacon of hope shines bright, nothing can stop a people blessed by Providence with a spirit to endure. 

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM DAVE DONALDSON