By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Senate President Steve Sweeney put the Senate under call to make sure everyone showed up to vote, as Democrats challenged Republicans to finally defy Governor Christie, and for the first time ever, override his veto of the now-notorious gun permit mental health record expungement bill.
“I’m asking all the people in this house to stand strong on their original vote and vote ‘yes’ and do the right thing and stand on your personal ideals and protect the people who potentially can get harmed. […] we’re going to do in some of these other bills as we move forward, but on this I’m asking you to have an affirmative yes for a veto override,” said Senator Fred Madden.
“We have an opportunity here to find common ground. Where we are here is recognized that a bill that has good intent can be improved,” said Senator Tom Kean, Jr.
Any Republican who voted to override risked backlash from the party boss. Gov. Christie has made this boast a standard in his stump speech as he campaigns in the GOP presidential primary.
“I’ve vetoed 400 bills in five and a half years — and you know how many of those vetoes have been overridden? Zero,” said Christie.
The bipartisan bill passed with not a single ‘no’ vote, and posted again today is simple: It would require police to be notified when someone who’d once been committed to a psychiatric facility seeks to expunge that record in order to buy a gun. State judges had asked for a bill as guidance. They wanted police information and more perspective before they wiped out someone’s mental health records. The bill’s co-sponsor, Republican Kip Bateman, said he had to vote to override as a matter of conscience.
“I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t look at myself in mirror if I didn’t do what I think was right today. So I’m encouraging my colleagues to vote ‘yes’ to override,” said Bateman.
But Republican Jennifer Beck charged that the bill they once supported actually falls short, and she blamed the media for failing to point that out.
“New information that came forward, frankly, I’m a little surprised the fourth estate didn’t uncover — is that none of the last 12 mass murders in this country have ever included a person that was committed or institutionalized,” Beck said.
Minority Leader Tom Kean proposed another alternative bill — which establishes new standards for involuntary commitment to outpatient mental health treatment and requires any stay at a psychiatric hospital to become part someone’s permanent medical record.
Sweeney constantly admonished Kean to stick to this bill, not his alternative. In the end it came down to math. Democrats needed three Republican votes to override, and they got them from Bateman and Senator Chris Connors.
“Rather than come back here, time and time and time again, so the people get nothing, and we keep arguing about the same thing, as simple as it is. You got the votes. As one of my former colleagues Jack Kelly said, ‘Just shut up and vote!'” Connors said.
The surprise, the man who delivered the final vote needed for the override, was Joe Kyrillos, a Republican who abandoned Christie to endorse Jeb Bush for president.
So, Gov. Christie’s perfect record on no overrides is broken by a former supporter, and the political dance in Trenton now gets far more complex.