What is Sine Die?

The Legislature just returned from summer break, but this legislative session is already in full swing. Rumors have been floating around downtown that the Legislature is going to enact sine die in the first part of November. Sine die, meaning “without day,” means the Legislature is going to end their session early for the year.

There are a couple reasons for that:

The Legislature passed presidential primary legislation earlier this year that would set our presidential primary for February 27^th.  The legislation did not get immediate effect which means the Legislature needs to enact sine die 45 days before that date for it to take effect. If it had received immediate effect, it would not have been an issue.

The other issue is in the State House. The democrats control the House by a slim, 56-54, margin. The House democrats have two legislators running for mayor in their districts, and they will both be on the November ballot this year. If these two legislators win their mayoral seats, the House goes down to a 54-54 split, so we would need 55 votes in the House to get anything done. This would mean democrats would need all their caucus members on board, plus one republican. If both caucus members become mayor, it is in the democrats’ best interest to end early.

The question then becomes; “When does the governor set those special primaries to fill those seats?”

There are a lot of moving pieces in limited time, so we will continue to bring you updates as they come.