Rep. Shelley Rudnicki, R-Fairfield, stands to address the House of Representatives after she was censured last year. On Thursday, she called for the censure of House Speaker Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, but her motion divided her own caucus and fell well short of passing. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

AUGUSTA — A Republican from Fairfield on Thursday launched an unsuccessful attempt to censure House Speaker Ryan Fecteau for holding a late-night vote on the two-year state budget, which passed mostly on party lines last Thursday.

Rep. Shelley Rudnicki argued that Fecteau, a Biddeford Democrat, broke House rules by holding the vote after 9 p.m. without receiving the support of two-thirds of lawmakers to allow a late-night vote.

“It is hard and binding rule,” Rudnicki said. “You have failed to do that and willfully disregarded House Rule 501 at every opportunity. That is a dereliction of duty by the presiding officer and it is why we must censure Speaker Fecteau today, so this abusive and lawless pattern of behavior does not continue in this body.”

But the motion divided her own caucus, with only 24 Republicans voting in support and 119 lawmakers opposed.

“I appreciate the frustration of the good representative from Fairfield, however the people sent us here to get serious work done,” Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, said. “I think, frankly, we need to focus on our work and not focus on censures, which I think has been a huge distraction of this body over the last two months.”

During last week’s budget debate, Rep. David Boyer, R-Poland, tried to invoke the House rule before 9 p.m. and was informed by Fecteau that the objection could only be raised at precisely 9 p.m. But the House went at-ease and didn’t return until after 9 p.m., at which point Rudnicki was told that it was too late to raise the objection.

Rudnicki’s censure motion said it was “a dereliction of duty and breach of procedure” to hold the vote after 9 p.m. without getting super-majority support of the chamber and “creates procedural irregularities, undermines legislative integrity and compromises the legitimacy and fairness of House proceedings.”

Speaker of the House Ryan Fecteau, D-Biddeford, reminds House members not to applaud or react during a debate on budget bill at the Maine State House in Augusta last week. Joe Phelan/Kennebec Journal

Late-night voting has routinely occurred in the Legislature. And the censure motion was doomed to fail, with Democrats holding the majority.

But the motion from Rudnicki, who was censured along with Rep. Michael Lemelin, R-Chelsea, last year for floor comments about the Lewiston shooting and abortion, illustrates that lingering bad blood between the political parties after the budget debate and after Democrats censured Rep. Laurel Libby, R-Auburn, for a social media post targeting a transgender high school athlete.

Libby has not been allowed to speak or vote since the censure, but could regain those rights if she apologizes. She has said she will not apologize.

Instead, Libby has sued Fecteau, and Republicans have repeatedly tried to lift the censure, including an attempt after House Minority Leader Billy Bob Faulkingham, R-Winter Harbor, offered a teary apology on Libby’s behalf.

Faulkingham opposed censuring Fecteau, saying he would not “make a mockery of the censure process,” as Faulkingham accused Democrats of doing by censuring three Republicans in the last year.

Last week, Democrats used their majorities in both the House and Senate to pass a continuing services budget that included funding to close a current $118 million shortfall in the state’s Medicaid program, known as MaineCare, and for existing programs and services for the next two budget years.

No new spending initiatives, tax increases or service cuts were included in the budget. Those are expected to be taken up in a “Part II” budget.

Republicans, meanwhile, also have launched an effort to overturn the budget vote by petitioning for a people’s veto referendum.