Carolina Politics Online

In the past ten years, 19 officials in North Carolina have been convicted in Federal corruption cases, including former House Speaker Jim Black.  In South Carolina the number is more staggering at 33.  That’s an average of a little over three a year.  You can find out about any other state you’re interested in as well at a new Web site launched by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington.  In addition to the grim statistics you’ll find about your state government’s lack of ethics, there are also links to ethics groups that exist within your state.

The Web site is http://www.citizensforethics.org/state-ethics

I get really frustrated with the American people because the people are entirely to blame for the large amount of corruption that goes on at all levels of government.  If folks would actually pay attention and put partisan politics aside when it comes to reigning in government malfeasance there would be a lot less of it.  I guess people are just too busy trying to keep up with the Joneses in their gated community these days.

State Representative Jim Gulley (R-Matthews) has decided to retire from politics and I sure won’t miss him.  Thanks to Gulley, North Carolina inherited the corrupt and disgraced House Speaker Jim Black.  They were friends, so that was clearly more important than the constituents he was representing.  Hopefully the 103rd district will be a lot more careful in choosing his replacement next year.

Jim Black just won’t go away. And now a Wake School Board member and a judge are pimp slapping one another because of him.

A Wake County judge is expected to rule today that Black can serve his state sentence on corruption charges at the same time he’s behind bars on federal charges.

That anticipated ruling comes after Black was allowed to close out the remaining half of a $1 million criminal fine by transferring undeveloped land in Mecklenburg County to the Wake County school system.

“It was a reasonable way of resolving the fine,” said Ann Majestic, the school board’s attorney. “It looks to be a very fair value.”

But Wake school board member Ron Margiotta feels the school district was shortchanged by the land deal. He says Black should have been required to provide cash instead of turning over land. He’s also complaining that school board members weren’t notified ahead of time about the land transfer.

“We’re dealing with a convicted felon who made deals in bathrooms,” Margiotta said. “That’s the worst thing a person can do by betraying the public trust.”

The N&O

I think Margiotta, the only school board member in Wake County who traditionally gives a damn about kids and parents, has a point. But that judge must have pretty thin skin.

Wake Superior Court Judge Donald Stephens chastised school board member Ron Margiotta today for his complaints about the handling of the fine in the Jim Black case and warned that the criticism could cost the school district money in the future. [emphasis mine] 

According to today’s online article by Rob Christensen, Stephens interrupted Black’s sentencing to call in a school board attorney to his courtroom to be chewed out. The judge called the remarks “idiotic” and noted that he had not been obligated to levy any fine against Black.

Wow, sure sounds like a mature, deep-thinking jurist sitting up on that thar bench, don’t it?

“Criticism from those receiving the gift really kind of puts a chilling effect on judges and the courts system that are working really hard for their benefit,” Stephens said. “It is not appreciated. I don’t even understand it, quite frankly. In my 25 years on the bench, I have never seen anything quite like that. It makes no sense. It’s a little bit idiotic.”

Gift? What the hell are you, Santa Claus? Do you have a black robe or a red coat? Black was obligated to pay back this money, and Margiotta is right that a cash handout is better than some land deal.

According to T. Keung Hui, who covers Wake Schools for the N&O, Stephens added that “he would have to give serious thought to whether he would levy fines in the future that would benefit the Wake school system”, and added that “he had the power to rescind the fine and make the school board return $500,000 in cash”.

This judge must have a big black robe to cover the adult diaper he must be wearing, because he is acting like petulant little baby who doesn’t want to take a nap. What pompous know-it-all. Like that judge (also in Wake County)who a while back ordered a woman to send her kids to public schools, Stephens thinks his gavel is a crown and that his courtroom is his own little fiefdom. Margiotta not only has a right to criticize this ruling (we still live in America right?), he’s an elected official obligated to look out for the interest of the Wake schools. It’s his job to ask these questions.

Anyways, the Wake GOP has stepped up to give the judge a much needed kick in the ass:

“The Wake GOP is truly concerned about the lack of accountability and transparency by all parties in this deal,” Pope said. “[W]e have the party in power cutting deals for its own fallen leader, avoiding government accountability, allowing a man convicted of betraying the public trust to avoid personal responsibility of his crimes, and cheating the Wake County taxpayers out of some much-needed tax relief.

We support Mr. Margiotta’s statements that Black should have been required to pay cash and that the land appraisal should have been done independently. Furthermore, Judge Stephens’ sharp-tongued remarks today toward Mr. Margiotta were extremely inappropriate.”

Just another day in North Carolina…

I’m an equal opportunity insulter. It’s just that today, the Democrats have found themselves at the top of my angry list for two news stories that seem to prove, beyond a doubt, that they’ve been running the state for way too long and have lost touch with reality.

First off, here’s corrupt asshole Jim Black. This loser betrayed the entire state of North Carolina by accepted bribes while he was state house Speaker. Guess what? Prison is just too darn inconvenient for him.

Black’s attorney says about 150 people — including interim N.C. State University Chancellor Jim Woodward and several legislators — already have written on Black’s behalf. Black has been locked up since July 2007 in Lewisburg, Pa., the prison that once held union boss Jimmy Hoffa and crime boss John Gotti. Black is scheduled for release in 2012.

Black, 74, was sentenced for accepting thousands of dollars in illegal payments while speaker of the N.C. House.

Friends say not only has he become increasingly infirm, but his wife, Betty, has been diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

“There needs to be some compassion and some consideration … where a family member is suffering from ALS,” says Lee Myers, mayor of Matthews, Black’s hometown.

The N&O

Yeah? Well boo-freakin’-hoo. When my family members get sick, I don’t have any trouble seeing them. You know why? Because I didn’t break the law!!!  Jim Black didn’t show any compassion for the people of North Carolina while he was blowing his nose on our ethics laws. Now he wants compassion from us? Rot in prison for the rest of your sentence, you jerk.

And shame on everyone who wrote on his behalf, including former Republican Gov. Jim Martin.

Next up, here’s a story out of Wake County:

The Wake County Democratic Party has nominated three people to potentially oversee local elections, including a former state official convicted in a criminal coverup.

Alexander Killens, 55, resigned amid scandal as commissioner of the state Division of Motor Vehicles in 1996. He later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice after interfering with an SBI investigation into a DMV employee’s misuse of state property.

Killens was nominated to the Wake County Board of Elections last week, along with current member Sharon Everett and Raleigh lawyer Aida Doss Havel. The state Democratic Party will now decide whether to forward those names to the state Board of Elections, which will appoint two Democrats to the Wake board.

The N&O

Wow. Just… wow. Here’s your hope and change folks. How ya liking it so far?

North Carolina’s 99th House District covering northern Charlotte and a small portion of Huntersville is up for grabs next month after current state representative Drew Saunders was defeated earlier this year in the Democratic primary by none other than the notorious Nick Mackey.  While the 99th heavily leans Democratic, there is still an election in November and Mackey is not unopposed.  He sees opposition in real estate broker Dempsey Miller, a Republican from Huntersville.

One thing I noticed right away about Miller is that he is running a very positive campaign.  You can read his entire campaign site.  You won’t find a single criticism of Mackey.  Miller is not making the election about Mackey’s flaw, but about his own qualifications instead.  I don’t know if that’s the wisest way to play it or not.  Personally, I’d be hitting Mackey with everything that’s out there since I think it is relevant and it wouldn’t be hard to do, but perhaps there are plenty of voters out there who would appreciate a positive message than the back and forth attacks we are seeing at the national and state level.  Miller makes a pledge to protect the honor and integrity of the office and be an ethical and honest representative of the people of his district.  You can read about the issues here.

Look, this is a no brainer.  You hold up the life Nick Mackey has lead next to Miller’s and it is just unquestionable that Miller is the better candidate.  It would be a sad commentary on the voters of the 99th to send a man like Nick Mackey, riddled with a shady and corrupt past, to Raleigh after Charlotte is still recovering from the scandals brought about by former House speaker Jim Black (D).  It will send a message that Charlotte voters will tolerate and openly embrace malfeasance and fraud in our state government.

Update: Tonya Jameson of the Charlotte Observer did an interview of Miller.  Video was posted this morning on the Observer’s Web site.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Sept. 25, 2008

Lawsuit filed in Pitt County to stop illegal campaign practices by national political committee

Press Contact: Kieran Shanahan
Office: 919-856-9494
Cell: 919-264-7515

COURT SET OCTOBER 10th HEARING

GREENVILLE, N.C.-The Pitt County Republican Party and an aggrieved voter have filed a lawsuit today in Pitt County Superior Court against the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee ( a Washington, D.C. based “527″ ) and the DLCC North Carolina PAC (a North Carolina “Campaign Committee.”) The lawsuit accuses the 527 D.C. based organization and the NC PAC of engaging in illegal campaign activities.

Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the NC PAC is really the alter ego of the 527 D.C. organization. The 527 D.C. organization accepts and spends corporate contributions, which are unlawful for North Carolina political committees. The lawsuit also alleges improper reporting and failure to report by the organizations.

The lawsuit also alleges the unlawful activity of “giving in the name of another,” a crime which ultimately led to the incarceration of former Speaker Jim Black. It is noteworthy that Jim Black was at one time the Finance Chairman of the 527. The lawsuit is asking a Pitt County Superior Court Judge to enter an injunction prohibiting the 527 and its alter ego from making expenditures in this year’s election.

Kieran J. Shanahan, Principal of the Shanahan Law Group, who is serving as legal counsel to the Plaintiffs said: “The injunction sought in this lawsuit is essential to the voters in North Carolina if we are to have a fair and honest election conducted on a level playing field.” Shanahan further stated: “It is regrettable that the Board of Elections has ignored its own staff’s warnings about this situation and that it has failed to act to protect the integrity of the voting process in North Carolina.”

Some of the charges in the lawsuit include:

• That the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, which is based in Washington, D.C., accepted corporate contributions and illegally transferred them to the DLCC North Carolina PAC in an effort to influence legislative elections in North Carolina.

• That the Washington D.C. based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee failed to properly file any disclosures with the N.C. State Board of Elections.

• That the Washington D.C. based Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee raised and accepted money in its name, then transferred the money to the DLCC North Carolina PAC as contributions purportedly under the original contributor’s name.

Kimberley Hendrix, the Plaintiff suing as an aggrieved voter, said: “The people of North Carolina are tired of folks from outside of North Carolina trying to influence our elections. And, if you are going to get involved, you need to play by the rules.”

THE COURT HAS SCHEDULED A HEARING ON PLAINTIFF’S MOTION FOR PRELIMINARY INJUNCTION ON OCTOBER 10 IN THE PITT COUNTY COURTHOUSE, GREENVILLE, NORTH CAROLINA.

###

A Democratic candidate might seem the unlikeliest sort to bring up the name of disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black, a Democrat, in the middle of a campaign.

Lt. Gov. Beverly Perdue, however, is giving that strategy a whirl in either a bold counter-conventional wisdom attack … or simply to stick Black to Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory before he does the same to her.

Perdue dispatched a news release Monday afternoon trashing McCrory, mayor of Charlotte, as “golfing buddies” with Black, who is serving a five-year federal prison sentence on corruption charges. She also criticized McCrory over his use of Stan Campbell, who headed Black’s “secretive” legal defense fund, as a paid campaign adviser.

The News & Observer

This is a very bold move by Bev and her campaign.  Jim Black represented part of Charlotte while McCrory was mayor and they were very well acquainted with each other.  She might be able to get it to stick.  On the other hand, Black was a Democrat like Perdue and not just any Democrat, but Speaker of the House, which also ties him very closely to Mike Easley and Perdue herself, so I’m not sure if this was a box she should have opened.  We’ll have to see what, if anything, McCrory comes back with.

Raleigh – Former state House Speaker Jim Black, now serving federal prison time for a corruption conviction, paid half of his $1 million fine on Thursday on a similar count to which he pleaded in state court last year, his lawyer said.

The $500,000 payment helps him for now avoid receiving state prison time after he leaves federal custody. Black was supposed to pay the entire fine by July, or he could face nearly two years in prison on a plea he made last year to a bribery charge.

Asheville Citizen-Times

Awe, too bad.  I would have liked to see him serve the additional prison time, but hey, a half a million bucks definitely stings.

Former House Speaker Jim Black’s controversial program to help children get screened for vision problems appears to be going out with a whimper.

The state budget proposals of the House and Gov. Mike Easley would eliminate the remaining $500,000 in funding for the program. Easley’s budget proposal said the program drew little use in the two years since its creation.

The vision care program began as a mandate on parents to have their children seen by an optometrist before they entered kindergarten. The requirement caused an uproar after Black wrote it into the 2005 budget.

Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, was an optometrist, and his colleagues were a key source for political contributions. One of the scandals that eventually led to his downfall involved optometrists writing campaign contribution checks with the payee line blank so that Black and others could determine who should get them.

The N&O

Why did it take so long for this guy to end up in jail? This is the type of garbage you get when you have one-party rule, folks. Keep that in mind in November.

On Wednesday, the legislature’s ethics committee agreed to a bill that would prohibit the state auditor from investigating possible violations of the ethics law. Instead, the State Ethics Commission would have sole authority to enforce ethics laws.

Legislative supporters of the bill, mostly Democrats, say their goal is to have a single, unbiased agency to keep an eye on public officials.

But State Auditor Les Merritt, a Republican, argues that it never hurts to have more watchdogs of government officials.

…

Officials in Merritt’s office argue also that giving the ethics commission sole authority to investigate such matters would mean essentially that only the legislature can keep an eye on legislators. That’s because the commission is required to turn over any findings it has about lawmakers to a legislative committee, which then determines whether any public action should be taken.

The News & Observer

Boy, is Les Merritt right. The State Ethics Commission is an appointed body; the State Auditor is elected. Both of them should have a role in corruption probes because neither of them can be trusted completely.

The fact that the Democrats, who are in charge of the governor’s mansion and state legislature, want to limit Merritt’s authority ought to be very frightening to all North Carolinians. Any ethics panel would have to answer to the party in charge, and for the foreseeable future that appears to be the party of Jim Black, Thomas Wright, Nick Mackey, et al. Les Merritt, meanwhile, is answerable to the voters every four years.

 

They’ll face off in the May 6 primaries for the N.C. House District 100 seat, but this match between Rep. Tricia Cotham and Lloyd Scher, a former Mecklenburg County commissioner, began over a year ago.

In March 2007, state Democratic Party officials elected Cotham to fill the unexpired term of former Democratic House Speaker Jim Black, who resigned amid corruption charges.

Charlotte Observer

This will actually be Cotham’s first popular election to the House seat.  Regardless of being elected by a committee rather than the voters, she still holds the advantage of incumbency.  However, Scher was a Mecklenburg County Commissioner for eight years so he still has a familiar name to the electorate.  It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

EAGLE SPRINGS — Former state Rep. Richard Morgan of Moore County announced Friday he has filed for state superintendent of public schools.

The former House co-speaker’s announcement came just days after his wife, Moore County Commissioner Cindy Morgan, announced she was filing for state senate.

“My plan for the department is very simple,” Richard Morgan said in a press release. “I will work every day, all day for our children. To do anything less would be wrong.”

Fayetteville Observer

I don’t see success in Morgan’s future.  He has a connection to disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black as he supported him during Black’s battling of his corruption charges which eventually lead to him currently serving in prison.  Morgan lost his House seat over it in 2006 to a Republican primary challenger.  His opponent, Joe Johnson, will certainly make this an issue and I don’t see how Morgan will overcome that.

Former House Speaker Jim Black has voluntary given up his license to practice optometry, officials said Friday, but the disgraced politician can ask it be restored once he completes a prison sentence on corruption charges.The disgraced 72-year-old politician is serving a five-year federal sentence for taking more than $25,000 in cash from several chiropractors while pushing their agenda in the state Legislature. Black also accepted punishment on state charges of bribery and obstruction of justice.

The News-Record

Disgraced former House Speaker Jim Black will get more time to pay his $1 million fine.With a Monday deadline looming, an attorney for Black reached an agreement today with state prosecutors giving him until July 2008 to pay. Black has had difficulty selling real estate that would raise the money because potential buyers know he’s under a deadline, according to a motion by Black’s attorney Allen Powell.

The fine stems from Black’s conviction on state corruption charges this year.

The News & Observer

That’s awful generous of the courts.  I don’t have any sympathy for the guy if he’s having trouble raising the money.

A company owned by the son of former House Speaker Jim Black won contracts to provide pest control at the state’s newest three prisons, although competing bidders offered to do the work at less than half of Black’s price.

Black Pest Control was paid $124,000 for prison construction projects in Bertie and Greene counties, although a business in Stafford, Va., bid $42,000 on the same work. At the state’s latest prison project in Columbus County, Black Pest Control won the job in 2005 with a price of $73,600, even though a Brunswick County company was willing to do it for $20,600.

Centex Construction, the company that oversaw construction of the three prisons, which cost a combined $245 million, said it wanted Jon Black’s company, Black Pest Control, because it did good work on smaller Centex projects. But a former project manager at two of the prison construction sites said he was pressured to hire Black.

News & Observer

Of course it was intentional. It’s called a political favor. You scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours. The corruption of Jim Black knows no bounds, even when he’s in prison.

Former House Speaker Jim Black has a buyer for a parcel of choice real estate in Matthews in a deal that will close next month, the deadline for him to pay a $1 million fine from his corruption convictions.

Black listed the land for $950,000. The sale, though, has not closed, so no public documents have been filed that would disclose the buyer’s identity or the price.

Black, 72, is currently serving a 63-month sentence in a federal prison camp in Lewisburg, Pa, for a federal corruption conviction.

In a separate state corruption conviction, the judge ordered Black to pay $1 million by December 10 or serve another 23 months.

He is expected to pay the fine.

Charlotte Observer

The N.C. agency that regulates optometrists wants to hold a disciplinary hearing in Raleigh for former House Speaker Jim Black, who is serving a prison term in Pennsylvania for corruption.

John Robinson, executive director of the N.C. Board of Optometry, said Monday that notices have gone out for a 9 a.m. hearing Dec. 12. The board plans to consider Black’s felony convictions, and it could take away the license he’s had for more than 40 years.

Charlotte Observer

North Carolina and federal taxpayers won’t get the teapot museum they helped pay for.

Organizers of the Sparta Teapot Museum, which received $900,000 in taxpayer-funded grants and a bushel of unwanted publicity, are planning to build a very different museum than first envisioned. It’s expected to be a fraction of the original size and won’t focus exclusively on a donated teapot collection.

The wealthy principal donor plans to take many, though not all, of his teapots elsewhere and has all but abandoned the idea of building a 10,000-square-foot foundation headquarters in the small N.C. mountain town of Sparta.

Charlotte Observer

I have seen a lot of ridiculous waste of tax dollars in the government, but this one goes right at the top. Why in the hell was Washington handing over almost a million dollars to build a teapot museum? The people who pushed through that earmark ought to feel pretty darn stupid right now. Who were they by the way? None other than members of our “fiscally conservative” Republican delegation.

Citizens Against Government Waste, a national organization, gave the museum’s $500,000 federal grant top billing when it publicized its 2006 “Pig Book” of pork barrel waste, which followed a stream of snickering national news stories.

The museum’s backers had hired a Washington lobbying firm with close ties to North Carolina to seek federal funds. Three N.C. lawmakers who helped in that push, Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr, R-N.C., and Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., of Banner Elk, have gotten campaign donations in recent years from the firm.

Organizers hoped the museum would deliver an economic boost to a community battered by plant closings.

Oh yeah. I am sure people from all over the world were going to be clamoring to Sparta to see the world renowned teapot museum.

Michael Decker, a former state lawmaker who helped bring down former House Speaker Jim Black with accusations of bribery, has begun his prison term.

Decker, 62, surrendered as scheduled Tuesday at a federal prison in Bennettsville, S.C., said Federal Bureau of Prisons spokesman Mike Truman. Decker’s information was entered into the prison’s computer system at 12:13 p.m., meaning he arrived at some point earlier, Truman said.

Charlotte Observer

Black and Decker ………. lol

Don Beason, the lobbyist who loaned $500,000 to then-House Speaker Jim Black in 2000, is leaving the lobbying business.

“It’s not fair to my clients to put them through something like this,” Beason said Wednesday in a brief interview with Observer columnist Jack Betts.

Beason’s clients have included corporate giants such as BB&T and Progress Energy, as well as the Carolina Ballet, Catawba County and Dale Earnhardt Inc.

Charlotte Observer

Smart move. Lobbyists are about as well likes as lawyers these days.