For Release:
The Bad: Eye Docs, UNC PAC, Cigarette Firms, Beer
Wholesalers
A
government watchdog group today cited state legislative action for campaign
reform and a record number of investigations into wrongdoing by lobbyists,
public officials and campaign donors as reasons why 2005 could be remembered as
the “breakthrough year” for major reforms of
“This year, more agencies conducted more investigations into more aspects of
political corruption than at any time in the past 20 years,” said Bob Hall,
director of Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan center that monitors the influence
of money on state politics.
“The continuing revelations of problems involving lobbyists, the lottery,
political money, and House Speaker Jim Black add to the routine stories of
pay-to-play politics and make it impossible for policymakers to deny that the
system is broken,” he added. “Investigations by the State Board of Elections,
SBI, Attorney General, FBI and US Attorney are all in motion and what they
uncover will add more pressure on lawmakers to take action on ethics and
campaign finance reform.”
In a report card titled “2005: Scandal & Reform,” Democracy North
Carolina highlights a dozen well-known and lesser-known activities involving
politicians, money and special-interest lobbies that are classified as “The
Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.”
As examples of “The Bad,” the report card describes four cases of
special-interest groups showering legislators with money to gain favorable
treatment, especially during the budget writing process. “We see examples of
pay-to-play politics every year, but year-round fundraising makes everything
worse,” the report said. “From strip club owners to ivory tower trustees, they
all think they need to pony up big money to get their case heard.” The report
card says:
• Optometrists gave more than $125,000 to legislative
and Council of State candidates in the 2004 election. Fellow optometrist Jim
Black received the most – $59,750 – and was instrumental in getting a provision
added to the 2005 budget that requires five-year-olds entering public school to
receive an eye exam. School officials, pediatricians, and the N.C. Medical
Society point out that school children already receive
eye tests and the $75 or so per exam is a needless burden on parents and an
annual windfall of $8 million-plus for optometrists.
• Citizens for Higher Education PAC, funded by
UNC-Chapel Hill trustees, financial backers and Rams Club members, surpassed
all other special-interest political action committees in giving to 2004
legislative candidates; it passed out $337,500, including the maximum $8,000 to
15 Democratic and Republican legislative leaders. Among other benefits to the
PAC’s donors, the 2005 budget included scholarship aid to more out-of-state UNC
students, chiefly athletes, thereby saving the Rams Club millions of dollars.
• The
beer industry poured $565,000 into state politics in the last election,
including funds from wholesalers across
• Malcolm Bailey of Keysville, Virginia, who runs
upstart S&M Tobacco, handed out $4,000 checks to 14 legislators from Sept.
2003 through Jan. 2005 – more big donations than any other individual except
John W. Pope of Variety Wholesalers. All totaled, the Bailey family and its
firm gave $272,000 to legislative candidates and their affiliated committees,
and it won some battles with Big Tobacco. But Big Tobacco gives, too – $540,000
in 2003-04 to the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee alone. In 2005, the
state budget included a provision sought by Big Tobacco to require small
companies like S&M to pay an expensive new allocation to the state.
As positive achievements for 2005, the report card spotlights several
developments:
• The General Assembly adopted stricter regulations of
lobbyists in 2005 – the first significant changes since 1991 – and House
Speaker Jim Black recently indicated he is ready to see a total ban on gifts
from lobbyists, a measure the state Senate leadership has already endorsed.
• Despite objections from the N.C. Bar Association,
legislative leaders also agreed to charge attorneys a $50 annual fee to
support a public financing program for appellate judicial elections.
• Forty-two percent of the House and Senate – 72 Democrats
and Republicans – signed on as co-sponsors of the “Voter-Owned Elections Act,”
which would provide a public financing option in elections for the agency heads
on the Council of State. The bill has received no action, but reformers expect
it to be taken up in 2006.
“A growing number of legislators are tired of the money hustle and the damage
it does to the reputation of politicians and government in general,” said Hall.
“They’d like to have an alternative source of ‘clean’ campaign money so they
can reject special-interest donations and end the appearance of participating
in a pay-to-play system.”
“The Ugly” section of the Democracy North Carolina report card lists the
on-going probes of the apparent false statements of Lottery Commission member
Kevin Geddings, the activities of Meredith Norris as
Jim Black’s political advisor and paid lobbyist/consultant, and the charges
involving illegal video-poker donations made to Black and Michael Decker.
The report also describes a little-noticed investigation of a federal committee
affiliated with Black that has been underway for several months, prodded by
inquiries from the N.C. Republican Party. “The Board of Elections is
essentially investigating whether the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee
engaged in the same kind of laundering of corporate money that Republican
leader Tom Delay is charged with doing in
“Jim Black is clearly at the vortex of the swirl of the state and federal
investigations proceeding on multiple fronts,” said Hall. “But the report card
shows there are other positive and negative reasons, unrelated to Black, for
considering 2005 the year that could open the door for significant legislation
affecting ethics, lobbying, and campaign financing.”
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