Jim Black's scandals have been racking up so fast that I have not had to time to even read all of them. The latest one is that Black broke contribution limits by giving over the $4,000 cap to five candidates. This, along with the other myriad of corruption scandals, has lead the Fayetteville Online to call on Black to give up his leadership post:
So what we have here is a speaker whose lawyer tentatively concedes that payments were made in excess of what the law allows, and suggests that everything can be put right by taking some of the money back.
Black has some wiggle room, and honest error may in fact have played a part in some of this; but it’s just not going to be that easy — even without regard for his entanglements with lobbyists and gaming concerns and the creation of a state job for a political ally. Honest error isn’t always legal.
He can fight his legal battles without leaving the House. In fact, people should be slow to press the courts or anyone else to reverse the will of the voters in his Mecklenburg district. But his standing as speaker — as the power-broker who gets things done — has been seriously compromised, and that’s a job he does need to resign.
Just another in the chorus for calls for the resignation that we called for in November (no link because that was before we were even on this blogging platform).
Comments
Actually....
this is really, really common. I spend much of my day going through FEC filings and rarely find a quarterly from any candidate at this level that doesn't include refunds of excess contributions.
I'm not excusing Black because it is one more thing in a laundry list of transgressions, but it's simply a very common thing. At this level, with as much money as he takes in a dishes out, he should have a professional trained to handle this to avoid any hint at impropriety.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.
Also,
I was looking over my past posts on Black and realized that I had already written on the Fayetteville Online calling for Black's resignation. So this post was not news on a number of fronts.
Yeah - but sometimes
you have to keep it out there. I think we have to be mindful of the strategy behind this. He has no primary opposition and if he wins in November and THEN has to resign the Dems still hold the seat. I don't like doing it this way. I wish someone had filed to run against him in May, but that didn't happen. I don't think, however, that we accept his re-election as the final say. In my mind, he's a place holder.
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Vote Democratic! The ass you save may be your own.