Bitten by a good watchdog
Thursday, December 29th, 2005
By Chris Fitzsimon
Jim Jenkins, Staff Writer There are a lot of people on the list of "folks you do not want knocking on your door." A sheriff’s deputy, if he’s holding papers and the handcuffs have been removed from the locked position on the belt. The Internal Revenue Service. The neighbor who has just been called out of town on work and needs you to look after his two Dobermans and four cats for a few days.
And if you are a North Carolina politician who might be touched by shenanigans or even the resemblance of same, there’s Bob Hall and Democracy North Carolina, faithful watchdogs of good government, and more to the point, bad government. This independent group keeps track of things like campaign contributions and their influence on lawmaking, and a host of other issues wherein we the people might be forgotten by the honorables in favor of we the video poker operators, or we the tobacco companies or we the beer wholesalers.
One can read the group’s "Political Report Card for 2005" and draw one’s own conclusions. Consider the summation of special interest spending in the form of campaign contributions: Optometrists gave more than $125,000 in the 2004 election to legislative and Council of State candidates, with over $59,000 of that going to embattled House Speaker Jim Black, who is…you got it, an optometrist! Black was helpful in inserting a provision into law requiring eye exams for 5-year-olds entering public schools. Pediatricians and school officials were against it, (more…)
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