Daily News

Dan Kane, Lynn Bonner and Barbara Barrett, Staff Writers

House Speaker Jim Black’s latest campaign finance report shows a drastic drop in contributions from the same period two years ago, but his press secretary says it’s only because he’s already raised plenty of money.

In the first three and a half months of 2004, Black received nearly $195,000 in contributions from individuals and political action committees. This year, Black took in just over $17,000.

"It’s unusual," said Bob Hall, research director for the campaign watchdog Democracy North Carolina. "It’s a significant decline from the pace that he was on."

That does not mean, though, that Black lacks the political cash to win re-election or to help his colleagues. He has nearly $1 million in his campaign account, much of it raised in 2005. His press secretary, Julie Robinson, said that’s far more cash in hand than what Black’s campaign had at the same time in 2002 and 2004.

Black could not be reached for comment. Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, is under fire for campaign and legislative activities that have come to light in the past seven months.

The State Board of Elections has requested a criminal investigation into Black’s making out three checks provided by fellow optometrists to former Rep. Michael Decker in early 2003. Decker switched parties before the start of the 2003 session and helped keep Black in power. Federal investigators are also looking into Black’s help to Decker, along with the lobbying work of Black’s former unpaid political director, Meredith Norris.

The report shows that Black’s committee made contributions of $4,000 each to two House Democrats, Linda Coleman of Knightdale and Larry Bell of Clinton, during the past three months. Other candidates have announced they would not take money from Black. (more…)

 Email This Post  Print This Post

This entry was posted on Friday, April 28th, 2006 at 3:58 am and is filed under Daily News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.