A Guilford County chiropractor says he does not remember why House Speaker Jim Black’s campaign asked him to donate to Republican Reps. Michael Decker and Steve Wood in 2003.
The memory lapse led to the following exchange between the chiropractor — Steve Willen — and elections board member Lorraine Shinn:
Shinn: It would appear to me that if two people were going to switch their registration, then somebody would have to have a pretty heavy talk with you to explain how important this was to try to buy those two people. And obviously that’s what those checks were intended for. So you have no recollection of that.
Willen: No, I didn’t know that they were to buy people off.
Another witness — Peter Tucker of Charlotte — testified that the Black campaign “either directly or indirectly” contacted him to contribute money for Decker and Wood.
Checks Tucker wrote to Decker were cashed. Checks totalling $4,000 to Wood were never cashed.
