House Speaker Jim Black has dumped political director Meredith Norris as questions swirl around Norris’ role and that of a gaming company in crafting North Carolina’s lottery legislation.

Norris is under state investigation for her unofficial role as a lobbyist for Scientific Games. Black had dinner with a top Scientific exec and the company’s recommendations for the lottery wound up in the legislation. Black maintains there was nothing worng with that and that Norris did not provide any special benefit to her then-employer, Scientific Games.

“If any of her clients had gotten anything out of the (arrangement), that might not have been appropriate,” Black told the Observer. “But none of them did.”

This statement is the smoking gun of Black’s utter disregard for the people he serves. Norris’ clients got exactly what they wanted — access to the North Carolina speaker. To pretend other wise is insulting. In addition, by ending his relationship with Norris, Black implicitly admits there was a problem with having a lobbyist as his political director, with broad power to control access to the speaker. That is just wrong.

And the fact that Jim Black refuses to admit it proves that North Carolina deserves better.