A Dallas man says he wrote a $4,000 check to the campaign of former Rep. Steve Wood in 2003 in an attempt to help N.C. House Speaker Jim Black.

Harold Clemmer Jr. says a lifelong friend told him that Wood — A Guilford County Republican — planned to support Black’s bid for the speakership in 2003.

Clemmer wrote the check January 20, 2003. It was never cashed. Clemmer had the check returned to him some months later.

Wood had voted for Black to become speaker in 1999, a move that led to his ouster from the N.C. House Republican caucus. Wood left the General Assembly after the 2000 election, but he won re-election as a Republican in 2002.

After that election, Republicans outnumbered Democrats  61 to 59 in the N.C. House. Wood did not vote for Black in the 2003 speaker’s race. The House cast multiple votes for speaker in late January and early February — after Clemmer wrote his check.

Clemmer testified that he guessed that the check had been returned because Wood decided not to support Black.