Fascinating timing on state Rep. William “Pete” Cunningham (D) opting to resign his seat. Cunningham had just injected himself into the Nick Mackey mess with a speech before the county commission the other night. Turns out that was his walk-off home run. Or bloop single. Or something.
David Ingram explains:
Cunningham ran for office in 1986 after careers in the military and in business, and he has never lost an election. A close friendship with Matthews Democrat Jim Black brought Cunningham into a position of leadership when Black was House speaker from 1999 to 2007.
Black appointed him a member of all House committees, a position Cunningham could use to swing key votes. Last year, after Black resigned and pleaded guilty to corruption charges, Cunningham continued to hold the title Assistant to the Speaker and served on the powerful appropriations and finance committees. …
Cunningham drew scrutiny last summer over his handling of $42,000 in Hurricane Katrina relief funds raised in Charlotte. He blamed bureaucratic errors for an 18-month delay in distributing the money.
Actually a total of $55,000 was raised by Cunningham and associates.
The N&O’s Ryan Teague Beckwith had the details last June:
For the Katrina fundraiser, organizers say the money came from Charlotte doctors and lawyers.
A few weeks after the hurricane slammed the Gulf coast in August 2005, Cunningham and several prominent Charlotte residents announced a campaign to raise $100,000 from 100 leaders of the city’s black community to help victims.
Former District Court Judge T. Michael Todd, lawyer James Ferguson II, restaurant owner Ron Goodwin and real estate executive J.C. Cousar worked with Cunningham on the campaign.
Ferguson said the men, who are friends, came up with the idea for a Katrina fundraiser first, and then decided to use the foundation to receive and distribute the money because it was an existing nonprofit.
“We didn’t have a foundation ourselves,” he said.
The campaign was closely tied to Cunningham.
A reception for it was held at the Excelsior Club, a historic Charlotte music spot that he owned at the time. News accounts listed Cunningham’s post office box in Charlotte and his phone number for interested donors.
According to tax forms filed by the Legislative Black Caucus Foundation, the campaign raised $54,318 for Katrina victims and spent $81 on administrative overhead in 2005.
Those same records also say that all of the money was distributed that year, but Cunningham could point to only a single donation in 2005 for less than one-fourth of the money to Crisis Assistance Ministry, a nonprofit in Charlotte.
Doug Hartjes, a development officer for Crisis Assistance Ministry, said the money was spent on rent assistance and electric and water bills for some of the thousands of Katrina victims who relocated to Charlotte.
Most of the remaining $42,000 was not given away until this year.
And, hey, just the other day state Rep. Alma Adams said everything is fine and A-OK with regard to that fund-raising effort. Honest.
Meanwhile another Jim Black crony, Wilmington Democratic state Rep. Thomas Wright, will spend the next few weeks in a Wake County courtroom trying to talk his way out of six felony charges for illegally obtaining or misusing more than $350,000.
And let’s not forget — ever — Cunningham’s spirited defense of Jim Black after Jim Black pled guilty in February to taking bribes:
I don’t like to kick anybody when he’s down. I would need to know more about what — I’m not — that’s an accusation, as far as I’m concerned. And I’m not going to change my feelings toward a person until I hear all the facts. It’s hard to believe.
I don’t know why he did what they say he did, if he did it.
You tell me what you want me to say and what language you want me to say it in. It’s very surprising. I don’t know how to respond to that.
I don’t know what made him respond that he took some money. I’ve never seen that side of Jim Black. I don’t know him that way. I don’t know that he would take money.
Bottomline, another member of the Jim Black gang rides off into the sunset. Only a few dozen more to go.
