N.C. House Speaker Jim Black, D-Mecklenburg, sat in the back of the House chamber this afternoon — as his colleagues voted on two issues linked to controversies surrounding the speaker.
Speaker Pro Tem Richard Morgan, R-Moore, presided as the House voted 114-1 to phase out video poker machines in North Carolina. The bill would outlaw most of those machines by July 1, 2007. The bill exempts machines on the Cherokee Indian reservation.
A few minutes later, the House voted 114-0 to place new restrictions on campaign contributions involving checks with blank “payee” lines.
Black had been a vocal supporter of video poker interests for years — blocking N.C. Senate attempts to ban the machines from the state. The speaker had said he did not like the idea of cutting out thousands of jobs for people involved in legal video poker operations.
The Senate voted again this year for an outright ban, and Black agreed to drop his opposition. The House version of the bill would phase the machines out instead of banning them all at one time.
Black’s ties to video poker interests have come under scrutiny from federal investigators, along with the N.C. Board of Elections. He has not been charged with criminal wrongdoing.
The blank “payee” line bill also stems from controversy surrounding Black. During a state elections board hearing, testimony showed that a political action group tied to optometrists solicited blank checks from its members. According to the testimony, the head of that political action group then used the checks to support political campaigns.
Black admitted under oath that he had filled out a handful of the checks to support the campaign of then Rep. Michael Decker, an ally who helped Black maintain a share of the speaker’s job in 2003.
Both bills now head to the Senate.
