The Charlotte Observer has called for N.C. House Speaker Jim Black’s resignation, a day after two key players in the N.C. elections board hearing referenced the newspaper.
First, one of Black’s attorneys admitted that the speaker’s legal team had pursued an affidavit from a former Charlotte-area superior court judge in order to impress the Observer. Former Judge Shirley Fulton is black. Genevieve Sims, the only elections board member who is black, mentioned during the hearing that she hoped Speaker Black’s legal team was not trying to influence her by producing the affidavit from Fulton. Attorney Ken Bell said the affidavit was geared more toward swaying the opinion within the speaker’s hometown newspaper.
Later, the Observer cropped up again. During his closing comments, elections board chairman Larry Leake referenced a 1991 newspaper article. It quoted Black as criticizing the contribution process used by optometrists, in which they wrote series of $100 checks with blank “payee” lines. It’s the same practice that led the elections board to refer Black to the Wake district attorney for further investigation. Leake said: “I am troubled by the fact that in 1991, he said, ‘This is a bad practice, and we’re going to stop it,’ and it continued.”
