So it has come to this. Shady, backroom dealings with a lottery company. Essentially letting a very interested party write the lottery implementing legislation for North Carolina.
Speaker Jim Black has betrayed the trust placed in him by the voters of Matthews and citizens across the state and should resign.
Not only that, back when the relationship between “former” Black aide Meredith Norris and Scientific Games looked shady, Black’s office ran out to wallop anyone who even suggested there might be a problem. Recall from last month when questions arose:
Norris did not return phone messages seeking comment. In an e-mail response, she said she did not lobby lawmakers about the lottery: “As I am sure you understand, an out-of-state company clearly would be interested in having someone monitor the Legislature for them to keep them apprised of any developments.” …
Black did not respond to requests for an interview. His spokeswoman, Julie Robinson, said Norris did not lobby Black on the lottery.
“Even if she did tell him, it wouldn’t have impacted or changed his efforts during this session,” she said. “And for you to imply otherwise would just simply be wrong.”
That’s malice folks. That’s arrogance. That’s unfit for public office.
And it is not like this is first time something like this has happened. We have the department of transportation slush funds, the Johnson & Wales fiasco, where Jim Black’s decreed he, not the governor or the legislature controlled state property in Charlotte and could give it away as he pleased, slipping $500,000 in the state budget for a basketball tourney, and generally acting like North Carolina was his personal fiefdom to control as he wished. All along Mecklenburg County got the short end of the stick, as Black built up his powerbase at the expense of actually being a forceful advocate for the county’s legitimate road building needs. This pattern was clear back in April:
To anyone dropping in from, say, a modern democratic state, it sure looks like that Black has sold Mecklenburg out to his Raleigh buddies in exchange for control of a nice little cash kitty that primarily boosts his own political power. While tens of millions of dollars in state road money flow eastward toward the sea, Jim Black is content to hand out $50,000 here and $25,000 there and tell everyone how lucky they are to have him.
But the lottery business leaves no doubt what Jim Black thinks about his role. He thinks Jim Black is above the law. How else to explain “former” aide Norris running a very active lobbying campaign for Scientific Games despite denials to the contrary? Black had to know that the yacht outings in Seattle that Norris put together for lawmakers on behalf of Scientific were lobbying. Black had to know that sitting down with Scientific Games Vice President Alan Middleton for dinner was lobbying.
Black let Middleton have special access to legislative process because Middleton knew Norris, there is no other way to look at it. Norris felt comfortable writing to Black’s staff lawyer in ways that make clear her unique access: “Are there any other Members that might need some ‘love’ and time with the Speaker? Probably don’t want to make it too big, but if you know of anyone that needs TLC/attention let me know!”
We’ve yet to hear from the Black camp on this latest matter, but here is a preview. Everything that was done was to get North Carolina school kids the best possible education by putting together the best possible education lottery. Anyone who says different is just ignorant and mean-spirited. No laws were broken and the kids came out ahead. This is old news and just the anti-lottery people being sore losers. We are moving ahead.
And so it continues.
