Yes, Jim Black was a powerful man. No doubt about that. We’ll get back to David Ingram’s story in a sec.
But the relevant question is why did it take a federal investigation in 2005 to get some serious scrutiny of Black’s use and abuse of power?
Here’s another quote, second-hand from a former Republican office holder in Mecklenburg County. “I can’t do that. Jim Black bought me my house.”
That is power, my friends.
And Jim Black’s power was an open secret in Charlotte for years before the FBI started making phone calls across North Carolina, looking into Black’s vast power network. That network is why Black’s control over state and local politics must be ripped out root and branch. Call it de-Blackification if you must, a witch hunt if you have a deal with the Black machine you’d like to hide. The bottomline is that merely sending Jim Black to prison will not fix what is broken in this state.
Back to Ingram:
“Because of Jim Black’s great power in this state, we found it difficult to get people to give evidence that might be incriminating to him,” said John Bruce, an assistant U.S. attorney. …
Former Rep. Michael Decker finally helped break that power when, under investigation himself, he cooperated with authorities. He described a money-for-vote scheme with Black and pleaded guilty to a conspiracy charge. …
…When Decker lost the Republican primary for his House seat in 2004, Black suggested keeping open Decker’s campaign bank account, “in case they needed to run some money through it,” Dever said.
And when Decker left office in January 2005, Black created a state job for him as “an attempt by Speaker Black to control Mr. Decker” and keep him quiet, said Decker’s attorney David Freedman.
It is the co-opting and control of underlings by Black, acting as any crime boss does, that continues to this day. We’ve already noted that his post-guilty plea plea for money for his secret legal defense fund constitutes an ongoing corruption of the public interest.
Has the General Assembly moved to require the disclosure of donors to such funds? Nope. Wonder why?
Perhaps they are still in awe of his power.
