And so it begins
And so the games begin. The Associated Press reports from the Black hearings before the state Board of Elections:
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Attorneys at a Winston-Salem law firm were asked to make campaign donations to a lawmaker whose decision to switch parties helped House Speaker Jim Black keep his leadership post, a lawyer testified Wednesday at a state Board of Elections hearing on allegations of illegal campaign fundraising.
Mark Poovey, a lawyer at Womble Carlyle Sandridge Rice, said the firm's lobbyist asked him to help solicit donations within the firm for then-state Rep. Michael Decker, one of Black's allies in the Legislature. Larry Leake, chairman of the state Board of Elections, asked why the lobbyist approached him."It is my recollection that there had been a request from the speaker's office to do that," Poovey said.
Two other lawyers from Womble Carlyle also testified they donated to Decker's campaign at the lobbyist's request. Campaign finance records show that donations to Decker, a Republican who abandoned his party for the Democrats in early 2003, spiked about the time he switched affiliation.
That switch helped Black win election as co-speaker in 2003. Decker later returned to the GOP and lost his re-election bid in 2004.
The donations from the lawyers are not illegal. But Leake said the board wants to investigate during its scheduled three-day hearing, at which Black has been asked to appear, if some fundraising practices violate state law.Black made no statements in the opening hour of the hearing. His attorneys asked no rebuttal questions, as they are allowed.
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