The other shoe(s)?
(We pikck up the Steve Wood story below, but first an UPDATE via our friends at the AP:
The campaign of House Speaker Jim Black appears to have violated campaign contribution limits to other candidates in five instances for the 2004 primary, investigators for the State Board of Elections said.State law limits donations from one candidate's committee to another to $4,000 in each election.
The election's board staff found that Black's campaign donated $8,000 during the 2004 primary season to the campaign of Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth; $8,000 to Rep. Mary McAllister, D-Cumberland; $6,000 to Rep. Earl Jones, D-Guilford; $5,000 to Charles Monroe Buchanan, R-Mitchell; and $4,500 to Rep. Alma Adams, D-Guilford.
Now, as for Wood, you ever feel like there's more going on than you can say?
That's pretty much the case with this story about Steve Wood and 50 other folks being called to testify at the State Board of Elections inquiry into Jim Black next week.
There are a couple big questions hanging out there.
Will anyone else from Guilford County and/or the Triad be among the 50 or so called to chat with the SBO next week? (I'd put my money on yes, but my $5 is tied up in an ugly-looking NCAA bracket right now.)
I expect a full list of those called to come out Monday.
Also, why Wood?
I can't say for sure, but I have a few more observations that didn't make the story. You can decide for yourself whether they amount to a working theory or not-so-much as a hill of beans.
As I mention in the story, in 1999, Wood broke with fellow Republicans and backed Black for Speaker of the House, one of the most powerful and influential posts in the state. Black won the post.
This earned him the ire of fellow-Republicans, who tossed Wood out of the GOP caucus. Then Rep. John Blust ran against Wood in the Republican primary. The campaign was nasty.
Wood's campaign finance reports, available from the state board’s internet site, are not always easy to decipher and seem to be missing some information. The data available paint a picture of a candidate who sometimes loaned himself money to run for office and didn’t fund raise aggressively.
However, during his primary run against Blust, reports showed Wood received at least $1,450 from chiropractors and their political committee and at least two other donations from optometrists. Like the optometrists, chiropractors have been a key base of political funding for Black.
Sound familiar?
Although the sequence of events is not as clear cut and does not involve as much money, this pattern is similar to one seen with Forsyth County Republican Michael Decker.
In early 2003, Decker switched from the Republican to Democratic parties.
The move cost Republicans a slim majority they held in the House and helped keep Black in the Speaker’s office. Decker’s campaign finance reports show that he received more than $40,000 in donations during the time of that switch from chiropractors, optometrists and other groups with ties to Black.
Could Wood be an early, watered-down example of what made Decker infamous? $1,450 and change hardly seems like enough money to motivate someone, so I’m not sure I buy it on that basis alone. But I could be missing something.
One more piece of data: Several people who served in the GA at the time told me Friday that Wood and Decker were pretty tight allies back in their legislative days.
Bottom line, we'll have to wait until next week to find out for sure what's up here.