News-Record.com

I've been asked more than once by various folks either we scruffy media types as a group or I in particular have paid so much attention to the N.C. Legislative Black Caucus and its foundation.

After all, the question usually goes, they weren't doing anything illegal.

Well, someone else may have found me a better answer than the one I've been giving, or at least an independent one. Chris Fitzsimon writes a regular column over at N.C. Policy Watch. (Disclaimer for my right-of-center friends, he's very much a progressive.)

He took up his pen writing about the sad tale of Rep. Thomas Wright, who looks to be on the fast track to expulsion.

But as with almost all such sagas, there's a larger lesson to be learned should anyone be paying attention. Fitzsimon writes:

Wright solicited money for the nonprofit from corporations who may have seen the contribution as a way to curry favor with a member of the General Assembly who could be helpful to their legislative interests.

That wasn’t necessary illegal. The problem in Wright’s case was that he was soliciting money for a nonprofit that really existed in name only and then putting the contribution in his personal checking account.

The nonprofit itself was the problem in this case, not the solicitation. It is still legal for legislators to ask lobbyists and corporations to donate to a nonprofit, even though both are now prohibited from making contributions to legislators’ political campaigns.

Last session, the reform community pushed for legislation to restrict lawmakers from soliciting money for nonprofits, but the effort failed. There was also discussion of at least making the solicitation and donations public like most campaign contributions, but that didn’t go anywhere either.

The recent attention to Wright’s case may have made lawmakers a little reluctant to ask lobbyists for charitable contributions, but we don’t know because none of that is public. (Eds note: bold mine.)

No one doubts that political contributions buy at least access to elected officials, if not influence. The same logic seems to apply when a lawmakers asks lobbyists for help with a favorite charity. It is about financial resources playing a role in the relationship and ought to be banned.

Sound familiar?