Feb 19, 2007
Black's crime may prompt more laws, but will they stop corruption?
Gary Robertson - Associated Press

Jim Black isn't the first elected official in North Carolina's recent past to plead guilty to a  
federal corruption charge. But his crime while House speaker - pocketing thousands of dollars from chiropractors as a reward for helping push their legislative agenda - goes beyond the sins of Meg Scott Phipps and Frank Ballance. 
 
''What he's done is tarnished everyone in North Carolina, the state and everybody in it,'' said former House Speaker Joe Mavretic, a fellow Democrat. ''It will take a while to get over this.'' 
 
For the past eight years, the optometrist from suburban Charlotte was one of the state's most powerful elected leaders. He could block legislation, make hundreds of appointments to boards and commissions, and reward allies with plum committee assignments. 
 
His influence extended well beyond that of Phipps, the former state Agriculture Commissioner who pleaded guilty in 2003 to taking cash in exchange for picking a certain company to run the State Fair midway. 
 
Ballance, a former state senator, was in and out of Congress by the time he pleaded guilty in 2004 to funneling tax dollars into his foundation to benefit himself and his family. 
 
Black remained speaker throughout the federal investigation into his conduct, and left office just one day before pleading guilty to taking the payoffs. 
 
Defended by supporters, Black insisted for months he had done nothing criminal and never took legislative actions because of money. He called the federal investigation of his office a ''politically motivated fishing expedition.'' Now those allies - some of whom watched him plead guilty in court last week - are wondering what happened. 
 
''I believed what he had said, so hearing this today is somewhat different from what I had been led to believe,'' Rep. Earline Parmon, D-Forsyth, said Thursday after Black entered his plea. 
 
What he did stunned the capital. Black admitted taking $29,000 _ most of it in cash _ from three unidentified chiropractors, sometimes meeting in restaurant bathrooms to complete the transfer. A wealthy man, Black's own attorney admitted his client didn't need the money. A prolific fundraiser, Black could have easily raised the money in the form of legal campaign contributions. 
Black's critics argue his downfall is due in part to a culture within the General Assembly that requires chamber leaders to raise millions of dollars every two years, money they dole out to backbenchers as a way of maintaining power in the House and Senate. 
 
''Jim Black was just very obsessed with keeping the votes he needed for speaker and staying in power,'' said Joe Sinsheimer, a former Democratic consultant who ran a Web site for about a year dedicated to getting Black to resign as speaker. 
 
Bob Hall, the research director of the campaign finance reform group Democracy North Carolina, said expanding a voluntary public campaign finance system to include legislative races would help reduce the amount of money candidates would have to raise. 
 
Last year, lawmakers changed some of the state's ethics and lobbying rules as federal and state investigators scrutinized Black's campaign finances and role in the creation of the state lottery. Lawmakers clamped down on gifts and campaign donations from lobbyists, and made clear that the incomplete checks that Black's campaign had received for years from his fellow optometrists were illegal. 
 
Many House Republicans believe state law needs to go further. They suggest changes that would remove the speaker and Senate leader's ability to kill legislation or insert provisions in legislation without a public hearing, which Black did in 2005 to ensure a proposal sought by chiropractors became law. 
 
Rep. John Blust, R-Guilford, also suggests the Senate leader and speaker be limited to serving four years at the job. 
 
''They are fair recommendations that a vast majority of North Carolina's people will support,'' Blust wrote in a letter late last week to Gov. Mike Easley. He's asked Easley to endorse them during his State of the State address Monday night. 
 
Another idea getting attention: barring legislators convicted of a felony from receiving their state pension. 
 
''The knowledge that they could lose something that they spent time trying to accumulate might be a deterrent,'' said Senate Minority Leader Phil Berger, R-Rockingham, who hopes to file a bill on the idea this week. 
 
That bill wouldn't apply to Black. And critics acknowledge that laws can only do so much to prevent corruption from taking place. 
 
''There's not really much you can do with someone who is 60 years old and their character is fatally flawed,'' Mavretic said. ''You can pass all the laws you want ... but you're going to have a few bad apples.''