Cleaning Up Raleigh

 
The folks at Democracy NC have been busy. They just released a report showing that:

Lobbyists prowling the halls of the NC General Assembly received nearly $15 million from their clients in 2005, the year with the last “long session.” That amounts to $86,400 for each of the 170 legislators

According to Bob Hall, Executive Director and Research Director:

In North Carolina, interest groups actually spend more on lobbying than their PACs spend on campaign contributions to state legislators

Just last week Democracy NC announced a new campaign with a unique website called CleanUpRaleigh.com to promote "Clean, Voter Owned Elections" supporting public financing of campaigns to reduce the influence of special interest money.

Now is the time for thousands of North Carolinians to stand up and demand that the mess in Raleigh get cleaned up.
Our campaign finance system is rotten at its core – but it will only change if we, the people, take action!
SIGN OUR PETITION TO CLEAN UP RALEIGH
Publicly financed “clean elections” are the best way to challenge the power of dirty special interest money! We must put voters – not big-money donors – in charge of our democracy.

More recently a series of events set into motion by a Democracy NC investigation and complaint to the State Board of Elections in 2004 has exposed corruption in State politics. What started with an examination video-poker industry contributions snowballed into multiple entanglements that led to the conviction of Jim Black and others. That snowball is still rolling.

On February 14th Bob Hall issued a statement regarding the impending guilty plea of Jim Black the following day in Federal court:

Jim Black illustrates that even well intentioned, conscientious public servants can get caught up in a system that leads people to make bad choices. In search of money to stay in power, they follow the wrong strings and become entangled in attachments that eventually smother them.
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The money chase in North Carolina today clearly threatens the integrity of fair elections, free from corrupting influences.

I first encountered Bob Hall in the early 1990’s when he was with the Institute for Southern Studies in Durham. I had a subscription to Southern Exposure and went there to get a discounted copy of “The Encyclopedia of Southern Culture” which had recently been published. He was the only person available to help and, while locating and selling me a book was outside the normal range of his investigative activities, he took it in his stride and took care of me. Shortly afterwards he received a MacArthur Fellowship, aka "The Genius Grant", for his work at the Institute as a Public Interest Journalist. (Coincidence?)

Hall’s dogged pursuit of the truths that few others wish to find has kept him and the staff of Democracy NC very busy and has earned him the right to brag, even if it’s buried in the back of their website:

Bob Hall recently received the first annual "AARP North Carolina Advocacy Friend Award" -- and AARP has included public financing for Council of State as one of their top eight legislative items for 2007-08. He also was awarded the "William C. Lassiter First Amendment Award" from the NC Press Association, which goes to a non-press person each year.

William Friday interviews Democracy North Carolina Executive Director Bob Hall on UNC-TV's North Carolina People, August 25, 2006

Read "The Vanishing Voter" in the Independent Weekly"The Vanishing Voter" in the Independent Weekly about six "real scandals" behind North Carolina's low voter turnout and shortcomings of NC's 2006 reforms to address these scandals.

If you want to help them take out the trash go to CleanUpRaleigh.com and sign the petition.