NC State Treasurer

Art Pope spends a lot of money to complain about how much money the government is taking away from him. It would seem odd then that when the government is taking good care of his money and wants to give it back to him he doesn't seem to want it back.

A swarm of securities class action law firms have been bad mouthing each other and their clients as they jostle for position of lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit related to the lackluster Facebook IPO. Civitas has taken the spurious claims of pugilistic legal underdogs, Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, as evidence of "a sordid affair" that "underscores the need for North Carolina to convert to a 401(k) style retirement plan". Hardly.

For the past couple of years I have been drawn to examine the undue influence of money in State politics, including the ability of corporations to direct unlimited sums of money to 527 committees and to non-profit foundations that are associated with politicians or engage in activities that support their positions. In 2005 the News & Observer called out Richard Moore for direct solicitation of financial companies for his North Carolina Fiscal Literacy Foundation:

The treasurer ought to know better than to solicit contributions for a nonprofit foundation of his creation from money managers who do business with the state, or who want a piece of that business.
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It's just a bad practice. Moore should stop it.

He may have stopped it, it's not clear. The Foundation has never listed its donors.

It's official. Michael Weisel has joined the chase to fill the job Richard Moore will be leaving.

Raleigh attorney Michael Weisel has added his name to the growing list of candidates to succeed Richard Moore as state treasurer. Weisel announced his campaign for the Democratic nomination over the weekend. If elected, Weisel said, he would retain the state’s top credit rating while protecting the $75 billion government employee pension funds and promote financial literacy among children.