Posted on 05/02/2004 6:46:37 PM PDT by Jomini
Democratic U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance Jr. of Warrenton responded Thursday to statements made by one of his potential Republican opponents and repeated his claim that he has not broken the law.
Ballance renewed that claim, already reported by the Daily News and other newspapers, as possible GOP challenger Greg Dority of Washington helped make Ballance's past involvement with a nonprofit agency a central theme of the campaign.
Dority has said repeatedly during public appearances that he believes Ballance will be indicted, convicted and sent to jail for his role in distributing state funds to the now-closed, drug-combatting John A. Hyman Memorial Youth Foundation while serving as a state senator.
During a telephone interview, Ballance -- his voice never rising above a conversational tone -- calmly disagreed with Dority's predictions.
"Obviously, I would not respond to that kind of statement," he said. "I don't feel that I've committed any crimes. You don't get indicted unless you've committed crimes. I would not want to respond to those kinds of allegations. I think they're a little bit over the pale of what you would carry on in a normal debate."
Asked whether he feels allegations about the foundation's spending will hurt his re-election chances, Ballance said, "My position's always been that the people will have to make that decision. I think people are able to discern what they feel is right about an election, about allegations. Obviously, you would prefer not to have those allegations being thrown (out) about you, but you can't control that, either."
While agreeing that "errors were made," Ballance has said he believes that "the public monies (awarded to the foundation) have always been used for the public good for which they were authorized."
Asked to reply specifically to lingering questions raised in 2003 by a state auditor's report on the foundation's spending, Ballance said he would not issue a "point-for-point" response to the report during his campaign because "it would take up all of the time I would have every time I would show up (for a campaign appearance)."
However, he left open the possibility that he might, during a future interview, address questions inspired by the report.
"I think at the appropriate time, it may be well to sit down and go through all of these allegations," he said.
Late last year, the office of State Auditor Ralph Campbell Jr. said the Hyman Foundation "was riddled with apparent conflicts of interest and had no formal structure for awarding 'mini-grants' to churches and programs that were supposed to fight alcohol and drug abuse."
The auditor's office questioned foundation spending amounting to more than $325,000 and strongly recommended that the state try to retrieve from the foundation in excess of $238,000 the nonprofit entity hadn't spent on substance abuse programs.
During a period of 10 years, then-Sen. Ballance aided the foundation as it received more than $2 million, mostly from the state. Grant funds were allocated to the foundation from state-budgeted funds when Ballance was vice chairman of a Senate appropriations subcommittee that oversaw spending in the Department of Correction.
Reportedly, the foundation failed to file federal tax returns in a timely fashion.
A federal grand jury called witnesses last year as part of an investigation into the foundation. According to the News & Observer of Raleigh, one of the witnesses was state Sen. Robert Holloman of Ahoskie. Holloman succeeded Ballance in the Senate.
As public awareness of the foundation issue started expanding late in 2003, a number of high-profile Republicans, including Dority and Ferrell Blount, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, began calling on Ballance to resign.
Ballance rebuffed those calls.
On Thursday, he reaffirmed that he plans to file official notice of his candidacy, but he added that he has not been "in campaign mode."
"I've been sort of just doing my job," Ballance said. "I think that's the better way for me to function at this point, up until I get into a campaign mode."
Whether Ballance is keen to talk about the foundation or not, his declared opponents are busy making the controversy an overarching, election-year obstacle for the freshman congressman.
Dority temporarily backed away from the issue Wednesday during a filing ceremony, indicating his desire to talk about a development concept. But a television reporter's inquiries brought Dority back to Topic No. 1 -- Ballance and the Hyman Foundation.
Democrat Sam Davis, a hardware store owner from Pasquotank County who finished second behind Ballance during the primary election in 2002, filed Wednesday to run against Ballance once more. Contacted by telephone Thursday, Davis said he wanted to talk with voters about the economy and out-migration.
However, in a press release issued Wednesday, Davis said, "It only stands to reason that Frank Ballance can't fight for eastern North Carolina in Washington, D.C. when he's busy fighting indictments in front of a grand jury. That's my opponent's record, and we need to replace him with someone who can be a full-time fighter for our issues in Congress."
Asked whether he plans to make the foundation debacle part of his campaign, Davis replied, "I think that's an issue that's going to be brought to the front without me making it a part of my campaign. But I think that it's something that we can't just overlook."
Davis acknowledged that he believes Ballance's troubles could improve his -- Davis' -- election prospects this time around.
"I'm worried for our district, and I'm worried for Frank, to be quite honest," he said.
For an attorney Ballance makes an interesting Freudian slip in declaring: "You don't get indicted unless you've committed crimes." With state senator Robert Holloman widely expected to be the first Democrat party official indicted by the federal grand jury one wonders if Congressman Ballance is sending a signal to his underlings or if he really is such a poor attorney as to have forgotten all are considered innocent until proven guilty?
Just as General Giap lured the French into the deadly kill zone of the Plain of Jars, so too has the GOP's senior strategist constructed an insidious battle plan to cut the legs from under the entire Democratic ticket in North Carolina.
Ballance must file this week or give up his seat in January. With WRAL's covering of Ballance's involvement in hiring a convicted sex offender to the Hyman Foundation (Lead story on Thursday evening's broadcast) and then advising her she need not register with local officials (contrary to state law) the media have sent the first signals that the state party structure is abandoning Ballance. Ballance's explanations that he did not think she had to register in no way keep him from being culpable and possibly charged with a low-level felony in this case.
Combined with the Hyman Foundation scandal -- where then state senator Ballance voted in excess of two million unaccountable dollars of tax-payer's money to the foundation through the Department of Corrections -- and then had check writing authority in disbursals which he used to lavish monies upon his familiy and supporters before they kicked back funds to his campaign -- it would seem the ground is ripe for the newest revelations to emerge.
Federal investigators beginning new probes into monies Congressman Ballance appropriated through so-called USDA "rural grants". Many mid-level mainstream Democratic operatives expected to be rounded up in this next sweep.
The big winner in this scandal will be Congressman Burr and the GOP governor's candidate. Should Ballance emerge from the primary as the nominee, many minority voters will stay at home -- too embarrassed to vote for Ballance and too proud to vote for the GOP candidate. Easley will keep himself distant from spreading money around down east and Bowles has been burned before by the Black Caucus when they took his cash in 2002 but did not deliver the vote.
Bowles said to be furious with Ballance and exerting pressure to have him not file. However it is unlikely Bowles willing to cough up the one million dollars Ballance now asking for not to run. He calculates it will take this much to make restitution and stay out of prison according to black church officals who are being asked to help raise funds.
However Bowles may spend the cash to buy Ballance out -- it would be a good investment on his part. This week no doubt to be very intereting for NC political watchers.
J
The heat must really be on Ballance now to expose himself in this fashion to rebut these charges. He is in a tough spot -- if he makes a run for it he will be cut down in the open by the Federal Grand Jury. If he hunkers down in his Congressional bunker and attempts to tough it out, he will see dozens of his "colleagues" shredded by collateral damage.
Political shrapnel is as political shrapnel does...
The guy is caught red-handed and does not have the decency to bite the political bullet and step down. And with the exception of Sam Davis and Christine Fitch, not a single Democratic "leader" with the courage to call it like it is. Every GOP candidate on the ticket needs to be prepared to take advantage of the corruption scandal emerging across the state.
Frank Ballance is destroying the entire Democratic party in North Carolina and laying the groundwork for a complete GOP sweep of the ticket. Now that's what I call leadership!
Frank Ballance beaucoup dinky dao
J
Tell it to the judge!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.