Posted on 03/14/2007 11:49:03 AM PDT by GOPRaleigh
ELECTIONS BOARD INVESTIGATION Wright has drawn attention in past Lawmaker has faced scrutiny on issues from waived ticket to taxes MARK JOHNSON mjohnson@charlotteobserver.com
RALEIGH --Last July, a state trooper in Bladen County clocked N.C. Rep. Thomas Wright doing 72 mph in a 55 mph zone and issued the veteran legislator a ticket.
Two months later, the charge was dismissed.
"It was a courtesy dismissal because the legislature was in session," said Rex Gore, the district attorney for Bladen and surrounding counties. Gore, a Democrat, said his office also made a clerical error in initially handling the case, which factored into the decision to erase the charge.
Wright, 51, a Wilmington Democrat, resigned his two committee chairmanships Monday amid a criminal investigation by the State Board of Elections into a variety of campaign contributions. The controversy is far from the first time Wright's actions have drawn ethical, regulatory or legal scrutiny.
The legislator has:
• Paid his property taxes late 10 years in a row, and is still overdue on one piece of property.
• Earned thousands of dollars working for a foundation that was part of a state agency whose budget Wright helped approve.
• Failed to file required elections reports, leading the elections board to refuse to certify his election.
Wright did not return a message left at his office Tuesday. On Monday evening, after resigning his chairmanships, he said he has done nothing wrong.
"The only reason I'm doing this now is to not cast aspersions on my House colleagues who are Democrats," Wright said. "I'm not doing anything else than to move the process along."
In one of the higher-profile episodes, Wright earned $35,000 in consulting fees in 2002 and 2003 from the N.C. Foundation for Advanced Health Programs, a foundation that is part of the state Department of Health and Human Services. Wright was a member of the appropriations committee that approved the department's budget.
He said at the time that he didn't know of the foundation's connection to state government, even though its president was an assistant secretary at DHHS and the foundation was headquartered within DHHS offices. Wright served as a health and safety consultant.
From 1997 to 2006, Wright failed to pay his property taxes on time on a Wilmington house, according to county officials. He is overdue this year to pay property taxes on another nearby house he owns.
The current elections board investigation concerns, among other issues, whether Wright tried to hide potentially controversial campaign contributions by reporting them after a primary campaign.
The board also is examining $8,000 in contributions from nurse anesthetists, a majority of whom had not donated to a campaign in the preceding decade, that were made after Wright single-handedly blocked a bill they opposed.
"Was there an attempt to hide something or was it just sloppy bookkeeping?" said Rep. Hugh Holliman, a Lexington Democrat and majority leader, summing up the purpose of the elections board investigation.
In 2002, the board of elections refused to certify Wright's election until he turned in a year's worth of overdue campaign finance reports. The board sent a letter to the district attorney before Wright produced the reports.
Anybody remember the legislator who ran a stop sign at high speed and killed a guy last year? He claimed he was travelling to a session and that any civil liabilities should be borne by the state and a judge upheld it.
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Was it a Jankowski or something like that from out in Midwest ?
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
;)
I do not know what happened there. Your reply is very cute though.
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