Black's Campaign Finace Issues Go To DA

Winston-Salem Journal The State Board of Elections referred House Speaker Jim Black for possible criminal prosecution yesterday, saying that Black's campaign should have reported blank checks that he received from his fellow optometrists before he filled in Rep. Michael Decker's name on them. "You've got to disclose the money that you control and disburse to others," said Larry Leake, the chairman of the elections board. "And you cannot use blank checks to circumvent the maximum-contribution limits." The board referred Black and his campaign, as well officers of the N.C. Optometric Society Political Action Committee and at least 18 people connected to the video-poker industry to the Wake County district attorney, Colon Willoughby, to consider criminal charges. Although Black has not been charged with a crime, "we believe he has violated the law," said Leake, who, like Black, is a Democrat. "It's to be determined by folks other than us whether that is a criminal violation." In testimony last month, optometrists said that they regularly supplied $100 checks, with blank payee lines, to M. Scott Edwards of Murfreesboro, the treasurer of the Optometric Society PAC. Black acknowledged under oath that he received three blank checks worth $4,200 from Edwards and filled in the name of Decker, the former Republican representative from Walkertown who switched parties in 2003 to create a 60-60 partisan split in the House that helped Black remain as speaker. The elections board ruled yesterday that Black should have reported those checks both as contributions to his campaign and to Decker's.