Cleanup crew

Democracy North Carolina has a new site. This from watchdog group:

STENCH OF BATHROOM DEALS IN STATE POLITICS
FUELS PETITION DRIVE — CleanUpRaleigh.com

The group that sparked the investigation into Jim Black’s campaign financing is launching a new website — CleanUpRaleigh.com — to rally support with a petition calling for fundamental reform.

The new website of Democracy North Carolina, the Carrboro-based watchdog group, says, “It began with video poker and ended with revelations about secret cash payoffs in bathrooms. It’s more than a sick joke. The scandals swirling around ex-Speaker Jim Black have exposed the stench of dirty money,
dirty deals, and dirty pay-to-play politics.”

“We hope to get several thousand people to sign the petition,” said Antony Khamala, a field organizer for the group. “E-organizing can be an effective way for people to express their outrage about the mess in Raleigh and support for a clean campaign finance system.”

Democracy North Carolina is a part of a coalition of groups, ranging from the NAACP to the NC Bankers’ Association, which recommends a public financing option for qualified candidates who demonstrate broad support and who refuse to rely on large, special-interest donations. [See NC Voters for
Clean Elections at www.ncvce.org]

A link from the new CleanUpRaleigh.com website provides a series of Q & As about public financing and emphasizes that it is a “sweat equity” program, because candidates must get authorization to use a public fund by first collecting hundreds of small donations from registered voters.

“Clean, Voter-Owned public financing programs are working from Maine to Arizona and right here with our statewide judicial elections,” said Adam Sotak, another organizer with Democracy North Carolina.

In a blog announcing the new website, Sotak says that Treasurer Richard Moore’s reliance on campaign money from executives doing business with his office is a reason to provide public financing in Council of State races.
“This is not to say that Moore’s a dirty politician on the take, but let’s be honest, this is no way to run a democracy.”

Democracy North Carolina filed a complaint in June 2004 about a pattern of what it suspected were illegal contributions to then-Speaker Jim Black from donors tied to the video-poker industry. It provided substantial information
to the FBI and the State Board of Elections which conducted investigations that uncovered a variety of problems with Black’s fundraising practices, eventually leading to his felony convictions in February.

“The worst thing that could happen now is for nothing to change about the money chase that fosters corruption and provides no clean source of campaign money for good candidates,” said Khamala. “People can change this system.
Lots of small actions can add up.”