Some House Republicans oppose regional rail

A group of state House Republicans is trying to keep the trains from running down the tracks.

That's the Triangle Transit Authority's regional rail system, which is planned and designed but needs $484 million in federal money to be built.

About 15 House Republicans have written to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, urging her not to help secure the tax money needed for the project. The House has 57 Republicans.

"We believe that is a wrong thing for you to do," the Nov. 21 letter says.

State Rep. Paul Stam, an Apex Republican, helped coordinate the letter. He said the letter was signed at a recent meeting.

Dole, a Salisbury Republican, is in a crucial position on the rail project.

This year, as federal officials changed the rules about money for rail projects nationwide, Dole did not take action to protect the Triangle system. Dole voiced support for federal officials who were applying tighter standards.

But this month, Dole went to bat for the rail plan and said applying the tighter standards is unfair.

Dole said the Triangle rail project should be judged under the rules in place when it was designed. She joined U.S. Rep. David Price, a Chapel Hill Democrat, in seeking a waiver from the tighter standards for the TTA project.

Local Republicans said in their letter that Dole shouldn't do it.

"During the past several months, we have supplied your office with a complete file of very convincing factual information indicating what a boondoggle the train project is and how ALL good Republicans in the area are adamantly opposed to spending the huge amounts on a train," the letter says.

People will not ride the train, the letter says, and so it shouldn't get tax money.

Tennessee lottery tour

The state lottery commission is taking up Tennessee officials on an offer to tour their operation in Nashville and see firsthand how a lottery is run.

The commissioners are scheduled to make the trip Friday.

There might be some awkward moments there. While looking for a director to run the North Carolina lottery, the commissioners interviewed two top executives at the Tennessee lottery but did not pick either one.

Radio ads not covered yet

The N.C. Association of Educators, which lobbies for public schoolteachers, spent more than $13,000 to run radio ads trying to persuade state Sen. Richard Stevens, a Cary Republican, to vote for the lottery in August.

But the NCAE did not list that expenditure or what it spent on radio ads in two other lottery opponents' districts in reports filed with the state.

Stevens said the spending should be reported because it was an attempt to influence his vote on specific legislation.

But officials with the N.C. secretary of state's office, which regulates lobbying, say it doesn't qualify as a reportable expense under current law.

The reason, said George Jeter, a spokesman for the secretary of state, is that the spending did not benefit Stevens or his Republican colleagues, John Garwood and Harry Brown.

Garwood and Brown missed the lottery vote, paving the way for it to become law.

"Under the present law, basically to report an expense there has to be a benefit to the person," Jeter said.

Lawmakers tightened the lobbying laws this year, but those reforms do not take effect until 2007. Jeter said the incoming law removed the "benefit" language from the statute and replaced it with "influence."

As a result, he said, such radio ads would have to be reported under the new law.

The ads have drawn attention because they were produced by Kevin Geddings, a Charlotte public relations executive who was later appointed to the state lottery commission by House Speaker Jim Black. Geddings did not disclose his work on the lottery ads on a state ethics form.

Last month, Geddings resigned from the commission just hours before the lottery company Scientific Games disclosed that it had paid him $24,500 this year, with much of the money going toward lottery promotion work in North Carolina.

The business ties are being investigated by state and federal authorities.