Morgan receives financial help for legal fees

House Speaker Pro Tem Richard Morgan is the latest legislative official to get help in paying legal fees associated with a long-running investigation into House Speaker Jim Black's legislative and campaign activities.

This month, Black and Senate leader Marc Basnight authorized payment of legal fees as they pertain to Morgan and his staff's official duties in responding to a federal subpoena issued to Morgan early this month. That subpoena requires Morgan to appear before a federal grand jury and provide documents pertaining to 37 "relevant parties," as well as financial information such as tax returns and bank records.

Amy Fulk, Basnight's chief of staff, said the authorization will only cover official actions of Morgan and his staff, not any personal actions. Morgan, a Moore County Republican, served as co-speaker of the House with Black during the 2003-04 legislative session.

While many of the parties listed in the subpoena refer to matters involving Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, a few are related to a small cigarette manufacturer that gave $100,000 to a political group that Morgan founded.

Morgan initially sought representation from the state Attorney General's office, which is typically called upon to represent state officials in public matters. But since the attorney general is also involved in the investigations, Chief Deputy Attorney General Grayson Kelley said it would create a conflict of interest for his office to assist Morgan and his staff.

Kelley also reminded Morgan that state lawmakers added a provision to a lengthy new ethics law earlier this year that takes the approval of outside legal expenses out of the attorney general's purview.

Black and Basnight, a Manteo Democrat, now make that call.

Morgan could not be reached for comment. He was scheduled to appear before the grand jury earlier this month, but his lawyer had won a postponement.

About a year ago, the attorney general and governor approved the hiring of outside counsel to represent Black's office and other legislative staffers.

So far, about $20,000 has been spent on the speaker's office and staff. Nothing has been spent on other legislative employees, said Wesley Taylor, the legislature's financial services manager.

Morgan and Black have started legal funds to cover their personal expenses. Those funds are not required to disclose donors.

Go vote or do chores?

"Dry Cleaning More Important Than Voting, Poll Finds" says the provocative headline on a news release by the Civitas Institute, the Raleigh think tank.

With only 31 percent of North Carolinians casting their ballots in the mid-term elections, Civitas commissioned a poll to find out why people stayed home.

The organization hired Tel Opinion Research of Alexandria, Va., to ask 400 North Carolinians who voted in 2002 and 2004 why they didn't vote in 2006.

The survey found that 16 percent of the nonvoters said they were too busy or forgot to vote, 10 percent said there was no special reason to vote, and 10 percent said they were working.

After elections, it is common for the losing side to argue that they would have won if only their voters had shown up. The Civitas poll will likely fuel the argument that a disproportionate number of Republicans stayed home.

In congressional races, the poll found that 39 percent of the nonvoters said they would have voted Republican, while 33 percent would have voted Democrat. In state legislative races, 37 percent of the nonvoters would have voted Republican while 31 percent would have voted Democrat.

"This time it appears that too many Republican voters thought going to pick up their dry cleaning was more important than voting," said Jack Hawke, president of the think tank.

The poll was conducted Nov. 15-17 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.7 percentage points.