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In recent days, The News & Observer disclosed that Black created a new job for the House page program's coordinator: House historian. Black created the $50,000-a-year position for Ann Lassiter after learning she had arranged for some teenage pages to stay with her son, a drug felon.

* VIDEO POKER: For years, Black stopped legislation that could hurt the video poker industry. An investigation by Democracy North Carolina, a campaign finance watchdog group, raised questions about donations from the industry.

* ENTANGLEMENTS WITH OPTOMETRISTS: State elections officials discovered that Black, an optometrist, helped channel checks from the state optometrists' political action committee to other candidates. The payee lines were blank.

The state Board of Elections found that Black and his campaign violated election laws, and the board referred its probe to county prosecutors. Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby has said the matter is under review.

The issues gave Republicans ammunition for last month's election, but the troubles appeared to have little effect beyond one race: Black's own.

Facing a political novice, he won by only 30 votes.

Black had announced that he would run for a fifth speaker term.

House Republican Whip Mitch Gillespie said Black had no chance of winning. He said Black's decision to step aside should let the House begin rebuilding trust among voters.

"I think he's done the right thing by stepping down," said Gillespie of McDowell County. "What this will do, it gives the legislature a chance to shed some of the image that's been put on us in the past year or so, so that we're not constantly looked upon as being corrupt."

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