How a top lobbyist’s text shut down an NC House leader’s fundraiser
A campaign fundraiser planned next month for one of North Carolina’s most powerful state lawmakers is canceled, after a text message by a prominent lobbyist notified others of the event.
Tom Fetzer, a former Raleigh mayor, sent a text over the weekend that said he was in charge of the fundraiser for House Majority Leader John Bell. Fetzer gave the recipients of his message a strong reason for attending: Bell could be the successor to House Speaker Tim Moore.
“I’m putting together a fundraiser for John Bell the night before the Garden Party on Thursday, April 8 from 5:30-7 at the Cape Fear Club (Men’s Club),” Fetzer’s text message said. “As Tim Moore has stated he is not seeking another term in the House, John is the odds on favorite to be Speaker in 2023. We’ll be having dinner at Quanto Bosso across the street immediately following. Please let me know if you can join us.”
State law prohibits lobbyists from holding fundraisers or soliciting contributions for lawmakers during legislative sessions. It also prohibits them from making contributions or collecting them at any time — two reforms lawmakers passed after the campaign finance and bribery scandals involving then House Speaker Jim Black, a Mecklenburg County Democrat, roughly 15 years ago.
Bell, a Wayne County Republican, and Fetzer both said the text message The News & Observer obtained was in error. They confirmed the fundraiser, but said Fetzer was not holding it.
“I dictated the text into my phone and just sent it,” Fetzer said. “And I didn’t spell check it or anything so I think it just, the transmission got garbled. I wouldn’t have intentionally sent that.”
He said he sent the text to a few friends in Wilmington who he thought might go to the event.
“It’s only a handful, and I think some of us are going to go over and have dinner afterwards,” he said.
Bell said in an interview he had not been aware of Fetzer’s text message or that Fetzer had any involvement in the event.
“That event is being held by individuals that I know down in Wilmington,” he said.
“My campaign has reserved a place, and everything is going to run through our caucus. A lobbyist is not sponsoring this event, absolutely not. My campaign is paying for the venue.”
He said he reached out to House Republican caucus members to tell them Fetzer’s text was in error.
Fetzer is no stranger to campaign finance regulations. He served as the state Republican Party chairman from mid-2009 to early 2011, at the time Republicans took control of the House and Senate, and he took Democrats to task for breaking campaign finance laws.
Bob Hall, the retired executive director of Democracy North Carolina, a nonpartisan nonprofit that advocates for campaign finance reform, said even if Fetzer wasn’t holding the fundraiser, his text could still run afoul of state law that prohibits lobbyists from soliciting contributions.
Fetzer points out in the message that Bell is likely to become the next House speaker, a powerful incentive to persuade recipients to donate, Hall said.
“It’s important,” Hall said. “That’s part of the kind of the sales message. The urgency and the value of being a donor.”
Fetzer said he wasn’t soliciting.
“No, I didn’t ask for contributions,” he said. “I’m just letting people know about an event.”
He declined to identify who they are, but said they are friends of Bell’s from his college days at UNC-Wilmington and not big political contributors. He said he reached out to them to see if they would be willing to talk with a reporter but got no takers.
Nearly three years ago, Hall filed a complaint asking the State Board of Elections to investigate if Fetzer was involved in an undisclosed fundraiser for Senate leader Phil Berger’s son in 2016. Phil Berger Jr. successfully won election to the N.C. Court of Appeals. Hall said the board found the lack of reporting was unintentional, and Berger Jr. corrected his campaign reports to include the fundraising expenses, including a $798 catering bill from Fetzer’s wife.
In 2017, the N.C. Republican Party filed a complaint with the elections board accusing the North Carolina Advocates for Justice of holding a fundraiser for Gov. Roy Cooper while the legislature was in session. The group lobbies for trial lawyers.
Moore’s last term?
Another detail in Fetzer’s text over the weekend caused additional backtracking. Bell said he hasn’t heard that Moore is making this term his last as speaker.
“It’s way too early for me to be talking about that,” Bell said.
Moore texted an N&O reporter Tuesday to say he plans to seek a fifth term, which would be a record.
Fetzer said he meant what he texted about Moore’s plans.
“I do think the speaker has informed people that he does not intend to seek another term,” Fetzer said. “I don’t know that that’s a real surprise.”
There doesn’t appear to be a Quanto Basso restaurant in Wilmington, by the way. There is an Italian restaurant, Quanto Basta, that is near the Cape Fear Club. Fetzer said that shows his phone garbled what he dictated.
This story was originally published March 24, 2021 at 12:29 PM.
CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misstated state law on lobbyists’ campaign finance prohibitions.