Reports reveal shady dealings by N.C.’s legislators and its top judge, but no action has followed | Opinion

Two recent reports reveal the scope of corruption infecting the General Assembly and N.C. Supreme Court. They are disturbing, detailed and deserve serious action.

The first report, by The News & Observer’s Dan Kane, describes a pay-to-play scheme that enriched a national real estate developer working in Mooresville, a booming town north of Charlotte.

The developer had promised to pay $15 million for a new thoroughfare in exchange for the town’s rezoning approval of its massive planned community. Instead, the developer hired lobbyists in Raleigh and showered Republican legislators with large campaign contributions. Shortly thereafter, a line in the 2023 budget sent $15 million of our tax money to pay for the developer’s road.

A key legislator in this affair later resigned and is now a lobbyist for the developer. The Mooresville mayor is a paid consultant for the developer on another project in the county. Not surprisingly, Senate leader Phil Berger is the top recipient of contributions tied to the developer.

Kane’s report is part of the newspaper’s “Power & Secrecy” series. Earlier articles have documented over $150 million of our tax money steered to businesses led by donors and friends of Republican legislators.

Fifteen years ago, Republicans accused Democrats of creating a culture of corruption in Raleigh. Scandals involving political money sent House Speaker Jim Black and other Democrats to prison and produced a raft of new ethics laws.

Today, Republican leader Sen. Phil Berger, a former ethics reformer, is the king of self-dealing and pay-to-play politics in North Carolina. He used campaign funds to buy a home that he sold for a handsome personal profit. He helped lift his son onto the state Supreme Court, expanded his influence over policy boards, and raised millions from donors seeking legislation of dubious public benefit.

Berger is now facing a tough Republican primary challenge in part because, despite intense local opposition, he doggedly pushed legislation to legalize casinos while gambling interests pumped over a million dollars into his allied political committees.

His self-serving actions reached a new low with the recent mad dash to redraw a Black Democrat’s Congressional district in order to gain President Donald Trump’s approval and possible Trump endorsement for Berger’s reelection. This gross abuse of power deserves judicial rebuke, but that won’t come from a N.C. Supreme Court infected with its own corruption.

That brings me to the second report – an in-depth, scathing profile of N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby, written by Doug Bock Clark of ProPublica.

When first elected in 2004, Newby rejected donations from special interests and qualified for public campaign funds. But in the past 10 years Newby has sided with Duke Energy in six court cases while he and his wife own large amounts of Duke stock – even though the Code of Judicial Conduct says a judge should disqualify himself when he or a family member has “a financial interest in . . . a party to the proceeding.”

ProPublica details how Newby has “used his extensive executive authority to transform the court system according to his political views.” He has changed judges’ duties, replaced court administrators with less experienced loyalists, and taken control of the once-independent Judicial Standards Commission. The commission recently squashed disciplinary action against two Republican judges who admitted they committed serious judicial code violations.

Under Newby’s leadership, the Republican-majority court has earned a reputation as the most aggressively partisan Supreme Court in a century. His rulings have sanctioned radical gerrymandering, upheld legislative leaders’ power grabs, and protected Berger & Company from accountability.

It falls to us to speak out, vote and act together to stop this madness and put North Carolina on a better path toward liberty and justice for all.

Bob Hall is a long-time voting rights advocate and independent government watchdog.

This story was originally published November 24, 2025 at 10:46 AM.