Tag search result

The state employees association announced today it has settled its lawsuit against the state Treasurer’s Office over a public records request.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina in 2007 had sought records after Forbes magazine published an article that asserted then-Treasurer Richard Moore, a Democrat, had a fundraising advantage in his campaign for governor thanks to investment managers who did or could do business with the state’s pension fund.

SEANC dropped its lawsuit and signed a settlement agreement on March 9 because current State Treasurer Janet Cowell has “sufficiently satisfied the association’s public records request,” according to its statement.

Former State Treasurer Richard Moore has decided not to seek the Democratic nomination for governor, as the primary field began to firm up in the wake of Gov. Bev Perdue's announcement that she would not seek re-election.

“I have decided not to be a candidate for Governor in 2012, and look forward to supporting our nominee,” Moore said.

“I want to thank everyone who encouraged me to run this year, and also express my gratitude to all North Carolinians for the privilege of serving them in the past.''

Moore had the potential to shake up the field because of his political experience and because of his ability to self-finance his campaign. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for govenror in 2008.

Former state Treasurer Richard Moore is looking at the governor's race now that Erskine Bowles has decided not to run.

The Democrat is “still very interested and will spend some time calling around the state over the next few days to gather advise and perspective,” Moore said in message sent from a meeting of the Wake Forest University board of trustees meeting Thursday afternoon.

Moore, a former state treasurer, former crime control secretary, and former legislator, unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for governor in 2008, losing to Bev Perdue.

In a crowded Democratic field for governor, only Erskine Bowles can match Republican Pat McCrory at this point, according to a poll released Monday.

Bowles, the former two-time U.S. Senate candidate, trails McCrory 44 to 42 percent in a hypothetical matchup -- a virtual deadlock with McCrory's advantage within the 4.2 percent margin of error. The problem: Bowles isn't in the race yet.

The Public Policy Polling survey tested 13 Democratic candidates against McCrory, the likely GOP nominee and former Charlotte mayor, after Gov. Bev Perdue dropped out. Pollster Tom Jensen argues that Democrats have a better chance with Perdue out of the race. In a generic partisan matchup, voters split evenly -- 46 percent supporting a Democratic candidates and 45 percent supporting a Republican. 

Former state Treasurer Richard Moore said he will take “a close look” at seeking the Democratic nomination for governor.

“I am not ruling anything out,” Moore said. “The Democratic Party faces a real challenge to find the right candidate who can bring together a strong challenge to Republicans this fall. I know how to present our arguments in a forceful and experienced way. We will have to see if I am the right messenger at this point in time.”

Moore ran for governor in 2008, losing in the Democratic primary to then Lt. Gov. Bev Perdue. He is a former state legislator and former secretary of crime control and public safety. He is currently in business.

Real estate mogul Donald Trump, who is weighing a Republican run for president, has given a lot of money to Democrats over the years.

Among the contributions was a $500 donation to then Democratic state Treasurer Richard Moore's re-election campaign in 2004, according to campaign records.

The Washington Post has reported that Trump has given thousands to many of the nation's leading Democrats including to Senate Majority leader Harry Reid, and Sen. Hillary Clinton.
   

Former gubernatorial candidate Richard Moore is hot with the N.C. Board of Elections about omissions to a recent report about campaign flights.

The section about Moore in the report, written by campaign finance investigator Kim Strach, said that the former state treasurer's campaign had destroyed all of its records, in violation of state rules requiring that those records be kept until at least January 2011.

But Strach's supervisors edited out two key passages about Moore from the final version of the report, according to a copy her original draft. Strach wrote that Moore's campaign treasurer said she believed the campaign had properly reported all flights taken by the candidate on private aircraft.

Strach also reported the Moore's campaign manager had sough advisory opinions from staff at the elections board about how to properly report in-kind donations of travel on private aircraft and that the investigator found no evidence that Moore's campaign had failed to do so.

A copy of a letter from Moore's campaign about air travel was also removed from the exhibits provided with the board's report.

Efforts to reach Moore for comment Thursday were unsuccessful. But Moore apparently did call the elections board to complain about how information about his campaign was portrayed in the report.

In an e-mail exchange between Strach and deputy elections director Johnnie McLean released through a public records request, the investigator makes clear that Moore was not happy.

"I was berated for a significant amount of time on the phone by Richard Moore yesterday," Strach wrote McLean on July 2. "He was extremely angry about an editorial in the News and Observer critical of him that was based on the report that was released by our office. He explained to me that the report did not address the fact that his treasurer had been responsive to the inquiry and had provided the information that was the subject of the February 4, 2010 letter. Further, he explained that the report gave the impression that he just simply destroyed records and was no better than others that had not disclosed travel. He questioned my motives and understanding of the impact of reports such as the one released."

Strach also questioned why her supervisors had deleted the additional information about Moore from the final report, without the investigator's approval. "The report that was released does not reflect the fact that the response from his treasurer did answer the questions in the letter," Strach wrote to McLean, who had helped edit the report. "I was baffled when I saw that that language had been removed. It was not an opinion. It was factual information from the treasurer’s response. That one statement showed that the letter they submitted advised that they believed that all flights had been reported and no in-kind travel was utilized."

Copies of the elections board report, showing the changes made by Strach's supervisors, is attached below.

The state Supreme Court has overturned the dismissal of a public records lawsuit filed by a state employees association against the State Treasurer's office.

The State Employees Association of North Carolina was looking for records from former Treasurer Richard Moore in response to a Forbes magazine article that asserted Moore's ability to choose money mangers and investment funds gave him a massive fundraising advantage.

SEANC requested records about investments and the Forbes article and complained for months that it didn't get all that it asked for. Moore's office continued to assert the request had been fulfilled. SEANC sued and a judge dismissed the case early on.

The Supreme Court decided in an opinion published last week that state officials or agencies should not be the ones to decide whether they have complied with a records request that is in dispute. Courts should make those determinations, wrote Justice Edward Thomas Brady.

Judicial review of a state agency’s compliance with a request, prior to the categorical dismissal of this type of complaint, is critical to ensuring that, as noted above, public records and information remain the property of the people of North Carolina.  Otherwise, the state agency would be permitted to police its own compliance with the Public Records Act, a practice not likely to promote these important policy goals.

The decision sends the case back to a judge.

“This ruling is a victory for state employees’ retirement security, open government and public accountability from its elected officials,” said SEANC Executive Director Dana Cope in a statement.

A few days after announcing a new job as Raleigh lobbyist for the city of Charlotte, Julie White has returned to her old post as lobbyist for all of the state’s largest cities.

White, a veteran communications strategist, had accepted the job of intergovernmental relations manager for Charlotte on Jan. 11, with a goal of improving relations between the state’s biggest city and state government, Bruce Siceloff reports. She had planned to work mostly from Raleigh — unlike her Charlotte-based predecessor Boyd Cauble, who retired in December.

She was supposed to start work Monday. Instead, after spending last week in Charlotte, she told Curt Walton, Charlotte city manager, that she had changed her mind. The job would require her to take too much time away from her husband and three children, she said.

"After spending the week in Charlotte it has become apparent to me that to succeed as the City's Intergovernmental Relations Manager, I would have to spend more time in Charlotte than I can personally commit because of family obligations," White said in an e-mail to Walton.

White was back at her old job in Raleigh this week as director of the N.C. Metropolitan Mayors Coalition, which represents the state's biggest 26 cities.

White previously worked as a communications and policy adviser for then-Lt. Gov. Dennis Wicker, then-House Majority Leader Phil Baddour and then-State Treasurer Richard Moore. She worked on Moore's campaign for governor in 2008.

In Charlotte, Walton has started looking again for a new lobbyist.

Six months before former state Treasurer Richard Moore left office, the North Carolina pension fund that he oversaw invested more than $500 million in the investment fund firm that now employs him, the Insider reports.

Moore was named a managing director at San Diego-based Relational Investors in April of this year. The office of current Treasurer Janet Cowell confirmed that in July 2008 the pension fund signed an agreement to make a substantial investment with Relational Investors. The investment, as of Sept. 30, was valued at $508,623,784. It was the pension fund's first and only investment with the firm.

Ralph Whitworth, founding director of Relational Investors, said the investment and Moore's hiring were completely unrelated.

"If it creates a perception, that's unfortunate. Richard, after he left the state treasurer's office, was one of the most sought-after persons in finance," Whitworth said. "We were totally excited."

UPDATE: Moore responds to the story in an email to Dome. (After the jump.)