Roy Cooper says he investigates corruption too.

A spokeswoman for the attorney general e-mailed Dome today to note that the State Bureau of Investigation, which he oversees, also played a role in the corruption cases mentioned in a recent N&O article.

In a sidebar to the story, we had written that the Eastern District U.S. Attorney's office brought down a number of prominent Democrats in recent years, including Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps, former Speaker Jim Black, U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance and lottery commissioner Kevin Geddings.

Spokeswoman Noelle Talley said that the SBI was involved in those cases and more than 450 public corruption cases over the past eight years.

"Keep in mind that under state law, our office can take over criminal prosecution of cases when requested to by local District Attorneys," she wrote. "We are often asked by DAs to prosecute cases against public officials including sheriffs, judges, state legislators and others."

She added that Cooper has pushed for the legislature to give his office the power to convene investigative grand juries in public corruption cases.

As we noted, federal prosecutors have more powerful grand juries than state and local prosecutors.

If the U.S. attorney in the Eastern District were a hunter, he'd have some nice trophies.

Over the past eight years, federal prosecutors based in Raleigh have taken down some big Democratic game as part of their anti-corruption efforts.

A short list:

Meg Scott Phipps. The former Agriculture commissioner spent three years in prison for fraud and extortion over inappropriate use of campaign funds.

Jim Black. The former longtime speaker of the N.C. House is serving time for taking $29,000 in bribes from chiropractors who wanted him to push legislation.

Michael Decker. The former state representative is serving time for taking more than $63,000 in cash and campaign checks from Black to switch parties.

Frank Ballance. The former Congressman is serving time for diverting $100,000 in public money he helped direct to a nonprofit to his law firm, church and family.

Garey Ballance. The son of Rep. Ballance, a Democratic district court judge, served time for failing to report money he received from his father to buy a Lincoln Navigator.

Kevin Geddings. The former state lottery commissioner is serving time for failing to disclose that he worked for a lottery vendor when he took his seat.

The U.S. attorney's office may have also helped investigate former Rep. Thomas Wright, who was found guilty in state courts of improperly spending campaign donations, though it has never confirmed or denied the assistance.

Not all of their targets were Democrats, either. Federal prosecutors also put former state GOP chairman and former U.S. attorney Sam Currin in prison for laundering money for a client.

Greg Dority is running for lieutenant governor.

The Washington security consultant has been making the rounds of local Republican groups, though he has not yet set up a campaign Web site or talked with any major newspapers.

Dority first ran for public office in 2002, losing to U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance by a 2-to-1 margin in the heavily Democratic district.

After Ballance stepped down amid a criminal investigation, Dority was chosen by the state GOP to run in a special election to serve out his term in 2004.

He lost to former state Supreme Court Justice G.K. Butterfield in that election and the regular 2004 general election several months later.

Hat Tip: Bill Clark 

A former FBI agent is joining Les Merritt's staff.

Frank Perry, once the top agent for the FBI's Raleigh office, will head the inevstigative division of the state auditor's office starting Sept. 1.

For the past year, he has been education director for the State Ethics Commission, where he helped teach thousands of elected officials and state workers about new ethics laws.

As an FBI agent for 22 years, he was involved in the public corruption investigations of former state Agriculture Commission Meg Scott Phipps and former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance. He retired in 2004.

In a statement, Merritt said that Perry will help take the investigations division "into new directions."

Perry will earn $94,164 a year in the position. 

With former House Speaker Jim Black sentenced to more than five years in federal prison, what we can learn from the Mecklenburg Democrat's fall and the rising importance of money in politics? (N&O)

So, is 63 months in prison and a $50,000 fine an appropriate sentence for former House Speaker Jim Black?

Joe Sinsheimer, for the Democratic political consultant who aggressively pushed the the case against Black, called it "a fair outcome."

Republican activist Claudia Rogers said it was not inconsistent with the punishment given to former state agriculture commissioner Meg Scott Phipps and former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance.

Right Angles wants you to know that Meg Scott Phipps is a Democrat:

this is one of the biggest complaints media critics on the conservative side have about the mainstream media: that they air brush Democrat from corruption stories and play up party affiliation when Republicans are involved.

In the post, Jon Ham of the John Locke Foundation notes that the N&O and the Associated Press left Phipps' party affiliation out of stories about the former agriculture commissioner. (So did Dome.)

So here you are: Meg Scott Phipps is a Democrat.

And just for good measure, former U.S. Rep. Frank Ballance and House Speaker Jim Black are Democrats as well.