A New Jersey pipefitter hired Don Beason to fight an obscure law.

Sigma Corp., based in Creamridge, N.J., distributes pipe fittings and manhole covers used in underground drinking water projects that it manufactures in China and India.

The company lost business in North Carolina in 2002 when a bill passed that added a provision to state law requiring all steel and iron used in state projects be made in the United States. 

Mike Robinson, a bridge construction engineer for the N.C. Department of Transportation, said it supported the law because of problems with foreign steel in some projects. He said a broken casting made from foreign steel caused a fatal accident in one case. 

But Sigma president Victor Pais said the company's products are safe and made to American standards. He argued that the rule is essentially protectionism that benefits two competitors, East Jordan Iron Works and Neenah Foundry.

"When imports are out, they hit a home run," he said. 

A study bill that is in committee would look at the issue. 

Don Beason's biggest contract was with Catawba County.

According to a review of his client list this year, the once-top lobbyist was paid nearly $33,000 to represent a county of 151,000 people having a water dispute with its neighbors.

That's almost four times what Progress Energy paid him, almost eight times the size of his IBM contract and more than 11 times what he earned from AT&T.

Only one other corporate client, Sigma Corp., came close with its $27,000 contract. 

As a public entity, Catawba could not pay Beason with a second contract — ostensibly for something other than lobbying — that it did not have to report to the Secretary of State. 

So its contract is likely close to what Beason actually charges. That means his major corporate clients, including Progress Energy, IBM, AT&T, Colonial Life Insurance and  BB&T, likely paid him the rest with secondary contracts. (At least one did so in a prior year.)

In fact, BB&T's $3,290.38 payments from Jan. 1 to June 30 are exactly one-tenth the $32,903.80 he earned from Catawba in that same time frame.

Don Beason's son, Mark, worked closely with him.

According to filings with the Secretary of State's office, Mark Beason made $61,130 from 10 clients he shared with his father, including BB&T, Cingular Wireless and the N.C. Railroad Co., in the first six months of the year.

The single largest contracts were with Sigma Corp., a New Jersey pipe fitting company, for $27,000, and Colonial Life Insurance, for $12,000. Both paid Don Beason the same amounts.

In addition, Mark Beason made $31,750 from four other clients. The N.C. Railway Association paid him $15,000, the N.C. Community Health Center Association paid $13,000 and the N.C. Pawn Brokers Association paid $3,750.

Valley Development is also listed as a client, but it has not filed any payment reports.

In all, Mark Beason earned $92,880 in the first six months of the year. 

Don Beason made over $100,000 in the first half of the year.

According to filings with the Secretary of State's office, 15 corporate clients paid Beason a total of $107,671 from Jan. 1 to June 30, 2007.

Two clients, Carolina Ballet and Dale Earnhardt Inc., paid nothing. The ballet said Beason had donated his services. The city of Hickory did not pay Beason directly, but reimbursed Catawba County for half of its contract.

The largest single contract was the county, which paid Beason $32,903, according to the filings. (The county's records showed a slightly different amount.)

Another large client was Sigma Corp., a New Jersey-based maker of pipe fittings, which registered Beason as a lobbyist on May 21. The company paid Beason $27,000 in the second quarter of the year.

Progress Energy, the Raleigh-based electric utility, paid Beason $8,500.

Other contracts for clients such as BB&T, Cingular Wireless and the Albemarle Mental Health Center, were worth between $3,000 and $4,000 each in the first half of the year.

Update: AT&T North Carolina, formerly BellSouth, is also a Beason client, but it does not show up on his clients listings. According to the company's filings, it paid him $2,940 in the first half of the year. His total earnings have been updated.