Four years ago this week, the governor of Ohio made national headlines when he was convicted on ethics lapses.

And the reason for misdemeanor criminal charges against Republican Bob Taft, who is the great grandson of President William Howard Taft?

Taft failed to disclose 52 gifts worth a combined $6,000 over eight years, almost all of them weekend golf outings paid by businessmen he called "friends and acquaintances," J. Andrew Curliss reports.

The situation might sound similar to a report in Sunday's News & Observer that showed former Gov. Mike Easley, a Democrat, had his monthly dues waived at the exclusive Old Chatham Golf Club, whose leaders included a number of politically connected businessmen.

But there's a big difference between Ohio and North Carolina. North Carolina lawmakers have hailed their ethics law as a tough one, but its requirements on disclosures were actually made weaker in recent years than what past North Carolina governors, including Easley, had required by an executive order.

Currently in North Carolina, gifts can't be given to public officials by people who are registered to lobby or employ one, or are considered an "interested" person, essentially someone seeking state business.

Gifts from others, such as a golf club or someone with a personal relationship with the public official, do not automatically need to be disclosed under current law. That was the case for Easley when he did not disclose that he received a free Florida vacation paid by NASCAR titan Rick Hendrick last year. Both said the vacation was based on a personal friendship.

And Easley's lawyer says that, under the current law, Easley simply did not have to disclose that he had a gift of waived dues, which amounted to a roughly $50,000 benefit over eight years.

More after the jump.

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There have been five presidential spoilers in N.C. in the last century.

Since 1908, third-party candidates in the presidential race have earned enough votes to affect the race between the Republican and the Democrat on the ballot in 1912, 1968, 1980, 1992 and 1996.

In the first two cases, the third-party candidate came in second.

George Wallace was the most successful, earning 31.3 percent of the state vote in the 1968 race as the nominee of the segregationist American Independent Party. The winner, Republican Richard Nixon, won 39.5 percent, while Democrat Hubert Humphrey came in third with 29.2 percent.

The next most successful was former president Teddy Roosevelt, who ran on the Progressive or "Bull Moose" Party in 1912, earning 28.4 percent. Democrat Woodrow Wilson won the state with 59.2 percent, while Republican incumbent William Howard Taft came in third with 12 percent.

In the other races, the third-party candidates came in third, but got more votes than the margin of difference between the Democratic and Republican candidates.

In 1992, Texas businessman Ross Perot earned 13.7 percent of the vote, far more than the 0.79 percent margin that incumbent George H.W. Bush beat Bill Clinton by in North Carolina, despite losing the national race.

Four years later, Perot was roughly half as popular — picking up just 6.7 percent — but he still drew more votes than the 4.7 percent difference between winner Bob Dole and Clinton.

And in 1980, Independent candidate John Anderson won 2.9 percent, slightly more than the 2.1 percent difference between winner Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.