Before money laundering was presidential
by Tom Sullivan
Like David Byrne, I ask myself, “Well…How did I get here?” Here is pretty messed up.
Federal prosecutors this week indicted former North Carolina congressman Robin Hayes, now chairman of the state’s Republican Party, on charges of bribery and other crimes.
The charges come weeks after Republicans saw last fall’s apparent congressional victory in NC-9 evaporate because their candidate “had financed an illicit voter-turnout effort.” Mark Harris’ son, a federal attorney, testified under oath his father had ignored his repeated warnings about McCrae Dowless, the field operative behind the scheme.
I train counties in get-out-the vote operations myself. How did I get here?
A job as a western North Carolina field organizer dropped into my lap, unasked, in the fall of 2006. It was a “blue moon” election. That is, there were no statewide races on the ballot. The district congressional race was the top of the ticket. The top of the ticket candidate was an ex-football player. His name was Heath Shuler. Which meant while the state Democratic Party had hired me, effectively I was working for Shuler’s campaign.
The former congressman is widely reviled in progressive circles as a blue dog. So much so that I don’t bring up my involvement in the campaign much here, even though we turned out an 8-term incumbent, Republican Charles H. Taylor. Local environmentalists know the wealthy banker as “Chainsaw Charlie” for his ownership of tree farms and authorship of an infamous federal timber salvage rider that passed during the Clinton years.
It may not looks so from a distance, but Shuler was an improvement. In discussions, political friends are much more theoretical and black-and-white about what they will accept in politicians and policies. But a friend with a Washington insider’s view noted the other day his first thought tends to be, “compared to what?”
In Shuler’s case, compared to this from Bloomberg on Friday:
A regional Russian bank owned by a former U.S. congressman had its license revoked Friday for violations that included breaking rules against money laundering.
Commercial Bank of Ivanovo, in which Republican former North Carolina Representative Charles Taylor owns an 80 percent stake, regularly broke anti-money laundering regulations, misrepresented the size of its provisions and used “schemes” to artificially inflate its capital, according to a central bank statement.
Taylor’s bank violated so many anti-money laundering regulations, it had its license revoked. By Russia. Or maybe it just failed to pay its kickbacks.
The Associated Press adds:
Taylor bought CBI in 2003 alongside his business partner Boris Bolshakov, a former KGB agent and Supreme Soviet deputy who is listed as the bank’s second-largest shareholder.
In 2003, two of Taylor’s political associates testified that the congressman knew about fraudulent loans made by Asheville-based Blue Ridge Savings Bank, which he owned at the time, to a political supporter. Taylor denied any knowledge of the loans.
“Chainsaw” Charlie’s bank was into fraud, conspiracy, and shady Russian deals before that was presidential.
So go easy on me for helping elect Shuler. I’d do it again.
The U.S. Supreme Court heard North Carolina’s partisan gerrymandering case on March 26th. If things go Democrats’ way, North Carolina could have new congressional maps – fair maps – for the next general election. Eleventh District Democrats sent “Chainsaw Charlie” packing in 2006. In 2020, they’re positioned to do the same thing for your favorite Freedom Caucus Chair, Mark Meadows. If districts change, the candidate who faces Meadows could be another centrist Democrat.
As with Democratic candidates in the 2020 presidential contest, progressive voters may need to remember “compared to what?”