Another little drip. The Uptown paper of record catches up with Mohammad Jenatian, president of the Greater Charlotte Hospitality and Tourism Alliance and good friend to Jim Black.
Nothing really new here, but it does package all the various strip club donations and legislative action together in an easy to follow timeline.
In recent years Jenatian gave $3,300 in personal money to Black’s campaign. And, when Black rounded up campaign donations for then-Rep. Michael Decker in 2004, Jenatian pitched in $250. Decker, a former Republican who changed parties, later pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe from Black, and both are now in federal prison.
“I would do anything I could do to help somebody who helps Jim Black,” Jenatian told the Observer before the Decker bribe was disclosed.
On Election Day 2004, Black reported a total of $11,000 in campaign contributions from Jenatian’s Tourism PAC and two strip club owners, one of whom is a member of the hospitality and tourism alliance that Jenatian leads.
Jenatian told the Observer he doesn’t recall the specific Election Day 2004 donations. With 800 members in the tourism alliance, he has limited contact with each one, he said. So when he does see some of them, they might discuss and then make contributions on the same day. … Jenatian said the unflattering publicity and grand jury testimony have dampened his enthusiasm for his political action committee and overshadowed his organization’s constructive work.
He’d be just as happy if political action committees were banned, he added.
“It’s so discouraging,” he said. “What the hell did I do wrong?”
Doth protest, much?
