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Complaint against Sen. Clark advances to state board

Paul Woolverton
pwoolverton@fayobserver.com
Spring Lake Alderman James O'Garra explains to an elections panel in Fayetteville on Monday, April 16, 2018, why he thinks state Sen. Ben Clark no longer lives in Senate District 21. If Clark has moved out of the district, he cannot run for reelection. The panel ruled against O'Garra and in Clark's favor. [Paul Woolverton/The Fayetteville Observer]

An allegation that state Sen. Ben Clark no longer lives in his district and so is ineligible for reelection advanced on Tuesday to the Bipartisan State Board of Elections & Ethics enforcement.

Spring Lake Alderman James O’Garra, who supports Clark’s Democratic challenger Naveed Aziz in this year’s primary election for Senate District 21, contends that Clark has moved from his family’s home in Hoke County to a recently built home in the Vander area of eastern Cumberland County.

Clark counters that he has maintained his primary residence at the Hoke County house, which is on East Lake Ridge Road in the Rockfish community. That house is in Senate District 21. The new house is in Senate District 19.

A three-person, bipartisan Board of Elections panel from Cumberland and Hoke counties considered O’Garra’s complaint and heard evidence from both sides on April 16. The panel ruled in Clark’s favor.

O’Garra’s appeal of that ruling was filed Tuesday afternoon with the state elections office, said his lawyer, John Austin of Raleigh.

Senate District 21 includes all of Hoke County plus northwestern Cumberland County, including Fort Bragg, Spring Lake and part of Fayetteville. The primary between Clark and Aziz has seen accusations between them of lies and that each is too chummy with Republicans.

In his appeal, O’Garra says the Cumberland-Hoke elections panel’s decision should have accepted an amendment to his original complaint and alleges that the evidence presented at the hearing contradicts the panel’s finding.

A hearing date for the O’Garra appeal was not available late Tuesday.

Whichever side loses at the state elections board can then take the matter to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

 Staff writer Paul Woolverton can be reached at pwoolverton@fayobserver.com and 910-486-3512.