News 14 Carolina - Political Connections

Hackney's presser...

I'm back from a long weekend in Pittsburgh filled with a few inches of snow, a ton of great food, and a sad group of Steeler fans!

Anywho, I'm "off the street" until Thursday for medical reasons (no big deal), but thanks to technology I'm sitting at my desk listening to the audio from the General Assembly Press room waiting for House Speaker Joe Hackney to discuss the indictment of Rep. Thomas Wright.

He's now talking so here's the highlights...

-House will move ahead to resolve the matter. He spent the day talking to various parties (Gov's office, Senate, Wake County DA, etc.) about the topic.

-Joint Ethics Committee had taken up issue but stopped at the request of DA to investigate himself first.

-The subject of indictments are very serious matters and require the House to act on those allegations.

-No reason for House to further delay any more investigation or action on Mr. Wright.

-What's next? Joint Ethics Committee to promptly wrap up their work and he anticipates there will be a special session to consider the recommendations of the committee.

-He does not want this to linger into May when the General Assembly reconvenes.

-He wants the process open and would go a long way to making the public feel better about the situation.

-Hackney says there are measures set forth to allow the House to remove Wright from office.

-He has not talked to Wright and he stands by his past comments (he asked him to resign)

-The House will not and does not need to wait for the court process to wrap up before taking action.

-The House would only vote in the special session. The Senate may need to show up for procedure reasons but they would not vote.