THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 26, 1995 TAG: 9506260019
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: NORTH CAROLINA
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DURHAM LENGTH: Long : 108 lines
Sen. Lauch Faircloth pushed to swing the path of the new Interstate 73 through Greensboro near land owned by Jefferson-Pilot Corp., which has donated to Faircloth and in which the senator owns stock.
Both the city and the Greensboro-based insurance company said they did not lobby Faircloth to change the highway's route.
``We are not in the highway business, if you are asking if we lobbied for it. That's ridiculous. Of course not,'' company spokesman Arnold Culbrith said.
``We can't take credit for getting the highway. It's thanks to Sen. Faircloth. But we sure are happy about it,'' said David Copenhaver, Greensboro's vice president of economic development.
Faircloth declined repeated requests for interviews, The Herald-Sun of Durham reported.
``We have no comment,'' said Harris Vaughan, Faircloth's legislative coordinator for transportation issues, when asked if the stock and campaign contributions influenced Faircloth's support for rerouting the interstate.
And Faircloth spokeswoman Shelagh Cooney declined repeated requests to answer questions about the senator's relationship with the company, how much stock he holds and whether his assets are in a blind trust. Some public office-holders use the trusts to avoid knowing how their investments would be affected by legislation.
I-73 was supposed to dip into North Carolina at Mount Airy, travel through Winston-Salem and make a beeline for South Carolina to link Charleston, S.C., and Detroit.
Instead, the elaborate new plans also add a second interstate, hundreds of miles and hundreds of millions of dollars to the cost of the project, a federal official said.
Greensboro real-estate developers say the proposed highway could play a key role in whether Jefferson-Pilot decides to build a regional mall on almost 417 acres just northwest of the city limits.
Faircloth has reported owning more than $750,000 in stock in the life insurance company. And, federal records show, its employees and political-action committee have contributed more than $24,000 to his campaign since 1991.
More than $500,000 of the stock Faircloth reported owning is non-publicly traded, meaning it cannot be sold by a broker.
``It is reserved for family members or people close to the company,'' said Bob Reed, a Jefferson-Pilot vice president and general counsel.
Marc Bush, Greensboro's senior economic adviser, said a mall is one of many possibilities. The corporation would not reveal the possible uses for the property.
A spokesman for a nonpartisan Washington-based think-tank questioned Faircloth's role in rerouting the interstate.
``This appears to be a quid pro quo,'' said Alex Benes, managing director of the Center for Public Integrity, which investigates national and political issues for the media. ``Here's a guy who has been most adamant about calling for ethical investigations, when there are a lot of questions of his own ethics.''
Senate ethics rules say a senator cannot use his official position to push for legislation primarily for the purpose of personal financial gain.
Faircloth has had to justify his investments and legislation to the Senate Committee on Ethics in the past.
Earlier this year, he wrote two letters to the ethics committee explaining his investments in the hog-farming industry and his efforts to turn back proposed pork industry regulations.
I-73, proposed by Congress in 1991, was originally planned to enter North Carolina from I-77 near Mount Airy. The highway was to follow U.S. 52 through Winston-Salem, then to U.S. 311 around High Point, connecting with U.S. 220 near Asheboro.
But with the Republican takeover of Congress, Sen. John Warner, R-Va., became chairman of the subcommittee that sets interstate routes.
Warner decided I-73 would have a bigger impact on southern Virginia if it turned east out of West Virginia toward Roanoke, then south to Martinsville near the North Carolina border. That change also routed I-73 along U.S. 220 instead of I-77 farther west.
In April, Warner and Faircloth, a subcommittee member, agreed to support each other's plans. Faircloth agreed not to fight Warner's plan to send the interstate through Roanoke. In exchange, Warner supported Faircloth's desire to send I-73 through Guilford County, exiting the state near Wilmington rather than Rockingham.
To deliver the highway that was promised to Winston-Salem originally, the Warner-Faircloth compromise created I-74 to run through Winston-Salem. I-73 and I-74 would meet farther south on U.S. 220.
The original I-73 route would have cost about $6 billion in federal highway dollars, said Martin Weiss, transportation specialist at the U.S. Department of Transportation. ``If the new, bi-pathway route is constructed, it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars more,'' he said.
Vaughan said that though the rerouted highway's path could be perceived as awkward, it had to be that way.
``We had to deal with what Warner gave us as the entry point into North Carolina and went with the route that made the most sense for his constituents,'' he said.
At a subcommittee hearing, Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., who opposed the Warner-Faircloth plan, called the changed route ``a waste of travelers' time by skewing a north-south highway eastward.''
``We'd love to know what motivated this rerouting,'' said Chris Cimko, a Thurmond spokeswoman.
On Thursday, Thurmond and Faircloth reached a compromise on where the two interstates will enter South Carolina. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Lauch Faircloth
by CNB