State board rejects residency challenge against Clark

RALEIGH — The State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement on Thursday upheld a local elections panel ruling that state Sen. Ben Clark lives in the district where he is running for reelection.

The board voted 7-1 to reject a residency challenge against Clark. One member of the nine-member state board did not attend the hearing.

Clark, a Democrat from Hoke County who represents Senate District 21, will remain on Tuesday's primary ballot.

State board member Ken Raymond cast the dissenting vote, saying Clark had not met his burden in the case. For the hearing, Clark was expected to show that he had not abandoned a residence in Hoke County.

In the end, the collective agency deferred to last month's findings by the lower elections panel.

On April 16, a three-person, bipartisan elections panel ruled in Clark's favor. Spring Lake Alderman James O'Garra had alleged that Clark no longer lives in Senate District 21, and as a result, is ineligible for reelection.

During the April hearing, the panel considered evidence from O'Garra and Clark before ruling in Clark's favor. O'Garra, who also is the Spring Lake mayor pro tem, then appealed to the State Board of Elections & Ethics Enforcement in hopes it would overturn the ruling by the elections panel of Hoke and Cumberland County representatives.

Clark left quickly following Thursday's hearing and could not be reached for comment.

O'Garra said he was a little upset over the decision because he felt "we provided the evidence."

O'Garra is a supporter of Clark's opponent in the primary, Naveed Aziz, who lost to Clark in the 2016 election and is running again for the Democratic nomination. The residency challenge has surfaced as another heated issue in a bitter race between the two.

Clark is a three-term incumbent.

The winner will face Republican Timothy Leever of Fayetteville in November.

O'Garra initially filed a complaint with the Hoke County Board of Elections alleging that Clark has moved out of the district to a house in Vander, east of Fayetteville.

On Thursday, Raleigh lawyer John Wallace represented Clark. John Austin, another Raleigh lawyer, served as legal counsel for O'Garra.

Some members of the state board expressed that they had issues with Clark's credibility. But board members noted constraints the law places on them as an appeals body that limits their ability to make new judgments on Clark's credibility.

Clark has maintained that he moved into his family's house in eastern Hoke County in 2002 and that house remains his primary residence. He and his wife own a second property in Vander in Cumberland County. That home was purchased last year.

"It is the place he always intends to stay ...," Wallace said of the Raeford residence. "He's testified his clothes and furniture are in the Hoke County property."

Austin told the board that Clark had signed public records that stated the Vander home would be his primary address. Along with that testimony, Austin said, Clark made attempts last year to have the Vander residence drawn into his district as the General Assembly approved new elections lines.

Senate District 21 encompasses all of Hoke County and the northwestern portions of Cumberland County, including western and northern Fayetteville, Fort Bragg and Spring Lake.

Aziz released a statement after the decision in Raleigh: "Mr. Clark either lives in the home in Vander that he owns with his wife and tried to gerrymander into the district, or he has possibly committed mortgage fraud. Either should be disqualifying for a state Senator. The voters will get to decide on Tuesday."

Clark, 58, who grew up in Fayetteville, later left the area for a career in the Air Force. He retired as a lieutenant colonel and now serves as an information technology program operations manager for a contractor at Fort Bragg.

Aziz, 60, is an immigrant from Pakistan who has lived in the Fayetteville area for 37 years. She is a physician, and practices at her medical clinic in Spring Lake.

Clark has said Aziz has resorted to "deceitful and underhanded tactics to steal a Senate seat that she knows she can not win on the merits."

O'Garra can appeal Thursday's decision to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

"I'm going to think about it," he said after the hearing. "It's getting expensive."

Staff writer Michael Futch can be reached at mfutch@fayobserver.com or 486-3529.

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