Ex-Dem operative wants Black sacked.

• Author: Brown, Kathy
• Position: PEOPLE

Joe Sinsheimer has long been a master at crafting political messages. His latest one is concise: Jim Black must go. Black, a Democrat from Matthews, is a 10-term state representative in his fourth term as House speaker. He's also a key figure in the scandal involving the state lottery (see page 46).

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Sinsheimer launched www.jimblackmustgo.com Nov. 15. Within two months, it had more than a million hits. The weird part is that Sinsheimer is a Democrat who for years ran a political consultancy helping Democrats get elected. "I wanted to grab my party by the lapels. Everyone knew the emperor wasn't wearing clothes, but no one wanted to talk about it."

Despite his latest crusade, Sinsheimer, who turns 44 in April, says he has been retired from politics since late 2004. He's the managing partner of Raleigh-based Sunflower Ventures I LLC, a venture-capital fund with $1 million under investment in North Carolina technology companies. One, Durham-based Motricity, which distributes music, games and other entertainment for wireless devices such as cell phones, plans to go public this year.

He grew up in Cleveland and came to North Carolina to attend Duke University, where he graduated with a double major in history and religion in 1983. He jumped into politics, moving to Iowa to work on California Sen. Alan Cranston's presidential campaign. The next year, he returned to North Carolina to aid Jim Hunt's bid for Jesse Helms'...