Pat McCrory tries to derail N.C. ethics bill?

What's former Charlotte mayor Pat McCrory up to these days? Robo-calling about legislation before the N.C. General Assembly for one thing. Here's a piece from the Insider:

"Senate leaders decided to send a wide-ranging ethics bill back to committee. The decision follows an effort by anti-tax group Americans for Prosperity to enlist former Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory to robo-call supporters to oppose public campaign financing provisions in the legislation. In the calls, McCrory calls the fees aimed at those regulated by state government and used to support the campaigns a tax. A tax in an election year can be a scary thing, can't it? (THE INSIDER, 6/23/10)."

Chris Fitzsimon also wrote about it today for his "Fitzsimon File" on N.C. Policy Watch, a project of the North Carolina Justice Center (read entire piece at http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/cms/2010/06/24/the-senate-hits-the-panic-button/):
"State Senate leaders are now scrambling to reshape major ethics legislation after backing down in the face of misleading right-wing attacks and robocalls by removing provisions to expand public financing of election for Council of State offices.
North Carolina already has voter-owned elections for judicial candidates and three Council of State offices. The concept of providing public money to candidates so they won't have to rely on private special interest money to get elected is well established and it makes sense to expand the successful program to more offices.
But the public debate in the last two days has not really been about special interest money or the best way to pay for campaigns. It has been about partisan politics, the fall election, misleading soundbites, political ambition, and maybe most importantly, the problems with the way the Senate conducts its business.
The robocalls were apparently delivered to several swing Senate districts by the right-wing group Americans for Prosperity. The recordings featured former Charlotte mayor and unsuccessful Republican gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory who is desperately trying to stay relevant until the next election by appealing to the Republican's tea party base."

Desperately trying to stay relevant? Wonder what former Mayor Pat would say to that?