FILE – North Carolina State Auditor Beth Wood makes an appearance in Wake County Court, March 23, 2023, in Raleigh, N.C. On Wednesday, Nov. 1, Wood, who received unwanted attention earlier this year after a traffic-related court plea, announced that she won’t seek reelection in 2024 after all.
Wood had said in June that she would be seeking reelection. Three months earlier she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor for leaving the scene of a December 2022 crash in which she drove her state-owned vehicle into a parked car. A judge sentenced her to pay fines and court costs.
No one was hurt in the accident, which occurred after Wood left a holiday party in downtown Raleigh. Her citation became public in January. Wood apologized, saying she had made a “grave mistake” and should have waited to let the accident play out. headtopics.com
Without specifically mentioning the crash in her statement Wednesday, Wood said: “I know that I have made mistakes along the way, but I have acknowledged them and have learned from them.” A Craven County native, Wood is a certified public accountant who worked in the State Auditor’s Office for nearly 10 years before she defeated incumbent Auditor Les Merritt in the 2008 election.
For years Wood was among the Republicans’ favorite Democrats as her office issued audits critical of state government operations and looking at ways to halt fiscal waste. But she sometimes came to loggerheads with officials who were the subject of negative reports.totaling hundreds of millions of dollars that were sent late and that determined more than 20 physicians with revoked or suspended licenses were regularly treating Medicaid patients. headtopics.com
Wood told House members she still has plenty of work left: “We’ve got 14 months to kick some butt, so we will get it done in the next 14 months.”