Associated Press
RALEIGH -- North Carolina's longest-serving state senator said Wednesday he won't seek re-election next year as prosecutors pursue criminal charges over a shooting at his home in August.
Sen. R.C. Soles, D-Columbus, announced he won't seek a 22nd consecutive term. He's the state's longest continuously serving lawmaker, first elected to the General Assembly in 1968 and in the Senate since 1977.
State prosecutors announced this month they plan to seek a felony assault charge against Soles after a grand jury found probable cause that he acted criminally when he shot a former law client. Soles has said he acted in self-defense.
"I plan to serve out the remainder of my term with the vigor and diligence my constituents deserve and I will continue to practice law," Soles said in a statement announcing his decision. "Public service is a noble calling and I have tried to live up to the ideals of a true leader."
Soles made no reference to the case in the statement. But he said in an interview with The Associated Press he would be less than truthful to say his legal troubles played no role in his decision.
"It sure was not the motivating force," said Soles, who turned 75 on Dec. 17. "That alone would not have kept me from running."
Soles is the latest powerful Democrat leaving the Senate. Outgoing Majority Leader Tony Rand of Cumberland County is to resign Thursday to head the parole commission. Finance Committee co-chairman David Hoyle of Gaston also won't seek re-election.
Soles said he had considered not running in 2008. He said his Senate district, which includes Columbus, Pender and Brunswick counties, has been increasingly difficult to win as transplants arrive from other states and register as Republicans.
Soles won by less than 3 percentage points in the November 2008 election while spending more than $839,000 in campaign expenses.
"It's not that they dislike me. They just don't know me," Soles said.
The soft-spoken attorney made headlines in the past two years when a house that he paid a former client to build caught fire and when young men he described as former clients were charged with trespassing.
A former client claimed recently that Soles molested him a decade ago, but the accuser later said he made the story up. Neighbors have made dozens of emergency calls in recent years telling police they heard gunshots, screams and loud arguments coming from his home or law office.
Most recently, the State Bureau of Investigation looked into the Aug. 23 shooting of Thomas Kyle Blackburn. Authorities say Soles shot Blackburn after he and another intruder kicked in the front door of his secluded Tabor City home. Blackburn wasn't badly hurt.
Attorney General Roy Cooper's office said earlier this month that it plans to submit an indictment in January on a felony charge of assault with a deadly weapon inflicting serious injury, which the grand jury would have to approve. Soles declined to comment on the case Wednesday, referring questions to his Raleigh attorney.
Soles said fellow Senate Democrats in Raleigh didn't ask him to resign immediately and that he had no plans to do so.
Soles was emotional when he discussed his time in the Legislature, where he served as chairman of the powerful Senate Commerce Committee and the Democratic caucus. The Senate even approved a resolution in 2005 officially calling him a "North Carolina institution."
"It's been a wonderful opportunity," Soles said.
