News coverage of Ned Cline’s new book about Walter Davis – and his “bags of cash” – reminds me of my two encounters with Davis.

The first was in the Senate Dining Room in Washington during one of Governor Hunt’s first two administrations. I don’t recall the occasion or anything else about the meeting. But I recall Davis saying: “I believe in the Golden Rule: Them that has the gold rule.”

The second time came at the start of Hunt’s fourth campaign in 1996. Our finance director was trying to round up some big early contributions. He called Davis and asked him to give the maximum under the law – $4,000.

Davis demurred. He said he couldn’t be visible that early in the campaign.

Then Davis asked: “Do you like fish?”

The confused finance man allowed that, yes, he did enjoy eating fish.

“I’ll send you some fish,” said Davis. He hung up.

The next day, the finance director received a FedEx envelope from Davis. Inside, he found $20,000 in $100 bills.

Now, that struck us as possibly illegal. Or at least fishy.

So we called Davis and explained that we could not take cash contributions. Making sure we had a lawyer as a witness, we put the money into a FedEx envelope and sent it back.

It appears from the book that Davis did a lot of fishing.

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