N.C. Elections Board Investigating Bev Perdue
The State Board of Elections has opened an investigation of Gov. Bev Perdue's campaign finances in response to complaints from the N.C. Republican Party.
Last year, NC Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer filed complaints over undisclosed campaign flights. Perdue's campaign has since disclosed 31 flights and said the omissions were mistakes.
Fetzer received a letter today from Kim Strach, a deputy director at the elections board who is responsible for investigations. In her letter, which Fetzer released to the news media Wednesday, Strach wrote that the board is investigating Perdue.
"We have initiated an investigation into the allegations contained in your complaints and will advise you of our findings at the conclusion of our investigation," Strach wrote.
At a news conference today, Fetzer said he believes that Perdue, a Democrat, may have engaged in the same campaign finance practices as former Gov. Mike Easley, whose campaign was fined $100,000 over unreported flights.
Contributors testified at a hearing over Easley's finances that they gave large checks to the N.C. Democratic Party with the expectation that the money would be forwarded to Easley, an illegal scheme to subvert campaign finance limits.
Fetzer released a list of 12 people who were subpoenaed in the board's hearing on Easley. Each of the 12 people have given to Easley, Perdue and the state Democratic Party.
"The fact that the activities of the Perdue Campaign mirror the violations of the Easley campaign, and in some cases involve the same corporate aircraft, indicates that an investigation of the Perdue Campaign as thorough as that of the Easley Campaign, is warranted and justified," Fetzer wrote in his letter to the board.
More Flights Reported By Bev Perdue Campaign
Gov. Beverly Perdue's campaign committee has reported another eight flights aboard private aircraft dating to 2000, according to information filed Thursday with the State Board of Elections.
Jack Trabucco, a retired Air Force officer who manages an aviation firm in New Bern, provided five flights between November 2000 and October 2005 totaling $1,878. All five were treated as in-kind contributions.
Perdue's campaign reimbursed donors for three other flights:
* DM Farms of Rose Hill, owned by hog baron Wendell Murphy, provided a March 2004 flight valued at $326.
* Shearin Companies Inc., an Enfield-based firm that sells manufactured housing, provided a flight in October 2004 valued at $338.
* Fulenwider Enterprises Inc., a fast-food franchisee based in Morganton, provided a November 2006 flight valued at $1,993.
Since last summer, the campaign has uncovered a total of 31 flights aboard private planes that were previously unreported. The donors who provided 21 of the flights have been reimbursed, while the others were included on amended campaign finance reports as in-kind contributions.
The combined value of the 31 flights was more than $25,400.
State campaign finance laws forbid corporate donations to candidates and limit individual contributions to $4,000 per election cycle.
Campaign treasurer Oscar Harris said that campaign officials have been auditing Perdue's campaign finances after the campaign shifted to a new software program. The officials have come across the previously unreported flights in the process, he said.
"We've been working with the state board for many months now," Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press. "We (felt) an obligation to do it."
The elections board in October ordered former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign to pay $100,000 for flights he took on private planes. The board also turned its findings over to prosecutors to determine whether Easley should face any criminal charges in the case. A decision is expected by February.
Republicans argue the disclosures aren't much different from Easley's flights, which also have been investigated by federal prosecutors. A local district attorney is also examining elections board evidence to determine whether Easley or others should face criminal charges."
"This is yet another case of Governor Perdue breaking the law and then, with the political protection and financial resources of a seated governor, reporting the violations," state GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer said in a prepared statement.
Bob Phillips with Common Cause North Carolina said the number of flights previously undisclosed by Perdue bothered him but believed the governor had been deliberate in her first year in office to make state government more open and transparent.
"I don't think it's a hollow gesture on her part to be proactively examining her campaign finance reports ... even in the wake of the Easley scandal," Phillips said.
GOP Links Bev Perdue To Allegations Against Former Gov Mike Easley
NC State Republican Party Chairman Tom Fetzer on Wednesday tried to tie Gov. Beverly Perdue to allegations of wrongdoing by her predecessor.
Fetzer asked the State Board of Elections to expand its investigation into Perdue's campaign finances, questioning some of the campaign flights she received in recent years and whether donors tried to buy favors from her.
In October, the elections board ordered former Gov. Mike Easley's campaign to pay $100,000 for not reporting dozens of campaign flights provided aboard donor's private aircraft.
Fetzer said several of the 31 flights Perdue's campaign has reported in recent months were aboard corporate planes – state laws prohibit companies from donating to political campaigns – and he questioned the timing of the reporting and the valuation her campaign placed on the flights.
Oscar Harris, Perdue's campaign treasurer, has said the previously unreported flights were picked up during an internal audit of campaign finances after switching to a new software program.
Fetzer also noted that 12 people subpoenaed in the elections board's investigation of Easley contributed to Perdue's campaign and the state Democratic Party.
During the hearing into Easley's campaign finances, some donors testified that, after they had reached the $4,000 limit for contributions to his campaign, they gave money to the Democratic Party with the understanding that it could be routed back to the Easley campaign.
Some of Easley's donors also worked to get environmental permits approved for coastal developments, and Fetzer noted that one of Perdue's donors head the North Carolina subsidiary of Titan America, which last fall was able to obtain a draft air quality permit from state regulators for a proposed cement plant near Wilmington.
"We think all this is indicative of a continuation and long pattern of callousness and disregard for the election laws of North Carolina. We think it needs to be investigated thoroughly," Fetzer said.
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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, Charlotte Observer, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps
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