A political ally of former Gov. Mike Easley testified yesterday that scores of campaign-related flights went unreported and he turned in false air-travel invoices to get reimbursed by Easley's campaign for repairs that he arranged for the governor's home.
McQueen Campbell, a former trustee board chairman at N.C. State University, told the State Board of Elections that Easley asked him in 2004 to take care of some water damages and other repairs at the governor's home in Raleigh, which he rented to someone else while living in the Executive Mansion.
Campbell, the first witness to the Board of Elections in its public hearing investigating The Mike Easley Committee and the state Democratic Party, testified he paid for the repairs, valued at about $11,000. Easley suggested that Campbell would be reimbursed with campaign funds and to use some unreported flights to pay for them, Campbell testified.
"He asked if there were unbilled flights," Campbell told elections board Chairman Larry Leake, who questioned Campbell as to what he believed Easley wanted him to do.
Campbell responded: "For me to bill the campaign for unbilled flights to uncover those amounts."
Campbell said he filed two invoices through his aircraft company for undesignated flights, totaling a little more than $11,000. The campaign paid his company for them, according to campaign records. He also testified that he flew Easley around on his aircraft for eight years and listed the value of campaign-related flights over five years at $87,895.
The unreported flights and alleged falsified repair payments through the campaign would appear to be campaign-finance law violations. But Easley's personal attorney, Thomas Hicks of Wilmington, challenged Campbell's testimony under cross-examination.
Hicks painted Easley as a busy chief executive who had little involvement in his day-to-day campaign finances and questioned why Campbell didn't file invoices to seek reimbursements for actual flights that Campbell piloted between October 1999 and October 2004.
"He never told you to file a false invoice to this committee, did he?" Hicks asked Campbell.
"Not specifically, but I understood what he meant," Campbell responded.
During a break, Hicks told reporters that the ex-governor would have never authorized Campbell to submit a false invoice.
"If I was doing work for somebody and spending money and had to pay for my gas and my insurance, I'd sure send an invoice," Hicks said. "The governor wouldn't do anything intentionally to violate any of the election law."
Later yesterday, a legal assistant to Easley's campaign treasurer testified that Easley called her in 2005 and told to her to pay Campbell's air-travel invoices even though they lacked supporting information.
"I told him that we normally require some additional backup and he said I should go ahead and pay the invoice," said Rebecca McGhee, relying on a memorandum she wrote to then-treasurer Dave Horne.
The board -- three Democrats and two Republicans -- could issue fines or reprimands, refer the case to a district attorney for criminal charges, or exonerate the party and The Mike Easley Committee. Easley didn't appear at the hearing and Leake said the ex-governor wouldn't be called to testify until at least Wednesday.
Easley's campaign committee, which handled millions of dollars, should have known that Campbell's flights needed to be paid or pay him, said Bob Hall, the executive director of the campaign-finance reform group Democracy North Carolina.
"I don't know if it can be explained away," Hall said. As for the flights, Hall said, "they're much more extensive than they thought of it before."
Leake said after yesterday's testimony that it was legal in 2005 for Easley to use campaign funds for nearly any purpose, including home repairs, as long as it was reported accurately.
Campbell, 38, testified he had known Easley for about 20 years and that he had provided flights to Easley's campaign and for personal use going back to the late 1990s, when then-attorney general Easley was running for governor.
Campbell, who stepped down from the N.C. State University trustee board this year after scrutiny grew over the hiring of former first lady Mary Easley at the school, said his records showed that he flew Easley on 61 flight legs from October 1998 to November 2000.
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