Easley: 'It never, ever happened'

For nearly five hours yesterday, former Gov. Mike Easley answered questions about private flights, home repairs, car payments and bogus invoices -- all of the minutia that form the basis of the wide-ranging investigation into his campaign activities.

It was the first time that Easley, a Democrat, publicly defended himself against the allegations of wrongdoing.

His testimony before the State Board of Elections was unprecedented: Never before has a governor been investigated by or called to testify before the elections board.

The board has the power to issue fines or to refer matters to prosecutors for possible criminal action.

Easley, under oath, directly contradicted testimony earlier this week from McQueen Campbell, a longtime friend and political ally.

While Easley was governor, Campbell provided $11,000 worth of repairs to a house that Easley owned in Raleigh. Rather than billing Easley personally, Campbell sent phony invoices to Easley's political campaign, an apparent violation of election laws. Campbell testified on Monday that Easley suggested that phony invoices be used to bill the campaign for the repairs.

Easley said he never made any such suggestion.

"I didn't tell him to send them, I didn't indicate to him to send them," Easley said. "I didn't express or impliedly give him any indication or suggestion that he should do that, or that I would approve it or that I would condone it. It never, ever happened."

Easley also disputed Campbell's testimony that Campbell provided numerous private flights for Easley during Easley's campaigns. Such flights would be considered campaign contributions and subject to election laws, but the Easley campaign never disclosed the flights on campaign-finance documents.

Easley testified that he had assumed that Campbell would bill the campaign for all of the flights he provided. Easley added that his campaign committee was willing to pay for all unreported flights.

Other questions revolved around a car used by Easley's son that the campaign was not billed for. Easley said it was an informal arrangement with the car dealer, and he said that the campaign and the Easley family eventually paid to lease and purchase the car.

Beyond the details about planes and cars, the testimony from Easley and others this week has provided a picture of how high-priced political campaigns try to exploit campaign-finance laws to their advantage.

Some of the fundraising tactics used by the Easley campaign and under scrutiny from the elections board are not unusual, said Bob Phillips, the executive director of Common Cause North Carolina, a group that advocates for campaign-finance reform.

"I think we've seen in the last 10 years campaigns push the boundaries as far as they can," Phillips said. "Whether people are crossing the line or not is really hard to know."

For instance, one issuethat the elections board is looking into is a "coordinated campaign" between the Easley campaign and the N.C. Democratic Party. The board questioned Easley and others about documents that suggest that the Easley campaign tried to get around campaign-contribution limits by having donors give money to the state party with the understanding that the money would be funneled to the Easley campaign.

Individuals are limited in how much money they can give to specific candidates, but in North Carolina, they can give as much as they want to political parties.

A lawyer for the Democratic Party argued that the Easley campaign actually gave more money to the party than it received from the party.

Easley, who left office in January after eight years in office, said he was never involved in the details of his campaign's fundraising activities. He said he was too busy performing the functions of governor.

Phillips said that the best way to eliminate the gray legal area is for the legislature to set firm limits on how much money a political party can give to a candidate. Most other states have such limits, he said.

Gary Pearce, a veteran Democratic consultant who worked for former Gov. Jim Hunt, said that coordinated campaigns -- in which a party and a candidate share resources -- are commonplace.

"I will admit to you, I have never understood the ins and outs of them," Pearce said. "But my understanding always was that supporters could give more money that would benefit the Democratic Party, the entire ticket and their entire candidates. Perfectly legal."

The elections board is expected to continue its inquiry today with one final witness.

jromoser@wsjournal.com


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