RALEIGH
Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue's campaign completed a yearlong internal audit that uncovered 31 previously undisclosed flights on private aircraft and valued at more than $25,000, prompting comparisons from Republican critics to unreported flights by predecessor Mike Easley.
On Thursday, the Bev Perdue Committee sent the State Board of Elections information on eight more flights covering 2000 through 2006 and valued at $4,534, according to a campaign letter.
The committee already had disclosed 17 other flights valued at more than $18,700 from Perdue's successful 2008 campaign for governor in August, followed by six more in December valued at $2,200. The flights from individuals or companies were either labeled as in-kind contributions or expenses that Perdue's campaign has since paid.
Three months ago, the State Board of Elections fined Easley's campaign committee $100,000 for failing to disclose several dozen flights from 1999 through 2004 piloted by a close political ally. Those flights were revealed during a board investigation into Easley and the state Democratic Party. The board valued the flights at $60,000.
Perdue's campaign said it discovered the flights during a 2009 audit after the campaign noticed some inconsistencies in their data during the transition to a new computer reporting system in 2007.
"We've been working with the state board for many months now," Perdue campaign spokesman Marc Farinella said yesterday in an interview. "We (felt) an obligation to do it."
Republicans argue that 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.
Media reports about Easley's unreported flights occurred last spring.
The first batch of previously undisclosed flights by Perdue was identified in early August -- proof, according to Fetzer, that she reported them only when Easley began taking heat for his own.
But Farinella said that Perdue's campaign had already contacted the state board in January 2008 that the software switch had led to some problems and had told the board it would perform an extensive internal review, which began in January 2009 and discovered the unreported flights.
"The state board is aware of it and encouraged it and was supportive of our efforts," he said. State Board of Elections executive director Gary Bartlett didn't immediately return a phone call yesterday.
Bob Phillips with Common Cause North Carolina said that the number of flights previously undisclosed by Perdue bothered him but he believed the governor had been deliberate in efforts during 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.
The state Democratic Party praised Perdue for completing the internal review and pointed out evidence presented during the state elections-board hearing that raised questions whether some Republican candidates for governor in 2008 reported all of their flights.
Fetzer should insist on similar audits by the GOP candidates so "the people of North Carolina can be assured that those committees have properly disclosed all travel costs," Democratic Party executive director Andrew Whalen said.
Perdue's committee named the additional flights the same day it filed her campaign-finance report for the second half of 2009. The campaign reported $530,257 on hand as of Dec. 31, an increase from $374,140 at the close of 2008.
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