The state Board of Election hearings opening Oct. 26 on the campaign finances of former Gov. Mike Easley promise plenty of fireworks.
WRAL-TV unearthed documents showing that lawyers representing Easley and the state Democratic Party asked state election officials how to report private air travel used by Easley and his family as early as February 2004.
The revelation (and the timeline) are important because Easley and his wife flew on state-owned and private aircraft several hundred days during Easley’s final five years in office — the vast majority of those flights after the elections board’s June 2004 opinion limiting the value of flights from campaign donors at no more than $4,000 per election cycle.
The state apparently wasn’t reimbursed for many of the trips on Department of Commerce aircraft, as required by law. And the private flights often weren’t disclosed, another potential violation of the law.
Carolina Journal will be live-blogging the hearings and have additional updates during the week. For our earlier coverage of all things Easley, visit here.
