Meck Deck blogger Jeff Taylor calls it Cannonsgate-gate, the McClatchy report detailing how former Gov. Mike Easley pocketed $136,000 when purchasing a lot at the Cannonsgate coastal development in Carteret County.
Carolina Journal’s Don Carrington started turning over the rocks more than three years ago, but today’s story provides closing documents outlining how Easley used a 25 percent “seller’s discount” on the half-million-dollar property to get the money at closing.
Easley did not disclose the benefit he received from the transaction on any state disclosure documents, which, as the papers reported,
contradict what Easley’s representatives have said for years. In
2006, while Easley was still in office, his spokeswoman Cari Boyce said
the Easleys didn’t get a special deal. ?The governor paid the listed
asking price for the lot,? she said at the time. ?The price was set and
non-negotiable.?This spring, McQueen Campbell, a key Easley
ally who represented the Easleys in the real estate deal, told the News
& Observer that Easley paid the listed price.
Federal investigators probing alleged sweetheart deals involving Easley and campaign donors with (among other things) plane trips, automobiles, and Mary Easley’s former job at N.C. State will certainly take note.
FYI, the link is to the version of the story on The Charlotte Observer’s Web site because it includes a reference to CJ’s pathbreaking reporting on this story that took place while Easley was in office. The N&O’s online version is shorter and does not include that information. Both papers published photos from CJ’s Carrington showing an aerial view of the Easleys’ lot.