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Thurs: Easley, Day 4
posted at 2009-10-30 00:18 | Last modified 2009-10-30 00:18
Day Four of the Easley hearings was a drawn-out, interesting-in-a-boring-way affair. If you’re a campaign finance geek like I am, it was fascinating. If not, it was pretty deadly.
Former NC Dem party director Scott Falmlen spent about five hours on the stand, answering questions about party finances and accounting methods. At issue was whether the Easley campaign and the NCDP conspired to set up a “shadow” campaign account called the Governor’s Fund.
Voter watchdog groups and other critics say the Governor’s Fund was an account within an account, set up to facilitate the movement of soft money from the party (which can accept such money for some expenses) to the campaign (which can’t, period). Witnesses Lanny Wilson and Nick Garrett said they were told by Easley fundraisers that their contributions to the “party” via this fund would in fact go to help Easley.
But Falmlen unequivocally denied any such fund existed. He said the “governor’s fund” notation was just an internal bookkeeping code he used to track candidates’ progress toward fundraising goals.
There was no separate bank account for funds related to contributions received - that had been solicited by the Easley committee, or disbursements that were made on behalf of the Easley committee.
As it turns out, no other candidate had an equivalent source code, but Falmlen said that’s because the governor raised the lion’s share of the money, more than ten times what any other candidate brought in.
Falmlen got a little testy as the day wore on. The first target of his wrath was Republican board member Chuck Winfree, who persisted in calling the “Governor’s Fund” a “sub-account,” even though it wouldn’t qualify as such by any technical definition. And then there was board member Bill Peaslee, a former consultant for the NCGOP, who gave away his Republican leanings by consistently referring to the “Democrat Party.”
Overall, though, Falmlen stayed on message: yes, the campaign tracked ins and outs as required by law, but no, there was no link between what a candidate raised and what the party gave back. (After seeing the exhibits in evidence, I’d have to say there’s not much evidence to refute that.)
Even though technical evidence of collusion was darned thin on the ground, the NCDP still went aggressive on the offense by presenting data that showed the NCGOP engaged in many of the same practices for which the Dems are on the hook. That includes big-donor money passthroughs (Vinroot), as well as failing to report flight time as an in-kind donation (Ballantine, Smith, Graham). It’s not clear why the Dems think the "everyone’s doing it" defense will work any better here than it did for Ballance and Black, but hey, what do I know?
Take my client…please
The big surprise of the day came during closing arguments, when Easley’s personal attorney Thomas Hicks said his client wants the SBOE to refer the case to the DA.
He wants a full and complete investigation done by whatever authority is out there and in a position to do the investigation. And we feel confident that, when that’s done, we’ll be exonerated.
Hicks told the board an investigation by the state could expose other campaigns who use the same accounting methods Easley did, but haven’t been called to task for it. It was an interesting aside that could also be read as a veiled threat to the board: “Sure, refer us. But do you really want to let the state onto your turf to crack open every campaign report in the state?”
Hicks also made some choice comments about McQueen Campbell, whom he called a “sycophant” and political wannabe who got “stuck in a lie.” He also suggested the shadow of the grand jury might have influenced Campbell’s testimony, which he called “ludicrous.” Here’s raw audio of his remarks after today’s hearing.
Listen Now!
The board’s plan for Friday is to meet in closed session at 9am, where they’ll likely make a decision about what penalties Easley should face. Chairman Larry Leake said a decision could be announced as early as 9:45am. Follow me on Twitter for breaking updates.
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