July 23rd / 25th
"Perdue Reforming Everyone But Herself"
Earlier this year, the State Board of Elections was pressured by the
Republican party and the media into launching an investigation of campaign
violations by Bev Perdue during her run for Governor. Among the charges being
investigated were $48,000 in contributions from nine donors who might have
been reimbursed by their employers. Perdue tried to disarm investigators by
simply returning the money. But her most serious transgressions involved
something she couldn't return, namely, the acceptance of unreported flights
which took her from one campaign stop to another at no charge. Initially,
the SBE uncovered 40 free flights, which they estimated had a value of
$25,000. But as I pointed out three months ago, the cost of those flights had
nothing to do with their actual "value". My concern was that Perdue had used
those free flights to facilitate her appearances at fund raising events
which, in turn, netted her campaign large sums of money that were then
leveraged into purchases of air time for her negative TV ads against Pat McCrory.
Last month, my suspicions were confirmed when the SBE discovered Perdue
had not reported an additional flight which took her to a fund raiser in
Michigan.
In that instance, the Board estimated the value of that flight to be
$8,900, but they missed the point. $8,900 is what candidate Perdue would have
paid, had the flight not been donated. However, she pocketed $30,000 in
contributions at the Michigan rally. The ramifications of these free flights are
chilling.
Let's say that Perdue only netted $20,000 in contributions from every free
flight she accepted. That's $820,000. And let's say the cost of each
flight averaged $5,000. That's another $200,000. Thus, in money saved and money
collected, Perdue was able to leverage over a million dollars that she
could then use for advertising. Believe me, a million dollars can buy a lot of
TV time in this state, enough, in fact, to influence the outcome of a tight
election which she only won by 145,000 votes.
Clearly, the revelation of the Michigan flight turned up the heat on our
Governor. Unfortunately, we may never know what effect that revelation will
have on Perdue's future. That's because last week, SBE chairman Larry Leake
told lead investigator Kim Strach to back off. According to the Raleigh
News & Observer, Strach was told not to interview Perdue's chief of staff and
former campaign manager Zach Ambrose about the Michigan fundraiser, or
about his audit of the campaign flights under scrutiny.
All this comes on the heels of a new development in the investigation of
former Governor Mike Easley by a federal grand jury. It seems that
prosecutors were being denied access to certain email communications by Easley, so
judge Howard Manning ordered that Easley's former legal counsel, Reuben
Young, cooperate. Interestingly enough, Young is now Perdue's secretary of
Crime Control and Public Safety, an agency which is catching heat for bad
behavior by state Troopers.
Bev Perdue has tried to deflect attention away from her troubles by
pretending to be a reformer. Earlier this month she cracked the whip on greedy
ABC board members and, last week she managed to pass a watered down version
of ethics reform which will tighten up requirements for reporting of some
campaign donations to certain types of candidates. For Perdue, these actions
are sort of like closing the barn door after the horses have gotten out.
Perhaps if Easley had enacted these reforms during his tenure, then Perdue
would have had a more difficult time hiding free plane rides. Of course,
since both Governors seem to share some of the same personnel, some of the
same benefactors, and the same contempt for regulations, then it's easy to see
why neither were in a hurry to make changes in the way campaign donations
were made or spent.
I still think there's a chance Easley will eventually face jail time for
his many dirty dealings and obstructions, but I also think Ms. Perdue might
not be far behind him. In the meantime, Bev, with her ethics reform
routine, is doing her best Lindsay Lohan impersonation by trying to rehab her
image in hopes of avoiding a stiffer punishment. The difference is that Lohan
never hurt anyone but herself, while Perdue seems to have leveraged
unreported air travel into donations which helped to deprive her opponent of the
Governor's mansion. That's something she can never be made to pay back. And
this warning to prosecutors. It may seem premature, but you might want to go
ahead and have the Governor surrender her passport now, because, based on
the nature of her alleged crimes, Bev Perdue could be a "flight" risk.
|
