Campaign treasurer testifies in second day of hearings

RALEIGH — A campaign treasurer and a fundraiser of former Gov. Mike Easley on Tuesday testified to their roles in handling the millions of dollars that came into the campaign’s coffers.

The former treasurer, Dave Horne, and fundraiser, Michael Hayden, took the witness chair during the second day of a hearing by the State Board of Elections dealing with complaints filed against the former Democratic governor and the N.C. Democratic Party.

Two Jacksonville businessmen, Billy Sewell and John Pierce, along with Surf City Mayor Zander Guy have been subpoenaed to testify in the hearing but have yet to do so.

Nor has Easley, who was North Carolina’s governor from January 2001 to January 2009. Easley has not attended the hearing either day.

However, Larry Leake, chairman of the State Board of Elections, said he expects Easley to testify today.

Horne said that he paid an invoice purported to be for campaign plane flights provided by McQueen Campbell after his legal assistant got in touch with Easley to find out if the payment was an obligation of the campaign committee.

However, the payments to Campbell were actually for repairs that Campbell had overseen on a Raleigh house owned by Easley. On Monday, Campbell testified that he had flown Easley around the state on campaign stops using his company’s airplane and never invoiced the campaign committee for the value of the flights.

Horne likened his role to a marriage counselor in the Easley campaign.

“Easley was married to the campaign,” Horne said. “Sometimes they didn’t get along at all.”

On Tuesday, former Waxhaw resident Gary Allen said that he wrote a $50,000 check to the N.C. Democratic Party at the request of Lanny Wilson, a Wilmington resident who is on the N.C. Board of Transportation.

“I think there was probably some assumption that Easley and others would benefit from it,” Allen said.

On Monday, Wilson and another contributor, Nick Garrett, said that they had contributed to the N.C. Democratic Party with the understanding that it would assist the Easley campaign.

Horne on Tuesday said that Scott Falmlen, the former executive director of the party, had clearly stated to him that money raised by the Democratic Party would be spent as the Democratic Party saw fit.

James Cooney, an attorney representing the Democratic Party, presented information during his questioning of Horne showing that while the Easley campaign had raised about $935,000 for the Democratic Party, it only paid out $516,000 for the Easley campaign in 2000, including $200,000 that was funneled through the state party from the Democratic National Committee.

Leake said that the numbers, if verified, were significant.

He said that the board is trying to get a sharper image regarding whether a special account existed within the Democratic Party to help Easley.

Testimony Tuesday showed that the party did have a “coordinated campaign” to raise money for get-out-the-vote efforts. Democratic candidates for governor and other Council of State seats were asked to raise money in an effort to get party loyalist to the polls.

Leake also said that he felt Horne’s testimony to be “credible” even though there were a number of times that Horne said he didn’t recall information surrounding the investigation.

“It is difficult to remember events five and seven years ago,” Leake said.

However, he said he did not feel the same way toward Hayden.

“I thought that some of the testimony we heard this afternoon, particularly from Mr. Hayden, was less than candid,” Leake said.

Hayden said he didn’t recall if he ever knew who owned the plane that flew Easley to campaign sites. He said he didn’t recall who the specific financial advisers were. Hayden did say that he never told potential campaign contributors that they could contribute to the Easley campaign through the Democratic Party.