Neither Carolina Journal nor The News & Observer of Raleigh has been able to find any payments on Gov. Mike Easley’s campaign finance reports in 2000 and 2004 for flights that an Elizabethtown businessman and his sons provided for Easley during his races for governor.
Easley’s campaign treasurer for both elections, B. Davis Horne, Jr., signed the campaign reports after the statement, “I further say that this report is complete, true, and correct.”
As first reported by CJ last week, a source, who asked to remain unidentified, said that the businessman, McQueen Campbell, boasted of flying the governor as frequently as once a week, and that the value of the flights totaled as much as $200,000 per year. Some of the trips were for Easley’s 2000 and 2004 campaigns for governor, but other trips were for leisure or recreational purposes, including trips to Florida and New York, the source said.
Campbell, who lives in Raleigh, is a real-estate developer and an Easley appointee on the N.C. State University Board of Trustees, where he is chairman. His father, Mac Campbell, owns Campbell Oil & Gas and other businesses based in Elizabethtown.
Mac Campbell is an Easley appointee to the N.C. Board of Transportation. Easley appointed McQueen’s brother, Brian Campbell, to the Aeronautics Council, the state’s aviation advisory board. All three Campbells are pilots. Federal Aviation Administration records show they own at least six aircraft, including one helicopter based in Raleigh.
Political campaigns are permitted to use private aircraft for transportation, but campaign officials must report the value as an in-kind expenditure subject to the contribution limits. A campaign also may hire a private aircraft for a fair hourly rate and report the payment as a normal campaign expenditure.
Easley campaign reports from 2005 show that Executive Aircraft Services, one of the Campbells’ aviation companies, was paid $4,777 for air travel on Feb. 18, 2005, and $6,300 on Aug. 11, 2005. Those payments were well after the November 2004 election was over.
Easley Press Secretary Renee Hoffman told CJ that campaign expenditure questions would have to be answered by a representative of the campaign. CJ called John Wallace, a Raleigh lawyer who represented Easley’s campaign, to discuss the flying activities. He did not take the call, but responded by e-mail, ”I offered comment to the N&O in the absence of any staff familiar with the reports of the 2004 campaign. I doubt that I would have knowledge beyond that which appears in the filed reports of the committee.”
When left another phone message asking for information about the 2005 payments, he again responded by e-mail, “I’m sorry, but it will have to wait. I do not have those records and do not have access to them.”
Hoffman did not respond to a specific request by e-mail to explain the nature and frequency of any noncampaign-related flying provided by the Campbells.
As a member of the NCSU Board of Trustees, McQueen Campbell is required to annually complete a Statement of Economic Interest and submit it to the State Ethics Commission. His most recent statement dated April 15, 2008 contains several omissions.
He failed to list his ownership in three aviation companies – Raleighwood Aviation, Raleigh Helicopter, and Executive Aircraft Services. He also failed to list his affiliation as director of acquisitions for Waterfront Communities, a group of companies controlled by Florida developer William G. Allen.
Campbell family members are active political contributors. Since 1992 they have contributed more than $100,000 to state or local candidates. They contributed more than $31,000 to Easley’s campaigns for governor in 2000 and 2004, and his attorney general campaigns before that.
Neither McQueen Campbell nor his father has responded to numerous phone calls and e-mails seeking comment about the nature of the flying they have provided for Easley since 2000.
Don Carrington is executive editor of Carolina Journal.