The corruption continues in Raleigh | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: This article originally appeared in the Beaufort Observer.

    Concord legislator Sen. Fletcher Hartsell's campaign finance records show that he paid thousands to dollars from campaign funds to personal credit cards. Records showing details of what the credit card charges were for are "incomplete." The State Board of Elections has opened an investigation.

    Hartsell is one of the key Republican leaders in the State Senate. He is quoted telling Andy Curliess, the News and Observer reporter who brought Mike Easley down that "if I've done anything wrong I'll just pay it back." Easley didn't even do that. His campaign still owes nearly ninety thousand dollars for fines levied by the State Board of Elections, but Easley contends he does not personally owe the money. Thus, the line between "personal" expenses and "campaign" expenses is fluid and blurred.

    Another Republican legislator, Stephen LaRoque of Kinston is currently under indictment for co-mingling money he/his business (a "non-profit") received in government grants which the indictments say were actually used for personal and family expenses.

    But then there is Arthur Williams. Williams owned a building that a company in which he was a principal was located. While Williams was a sitting legislator a grant was received by the Beaufort County Committee of 100 that then used the grant funds to buy the building from Williams. Larry Herwig, a local political activist, filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections but they chose not to investigate the real estate transaction because, we understand, Williams lost his bid to be elected to the House again and was no longer a public official. Another well connected source told us that he believed the reason the State Board of Elections did not investigate Williams was simple: "This kind of stuff goes on all the time. Williams was a Democrat and the State Board is controlled by Democrats. You figure the rest out."

    Apparently, this kind of stuff indeed goes on all the time.

    Click here to read the rest of the story about Hartsell.

    Commentary

    We've said it before and we will say it again: The General Assembly needs to clean up this mess. One way to begin to do that is to make it a felony punishable by a mandatory jail sentence to spend campaign finance funds on anything other than documented campaign expenses. By documented we mean invoices for expenditures. Credit card receipts are not invoices. Even if they are for things like gas, meals and the like the spender should be required to get an invoice that shows what the payment was actually for. But we don't think these Fat Cats should be able to spend campaign funds for travel, meals etc. They should have to submit travel reimbursement documentation to the staff of the General Assembly to secure reimbursement for such expenses just like all state employees. The same for office supplies and the like.

    The politicians should be held accountable for what their "campaign" does and if there are repeated instances and/or the amount is more than $5000 in violations then they should go to jail.

    Above all, legislators should not be able to "donate" campaign funds to some other "cause" such as other political candidates and parties. Donations give a candidate should be spent only on that candidate's campaign and donations given to parties should be spent for the benefit of the party or all of its candidates. That would do more to clean up the mess than anything we know.

    Arthur Williams paid a former opponent in the House race some $1800 to be a "consultant" after the consultant lost in the first primary. Jeremy Adams then endorsed Williams in the second primary. That is perfectly legal now (if Adams actually incurred campaign expenses for Williams) but it should not be. Adams should have at most, been able to file for expense reimbursement for legitimate documented campaign expenses incurred on Williams' behalf.

    We have discovered huge contributions from some campaigns to the political parties and individual candidates. We will be reporting on that research later, but every legislator knows it goes on and it should be stopped.

    We're never going to have honest politics as long as big money is loosely handled and the Hartsell's, Easley's and Perdue's just shrug their shoulders and claim "that's my campaign...I'm not responsible but I'll just pay it back." That's what Bev Perdue did with her airplane rides. Blamed her campaign.

    But as long as We The People just shrug these kinds of stories off, it will continue to happen.

    Bless us and save us.