Kim Westbrook Strach, deputy director for campaign finance at the NC Board of Elections, said a website by the No Restaurant Tax group does not cross the line into electioneering, and the group will not be required to register as a political committee or place a legend on paid advertising disclosing who paid for the material and placement.
For what it’s worth, YES! Weekly’s editorial this week addresses the group’s message. Our paper this week also includes an advertisement for the No Restaurant Tax website on the cover.
Strach said the board of elections looked at the website based on a request for clarification by the Rhinoceros Times.
Were the issue of a restaurant tax on the ballot as a referendum, Strach said the No Restaurant Tax would be required to file as a political committee, document money raised and spent and disclose its identity on campaign materials. That’s not the case here.
Also, the board of elections determined that the website does not go so far as to support or oppose candidates, notwithstanding color coding that uses green to indicate candidates opposed to the hypothetical tax and red to indicate those in favor of it. The website merely encourages people to e-mail candidates about the issue. To meet the statutory definition of electioneering and trigger the requirement to register as a political committee, the website would have to go a step further and advocate that people vote for or against candidates.
Showing posts with label NC Board of Elections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label NC Board of Elections. Show all posts
Democrats request investigation of Hyde campaign
The NC Democratic Party requests that the NC Board of Elections investigate the campaign of Jeff Hyde, Republican candidate for NC Senate District 27, related to a raffle held in June by the Hyde campaign in which the winner remains a mystery.
The Democrats want the board of elections to require the Hyde campaign to amend its campaign finance report "to disclose all contributions and expenditures" and "to return any impermissible contributions that have been received."
Alleged violations of campaign finance law, as outlined in the Democrats' complaint:
Bonus point of interest: Information included in the complaint sourced to the Guarino blog.
The Democrats want the board of elections to require the Hyde campaign to amend its campaign finance report "to disclose all contributions and expenditures" and "to return any impermissible contributions that have been received."
Alleged violations of campaign finance law, as outlined in the Democrats' complaint:
The winner's name is not disclosed in the second quarter report filed by the Jeff Hyde Committee. In order for the winner's name to be included in the drawing, he or she would have had to made a $100 contribution to Jeff Hyde for Senate. Under North Carolina election law (163-278.11), contributions that aggregate over $50 must be itemized to include the contributor's name, address, employer and occupation. Further, under North Carolina law (163-278.14), contributions in the name of another are prohibited. Therefore, the campaign is in violation of the law for either not disclosing the winner's contribution or the campaign is in violation for allowing another donor to purchase a ticket in the winner's name.
North Carolina law sets individual contribution limits at $4,000 per individual per election cycle. Contributions are defined as "any advance, conveyance, deposit, distribution, transfer of funds, loan, payment, gift, pledge or subscription of money or anything of value whatsoever, to a candidate to support or oppose the nomination or election of one or more clearly identified candidates to a political committee, to a political party, or to a referendum committee, whether or not made in an election year, and any contract, agreement, or other obligation to make a contribution. An expenditure forgiven by a person or entity to whom it is owed shall be reported as a contribution from that person or entity." [Emphasis added.] In opting not to accept the winnings, the winner in fact gifted or conveyed a $5,000 contribution to the Jeff Hyde Committee or forgave a $5,000 obligation owed by the committee, in either case a violation of North Carolina law, as the amount exceeded the $4,000 contribution limit.
Bonus point of interest: Information included in the complaint sourced to the Guarino blog.
SBI: Rep. Thomas Wright took money from nonprofit
In May we reported on testimony by an NC Board of Elections official that NC Rep. Thomas Wright appears to have diverted about $240,000 in campaign funds to personal uses, along with revelations that the Wilmington Democrat hid campaign contributions from an out-of-state waste management company angling to place a landfill in Pender County and potentially defrauded a Wilmington couple in a real estate deal for a building that was supposed to house a museum commemorating the 1898 Wilmington massacre.
Wright, an ally of former House Speaker Jim Black, who is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption, is a former chairman of the NC Legislative Black Caucus, now chaired by Rep. Alma Adams of Greensboro. Wright remains in office.
The Board of Elections referred Wright’s case to the Wake County District Attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution.
Now, a State Bureau of Investigations affidavit reveals that state law enforcement is pursuing several threads in the case.
Court records show that SBI Special Agent Rufus Williams executed a search warrant at the NC Minority Support Center in Durham on Nov. 5 and seized copies of a file for a loan originated in 2001 by Southeast Community Credit Union to the New Hanover Community Health Foundation, a nonprofit incorporated by Wright.
Williams is assigned to the SBI’s Financial Crimes unit, which specializes in white collar crime.
His affidavit states, “I have been assigned to investigate the activities of Representative Thomas Wright as to the alleged crimes of obtaining property by false pretense and perjury. The SBI initiated a criminal investigation into allegations that Representative Thomas Wright defrauded Coastal Federal Bank and James and Helyn Lofton of funds provided to him for the purchase and conversion of a building located at 926 North 4th Street in Wilmington.
“Also, the SBI initiated an investigation into allegations that Representative Thomas Wright knowingly provided false information on his campaign and organizational reports.”
Williams interviewed Tanya M. Branch and Paula J. McCoy, respectively the chief financial officer and chief executive officer of the Minority Support Center, on two occasions. The center, which describes itself as “the nation’s only statewide intermediary devoted to community development credit unions,” is the parent company of a credit union that currently holds the loan made to Wright’s New Hanover Community Health Foundation.
Branch and McCoy told Williams that the New Hanover Community Health Foundation, represented by Wright, received a loan from Southeast Community Credit Union in 2001.
“There was no record of any loan proceeds being deposited in Wright’s personal accounts or the Community’s Health Foundation,” the affidavit states. “No accounts were located for the New Hanover Community Health Foundation.”
Through an earlier search warrant, Williams acquired Coastal Federal Bank account records and determined that loan funds from the Southeast Community Credit Union — the loan now held by the Minority Support Center subsidiary — had not been deposited in the Coastal Federal Bank account belonging to the Community’s Health Foundation (a different nonprofit organized by Wright).
The affidavit notes that Kim Westerbrook Strach, the NC Board of Elections’ deputy director for campaign reporting, discovered three checks payable to the Community’s Health Foundation that were deposited in Wright’s personal bank account, including $5,000 from Anheuser-Busch, $2,400 from the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company and $1,500 from AT&T. According to the affidavit, Wright admitted to Special Agent in Charge JE Umphlet that he had diverted the funds.
Finally, the affidavit states, “This SBI investigation determined that Representative Wright took money belonging to the Community’s Health Foundation on multiple occasions.”
Wright, an ally of former House Speaker Jim Black, who is now serving a federal prison sentence for corruption, is a former chairman of the NC Legislative Black Caucus, now chaired by Rep. Alma Adams of Greensboro. Wright remains in office.
The Board of Elections referred Wright’s case to the Wake County District Attorney’s office for possible criminal prosecution.
Now, a State Bureau of Investigations affidavit reveals that state law enforcement is pursuing several threads in the case.
Court records show that SBI Special Agent Rufus Williams executed a search warrant at the NC Minority Support Center in Durham on Nov. 5 and seized copies of a file for a loan originated in 2001 by Southeast Community Credit Union to the New Hanover Community Health Foundation, a nonprofit incorporated by Wright.
Williams is assigned to the SBI’s Financial Crimes unit, which specializes in white collar crime.
His affidavit states, “I have been assigned to investigate the activities of Representative Thomas Wright as to the alleged crimes of obtaining property by false pretense and perjury. The SBI initiated a criminal investigation into allegations that Representative Thomas Wright defrauded Coastal Federal Bank and James and Helyn Lofton of funds provided to him for the purchase and conversion of a building located at 926 North 4th Street in Wilmington.
“Also, the SBI initiated an investigation into allegations that Representative Thomas Wright knowingly provided false information on his campaign and organizational reports.”
Williams interviewed Tanya M. Branch and Paula J. McCoy, respectively the chief financial officer and chief executive officer of the Minority Support Center, on two occasions. The center, which describes itself as “the nation’s only statewide intermediary devoted to community development credit unions,” is the parent company of a credit union that currently holds the loan made to Wright’s New Hanover Community Health Foundation.
Branch and McCoy told Williams that the New Hanover Community Health Foundation, represented by Wright, received a loan from Southeast Community Credit Union in 2001.
“There was no record of any loan proceeds being deposited in Wright’s personal accounts or the Community’s Health Foundation,” the affidavit states. “No accounts were located for the New Hanover Community Health Foundation.”
Through an earlier search warrant, Williams acquired Coastal Federal Bank account records and determined that loan funds from the Southeast Community Credit Union — the loan now held by the Minority Support Center subsidiary — had not been deposited in the Coastal Federal Bank account belonging to the Community’s Health Foundation (a different nonprofit organized by Wright).
The affidavit notes that Kim Westerbrook Strach, the NC Board of Elections’ deputy director for campaign reporting, discovered three checks payable to the Community’s Health Foundation that were deposited in Wright’s personal bank account, including $5,000 from Anheuser-Busch, $2,400 from the AstraZeneca pharmaceutical company and $1,500 from AT&T. According to the affidavit, Wright admitted to Special Agent in Charge JE Umphlet that he had diverted the funds.
Finally, the affidavit states, “This SBI investigation determined that Representative Wright took money belonging to the Community’s Health Foundation on multiple occasions.”
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