State auditor's news release needed an auditor

State Auditor Les Merritt spends his days setting state agencies straight on how to operate within the law. But Merritt acknowledged a blind spot, ethically speaking, when a news release published Tuesday about his private business also touted his state position.

The news release announced that Merritt and his son are working for a Raleigh-based financial consultant, providing retirement investment services.

"State Auditor and Son Collaborate to Provide Financial Services to Eastern Wake County," the release announced. Merritt is identified as the state auditor in the first sentence, and his success as the first Republican challenger to defeat a Democratic incumbent state auditor is featured in a section entitled "About Les Merritt."

Merritt said he reviewed the release before it was published but did not catch the significance of the firm promoting his credentials. State ethics laws say public officials should not use their positions to promote their private business.

After two reporters asked him about the release, Merritt said he should have read it more closely. He then asked the public relations firm that wrote the release to eliminate those references.

"I needed to make sure that it would be OK through the state ethics rules, and what we put out there failed the test," Merritt said.

Cindy Stranad, owner of Articulon, the public relations firm that produced the release, said Banyan Rock & Talent, the firm that Merritt and his son, Dale, are working for, provided information for the release that noted Merritt's public position.

The position of state auditor is considered full time, paying roughly $115,000 a year. Merritt has decided to continue working on the side as a financial adviser but only for clients that do not have a decision-making capacity in state government.

Easley to hunters: Speak up

Gov. Mike Easley on Tuesday sent a letter to hunters, including members of Ducks Unlimited, urging them to appeal to Congress to withhold funding for the U.S. Navy's proposal to put an outlying landing field in Eastern North Carolina.

The site is near a waterfowl reserve near the Beaufort-Washington county line.

Easley said the Navy's proposal to build the landing field near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge includes a plan that may eliminate the waterfowl there.

"This world-renowned refuge for migratory birds serves as the winter home to more than 100,000 ducks, swans, snow geese, and countless other waterfowl," Easley said in the letter. "If you have ever been to Lake Mattamuskeet or Lake Pungo, you know the value of this resource."

Easley said he has repeatedly offered to help the Navy find more suitable locations, to no avail.

"I am more than willing to work with the Navy, but they have not responded in kind," he said.

Most cool to earlier primary

North Carolina would have more say in presidential races, under a bill discussed Tuesday.

Under the bill, voters would head to the polls to decide on presidential nominations in February instead of May.

State Sen. Andrew Brock, a Mocksville Republican, said he pushed for the change after seeing the attention given to states like Iowa and New Hampshire during the 2004 elections.

"We had just lost a ton of jobs [in North Carolina], and all they were talking about was corn subsidies," he said.

As a first step, Brock proposed holding the presidential primary in February and leaving the other statewide primary races in May.

The idea got a lukewarm reception.

Sen. Martin Nesbitt, an Asheville Democrat who is chairman of the committee considering the bill, said it would give the state a say in "favored son" John Edwards' presidential campaign.

"We're not going to be in the game," he said.

But he and other senators said they were worried about the estimated $5.5 million cost for counties to hold an extra election.

N. Ireland studies programs

A contingent of government officials from Northern Ireland will meet with leaders of the N.C. Employment Security Commission this morning in Raleigh.

The group hopes to learn more about the state's community college system and unemployment programs.