Easley's secret flights skirted the law

First of two parts

While he was governor, Mike Easley turned a small group of influential North Carolina businessmen into his own private air service, an arrangement Easley kept secret.

Starting in 2003, Easley took at least 25 flights on private jets, some in apparent violation of campaign laws and ethics rules, documents and interviews show. Some flights were free. The value of others exceeded campaign contribution limits.

Records show that the businessmen who flew Easley took him around the state and to such places as Atlanta, Richmond, Washington and Florida. Easley, a Democrat who left office in January, appointed some of the benefactors to boards that oversee state transportation networks, the state's largest universities and other state functions.

A review of state flight logs, records of private and political travel, Easley's campaign reports and previously unavailable "governor's event" forms from the state Highway Patrol raise questions about the privileges Easley accepted while he was a candidate and governor.

A cornerstone of modern election law is that candidates disclose what they take in and spend, allowing the public to see who is bankrolling candidates, and ensuring that limits are not exceeded. Corporations in North Carolina are banned from giving, and individuals are limited to $4,000 per candidate during an election cycle.

"It is very troubling to hear of the possibility of significant violations," said Bob Phillips, who heads the nonpartisan advocacy group Common Cause North Carolina, which has been active in seeking campaign reform and lobbying for openness. "Think about how many millions of dollars he raised ... and there's this get-something-for-free attitude."

Violations of the campaign-finance laws can result in civil or misdemeanor criminal penalties.

Records and interviews suggest more flights took place than those shown in documents provided to the newspaper after negotiations with the Highway Patrol, custodian of the records because it provides security for the governor.

Significant amounts of time are missing in the patrol documents -- including the entire year of 2005. E-mail messages, interviews and other documents refer to flights for which no other records have been produced.

Easley, who has taken a job at the McGuire Woods law firm and is a national spokesman on education initiatives for the foundation of Bill and Melinda Gates, would not agree to be interviewed.

His campaign lawyer, John Wallace, declined interview requests. Wallace also represents the state Democratic Party on campaign issues.

Just last month, Easley revised years of campaign filings to show that his election committee had been provided a sport utility vehicle at no cost. The action followed reports in The News & Observer that Easley's son, Michael Jr., was driving a GMC Yukon owned by Robert F. Bleecker, a Fayetteville-area auto dealer. Federal investigators have contacted Bleecker, and State Board of Elections officials are looking into the use of the car.

The N&O first sought documents related to Mike Easley's travel beginning in 2005.

Easley and his administration resisted, saying the records' release would compromise the governor's security even after the travel was long completed. A provision in state law allows officials to shield from the public any documents that contain "specific details of public security plans."

Gov. Beverly Perdue ordered the Highway Patrol to release travel and other records.

Much of the travel shown in the new records relates to flights for Easley's 2004 re-election campaign. But the records show that Easley was using private planes as recently as March 2008, when he flew with NASCAR owner Rick Hendrick to Key West, Fla., on a Hendrick team jet.

Flying adds up

Charter air service is expensive and adds up quickly, generally costing $900 to $1,300 an hour for the type of jet required for Easley, which included pressurized cabins and two pilots. The jets, owned by the businessmen through limited liability companies, were usually six- to eight-passenger planes.

Some donations to Easley were funneled through the state Democratic Party, which is not subject to contribution limits. But under state election laws, a donor cannot give to a specific candidate through a political party.

The new records show that Easley was the beneficiary of such contributions. The records also detail travel that neither Easley nor the people who flew him could disclose publicly because the value of the trips would have exceeded campaign contribution limits.

Some examples from the flight and campaign records:

Cameron McRae, a Bojangles' franchiser from Kinston, contributed money to the Easley campaign that was publicly disclosed but then provided some flights that weren't. Combined, McRae's donations exceeded limits. Easley appointed him to the state Board of Transportation and the Global TransPark Authority; McRae was also subject to disclosure rules.

McQueen Campbell, a Raleigh real-estate broker, acknowledged in interviews that he provided free travel for the governor. One trip was a fishing outing to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., given when Easley was required under ethics rules to disclose gifts of at least $200. Easley didn't disclose the trip. Some of Campbell's flying of the governor was accounted for in campaign reports, but not all.

Easley twice appointed Campbell as a trustee at N.C. State University, where he became chairman.

Rusty Carter, a Wilmington packaging company president and college fraternity brother to Easley, flew the governor to an Outer Banks event a couple of weeks before the 2004 election, records show. The listed purpose: "Fundraiser for Governor Mike Easley." But public campaign records show Carter also donated $4,000 to the Easley campaign on Oct. 6, 2004. That means the value of his flight, which took place Oct. 22, 2004, and has not been disclosed, would have exceeded allowable limits.

Easley twice appointed Carter as a trustee at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Cress Horne, owner of a helicopter company known for filming movie scenes, flew Easley from Southport to Monroe to Raleigh for a campaign fundraiser in 2003. The fundraiser was organized by state Board of Transportation member Larry Helms; there are no records of payment associated with the flight. Horne also gave Easley's campaign $4,000, the legal limit. Easley appointed Horne to the state Aeronautics Council.

V. Parker Overton, a developer and retired founder of a water sport company based in Greenville, flew Easley to a Democratic governor's policy conference on Nov. 13 and 14 in 2003 at Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. Easley didn't pay for it, Overton said. He does not serve on any state boards. He said he agreed to provide the flight as a way to curry good will that might help places he cares about: East Carolina University, N.C. State University or Eastern North Carolina.

"If the governor calls you up and needs the plane, you do it," Overton said. "I'd do it for [Gov. Beverly] Perdue if she called or that fellow she beat ... Pat McCrory."

Overton had already provided $3,000 in money and in-kind contributions to Easley, which would have placed him near the limit for contributions. A month after the trip, records show he funneled another $6,000 through the state Democratic Party for "in-kind" travel.

Overton said he didn't know how the trip was accounted for by the Easley campaign: "I just flew him down there and back."

Dell Murphy, a farmer and son of pork baron and N.C. State booster Wendell Murphy, flew Easley to Washington, D.C., and then Atlanta within a week in late 2003, according to the state records, although The N&O could not confirm the Atlanta flight. Both trips were labeled fundraisers. The travel was not listed in Easley's year-end campaign finance report.

In February 2004, Murphy is listed as giving $4,100 in travel services to the state Democratic Party. On the same day, another aviation donor, Thomas Segrave, provided $4,317 in travel services to the party. That totals $8,417, with both donations exceeding limits if they went directly to Easley.

About six weeks later, in April, the state party reported providing travel for Easley. The amount from the party to Easley that day: $8,417.

"We will definitely be looking into all of this," said Kim Strach, who oversees campaign finance enforcement for the State Board of Elections.

Easley's campaign also used state planes for political travel and paid rates of more than $1,700 an hour.

All along, Easley could have paid the fair market value for the private air services from his campaign treasury. His campaign still has about $400,000 on hand.

Soaring above limits

Campbell and McRae were tapped to fly Easley most frequently, the records show.

A jet owned by McRae, whose interests include land development and ownership of the Kinston Indians minor-league baseball team, was scheduled to fly Easley at least five times, though it appears planes belonging to others were used for some of those flights.

McRae's jet flew Easley at least twice from mid-2003 until right before Easley was re-elected in 2004, according to the records.

Both Easley and McRae, as public servants, were subject to state laws that require disclosure of such travel. But neither disclosed the value of the flights McRae provided. If they had, McRae would have exceeded the maximum contribution of $4,000 in each election cycle.

Easley appointed McRae to the transportation board in 2001, 2005 and 2009.

Records show McRae gave Easley the maximum $4,000 on June 30, 2003. But he had also provided at least two flights in the previous two months, according to the flight records, although McRae's lawyer says there was one flight. The Easley campaign paid a McRae company $400 for travel later that year.

In 2004, McRae gave more to Easley. Records show he gave Easley nearly the maximum donation by providing catering services for a fundraiser on Aug. 25, 2004 at his home in Kinston. Easley's campaign reported catering from McRae worth $3,547.

But McRae also provided an undisclosed charter flight for Easley that day, flying the governor from Raleigh to Kinston and back.

Records show that McRae gave $1,250 to the state party a few months later, in October. McRae's lawyer said that although the payment to the party was accounted for as a general donation, it was meant for the Aug. 25 flight provided to Easley. Contributing to the party specifically for Easley would violate election law.

When he filed disclosures in 2005, McRae did not list any flights. Those statements were required after scandals in recent years led to reforms aimed at transparency for the actions of government officials.

By jet and helicopter

Campbell acknowledged in an interview that he flew Easley often without getting paid.

To refresh his memory, Campbell said, he reviewed the governor's campaign reports, which show Campbell getting reimbursed for travel twice. He said that was less than the actual travel, with most unpaid trips happening in the 2000 campaign when Easley was still the state's attorney general.

"After going through that ... I wanted to find out what my responsibility as a donor was," Campbell said. "And as I understand the law and had it explained to me, the responsibility lies clearly with the campaign and not with me."

One free flight Campbell provided Easley as governor was for a fishing trip to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in fall 2005, Campbell said. He would not disclose more, saying only that the governor called him and asked whether he wanted to come, so he agreed to take his plane. Campbell said Easley stayed at a private residence, but he would not disclose the owner.

Campbell said he flew Easley to Manteo on the Outer Banks once for a private event. Records show he flew Easley by helicopter in 2006 to a political event at a cottage at Lake Waccamaw. Campbell said he brought actor Andy Griffith to the inaugural in 2001 as a favor to Easley.

He was not paid for those, he said.

Easley signed sworn forms saying there were no gifts in those years.

State flight records list a half-dozen other flights in 2003 and 2004 where Campbell took Easley to fundraisers, including one in Richmond and a tour to several cities days before the election. There are no payments from Easley's campaign to Campbell in those two years.

Campbell did receive two checks from Easley's campaign, totaling more than $11,000. But both were sent in 2005, well after the campaign. The law requires disclosure of campaign flights in the year flights take place.

Asked how many times he flew Easley, Campbell said it was more than a dozen.

"I know it wasn't a hundred -- but outside of that, I'd hate to guess," he said.

We've flown many times

Campbell also helped first lady Mary Easley once she started a job at N.C. State, where she coordinated a speakers series.

Records show Mary Easley asked Campbell to fly U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, to Raleigh in October 2006. A year later, she asked him to get PBS broadcaster Charlie Rose to campus. Campbell submitted invoices showing the flights were worth $11,165. But he waived most of the charges, accepting payments from N.C. State for $3,261.

As Graham's schedule was coming together, an aide told Campbell that the senator would have to pay him the equivalent of a first-class fare from Washington, as federal rules require. Campbell wasn't sure what to do, according to an e-mail he wrote later to Mary Easley.

"She mentioned that they would have to pay me," Campbell wrote to Mary Easley. "Didn't know what this meant or how to handle. ... I just didn't discuss it further after she mentioned this." Graham cut him a check, but it didn't cover the full cost of his fuel.

In October 2007, Mary Easley sent an e-mail message to one of Rose's aides, arranging for Campbell to fly the broadcaster from New York. She mentioned the Easleys' experiences with Campbell.

"Michael and I," she wrote, "have flown with him many times."

Sunday: The Easleys and McQueen Campbell benefit from one another.