A June fundraiser for Senate leader Marc Basnight had a big invitation list, courtesy of a publicly funded e-mail message sent by the town of Kill Devil Hills.
The invitation went out on lists the town keeps to distribute public information such as crime alerts or weather updates. Generally, elected officials are prohibited from using public assets for campaign purposes.
An e-mail thread obtained from the town through a public record request shows that on May 26, a message from Basnight's campaign asked the Kill Devil Hills town clerk to "let everyone know" about the event.
The resulting message on the public distribution list included the invitation and the explanation that it was being sent "as requested by Ms. Andrea Bell of the Marc Basnight Campaign group."
Bell, a campaign staffer, told Dome that she was out of the country when the messages were exchanged and that a junior staffer sent the message to the town clerk to let elected officials know about the fundraiser, a standard practice.
"I told him to contact all the elected officials and let them know we're having an event," Bell said, adding that the campaign never intended to have the invitation sent over public e-mail. "We dot our i's and cross our t's here."
Town Clerk Mary Quidley told Dome that she takes the blame for sending a campaign solicitation over the town's e-mail system.
"I turned right around without giving it a world of thought, and I sent the thing out to our distribution list," Quidley said. "I did it because I figured it was something our citizens might want to know about, not thinking that I was supporting the campaign."
Dust-up over disclosure
Democratic Senate candidate Elaine Marshall is criticizing her Republican opponent, Sen. Richard Burr, for voting against Democratic-backed legislation requiring disclosure of who pays for political advertising.
The Senate voted 57-41 on a procedural hurdle meant to move the Disclose Act forward. The tally was short of the needed 60 votes.
The bill would require corporate as well as union and advo cacy group leaders to disclose their names in campaign ads rather than allow so-called front groups to take responsibility for the political advertising.
"Senator Burr and I have to stand by our ads; big corporations and special interests should have to stand by theirs," Marshall said Tuesday. "I don't see how any reasonable person would have a problem with that."
The Burr campaign issued a statement saying the senator supports "a campaign finance system that is open and transparent and does not favor one group over another. Unfortunately, the Disclose Act fails this test."
The Burr campaign said that even the American Civil Liberties Union said that the bill would not improve the integrity of campaigns while harming free speech.
"This bill was thrown together with purely political motives, and, ironically, was backed with back room deals in an effort to buy votes," said Samantha Smith, Burr's campaign spokeswoman.
Cash for marquee names
Gov. Bev Perdue says the state's new incentives for film productions aren't attractive enough.
Perdue's remarks came recently when she signed a package of business incentives into law.
The new film incentive raised the cap on the credit film productions can take from $7.5 million to $20 million.
But after fierce opposition, the final bill exempted fat salaries that might go to big stars. The law says a production can only claim the first $1 million of a salary toward the cap.
"I'm not happy about the outcome of this piece of legislation," Perdue said during the bill signing. "It did not go far enough. We still are not as competitive as what we want to be. We are fighting right now with Louisiana and Georgia for another Nicholas Sparks movie. I'm not sure I can win the fight because I don't have the complete tool set I need. We will come back to the General Assembly and ask for more help."
Afterward, she said the area where the film incentives are lacking is the salary cap that it imposes. "I think the people of North Carolina understand that when you bring in an Academy Award winner as an actor or an actress, you've got to pay them," she said.
By staff writers Benjamin Niolet, Rob Christensen and David Ranii
