The State Board of Elections is investigating whether an anonymous flier that attacks five Democratic-backed Wake County school board candidates and links them to the NAACP violates campaign laws.
The flier criticizes national NAACP President Ben Jealous and state NAACP President William Barber for opposing the elimination of Wake's policy of busing students for socioeconomic diversity.
The flier accuses the five Democratic school board members of being the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's "liberal allies" and urges people to "vote no" on them.
The flier was distributed at the last school board meeting and online, including Monday on the Facebook pages of the Democratic school board candidates.
Jim Martin, one of the candidates, filed a complaint with elections officials Tuesday.
"We're trying to determine if campaign finance disclosure laws have not been followed," Gary Bartlett, executive director of the State Board of Elections, said Wednesday.
Bartlett said officials are trying to determine who produced the flier and whether more than $100 was spent on it - which means it would have to be reported as a campaign expenditure.
The fliers touch on what's expected to be a campaign flashpoint.
Busing for diversity has dominated much of the discussion in Wake over the past two years.
The NAACP has fought efforts by the Republican school board majority to end the policy of balancing schools by family income levels.
The NAACP held protests - some of which led to arrests at school board meetings - and filed complaints with federal civil rights investigators and the group that accredits Wake's high schools.
The flier, which includes a photo of Barber being arrested at a school board meeting, calls Barber and Jealous "angry men" with "an agenda for Wake County Public Schools."
It says the five Democratic candidates "have supported them in their fight against Wake County families."
"We MUST vote to keep these five radicals away from our children," the flier says.
School board member Keith Sutton, one of the candidates targeted in the flier, accused members of the school board majority "and their tea party supporters and allies" of engaging in name calling.
"We ask that the board majority, and their endorsed candidates, reject and condemn this type of personal attack," Sutton said in a written statement.
School board Vice Chairman John Tedesco, a member of the board majority who is not up for re-election this year, said he didn't know who produced the flier.
But he said the flier wasn't needed.
"The public will see for themselves their failed voting records," Tedesco said. "They'll see their support for forced busing."
