Published: Sun, Feb. 17, 2008 12:30AM

Modified Mon, Feb. 18, 2008 06:34AM

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Gov. Mike Easley's office said in a statement Friday that all the board members act with the best interests of the state in mind.

"The governor believes these members first and foremost act on behalf of one region, and it stretches from Murphy to Manteo," wrote Sherri Johnson, an Easley spokeswoman.

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The records of discretionary spending requests show that Sewell recommended road projects in Sampson, Duplin and Pender counties. But the spending work he recommended in Onslow County was more than twice the money he recommended in all other counties combined.

Sewell is a retired executive with the Golden Corral chain. He did not respond to requests for an interview.

McRae was appointed to represent aviation and state port issues, and Helms was designated the board's expert in government-related finance and accounting. McRae owns a string of Bojangles' restaurants and is a co-owner and chairman of the Kinston Indians minor league ball club.

Helms owns an insurance business and is former chairman of the Union County Board of Commissioners.

Both men said in interviews that they saw their roles as assisting the board member appointed to their respective districts. Helms, for example, would see to the needs of Union, Stanly, Anson and Cabarrus counties, while the district member, Marion Cowell, took care of Mecklenburg County.

Not all at-large members have busied themselves with pushing projects in their home highway divisions. Nina Szlosberg, the environmental expert, has not recommended spending any discretionary money in the past four years, according to board records. Neither has Andrew Perkins of Winston-Salem, an N.C. A&T administrator who was appointed in 2003 to represent mass transit issues.

(Staff writer Jack Hagel and news researcher Paulette Stiles contributed to this report.)