NC House leader files complaint against shadowy PAC trying to unseat legislator

N.C. House Majority Leader Mike Hager filed a complaint Monday with the State Board of Elections, saying a shadowy group trying to unseat Republican Rep. Justin Burr has violated election laws.

Campaign finance records show the Raleigh-based Conservative Future Fund has spent $15,000 on mailers criticizing Burr and helping his GOP primary opponent, Lane Burris. The group uses the mailing address and phone number of Roger Knight’s Raleigh law office. Knight has represented a number of conservative-leaning groups.

Hager, a Republican from Rutherfordton, said the mailers went out before the political action committee filed the necessary paperwork to become a PAC.

“Activities to raise funds, design mailers, orchestrate mailing, printing mailers and paying the cost of the mailers would have logically taken place well before February the 29th,” Hager wrote in his complaint, noting that the PAC wasn’t formally created until March 4.

Hager said the group “conspired to conceal its donors until after the settled primary.”

Documents listing donors for the group weren’t posted online until Monday, one day before the election. The documents show the group received $15,000 from Charlotte businessman Jay Faison and $25,000 from Pita Raleigh LLC of Salisbury.

According to N.C. Secretary of State filings, Pita Raleigh LLC is a company that was dissolved in February 2015. It was registered to Bill Graham, a Salisbury attorney who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2008. Graham did not return a phone call Monday.

In his complaint, Hager calls on the State Board of Elections to forward his complaint to the Wake County District Attorney “and recommend criminal charges.”

This story was originally published March 14, 2016 at 7:08 PM with the headline "NC House leader files complaint against shadowy PAC trying to unseat legislator."