Char-O: Easley inquiry should focus on the full truth

In advance of an Oct. 26 hearing before the State Board of Elections looking into former Democratic Governor Mike Easley’s campaign finances, the Charlotte Observer hopes that these hearings will finally uncover the truth.

For much of his eight years in office as governor of North Carolina, folks who paid attention to politics were wondering where the governor was. Turns out they should have pondering another question: what is he up to?

We don’t mean 5,000 feet up in a buddy’s Cessna, either. We mean: What was the governor doing taking free flights, which he never reported on required disclosure forms? What was Easley doing accepting free use of automobiles for his son and wife? Or getting a lucrative deal on a coastal lot and pretending that he’d paid the full price? Helping his wife get a nice job at N.C. State? What was the former crime-busting prosecutor and attorney general doing pursuing what appeared to an old-fashioned feeding at the trough of opportunity?

Perhaps some of those questions will soon be answered at a set of hearings the State Board of Elections has scheduled to begin on Oct. 26 in Raleigh. Board Chairman Larry Leake, a Buncombe lawyer, said this: “The purpose of the hearing is to find the truth as to what did occur.”

Good. While the State Board of Elections won’t examine all of the questionable allegations that have occupied the headlines for months, it will investigate the Easley campaign’s financial reports and determine whether there were simple errors or serious transgressions of state campaign finance laws. Other investigations, including a major inquiry by a federal grand jury, are looking at other allegations involving the former governor.

One way or the other, taxpayers deserve a full understanding of what happened. We have learned too late that there’s a pay-to-play culture in Raleigh, where special interests use campaign contributions and other favors to elect friendly politicians who are happy to do their bidding. This culture must be rooted out. …

Click here to read the full editorial from the Charlotte Observer…

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