Citizens Speak

NOT ONLY DO THEY DO IT IN WASHINGTON AND THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE THERE THEY DO IT HERE IN NORTH CAROLINA AND WE NEED TO CONNECT THE DOTS TOM AND RELATE IT TO ALL ACTIVITIES OF VOTER FRAUD FROM SWAIN TO RALEIGH�DO NOT OVER LOOK THE DOCUMENTATION OF VOTER FRAUD PROVEN IN SWAIN COUNTY AND IGNORED BY LARRY LEAKE.

Thanks to the New and Observer for this story

Published Thu, Jul 15, 2010 04:54 AM
Modified Thu, Jul 15, 2010 05:42 AM

Election investigator: I was held back

RALEIGH The lead investigator at the State Board of Elections said Thursday that board chairman Larry Leake ordered her not to interview some witnesses during a probe into 42 undisclosed campaign flights by Gov. Bev Perdue.

Kim Strach, the deputy director of campaign finance at the board, said Leake, who like Perdue is a Democrat, told her to end her investigation without interviewing Zach Ambrose, the governor's longtime chief of staff and campaign manager.

Ambrose was on vacation, and Leake told Strach there was not enough time to wait for him to return, both officials said. Strach said she wanted to ask Ambrose about an unreported flight the governor took to Michigan and an audit he performed of campaign flights. She also wanted to interview at least two other Perdue staffers.

"The chairman said I should just put the report together without doing that," Strach said.

The five-member State Board of Elections is appointed by the governor, with the majority of seats held by the governor's party. Since 1993, when Leake was first appointed by Gov. Jim Hunt, Democrats have controlled the board.

Leake, a Mars Hill lawyer whom Perdue reappointed last year, also sat in as Strach interviewed other members of the governor's staff about the flights on private aircraft. Flights provided to candidates must be reported as donations under state law.

The detailed report that Strach wrote was edited by supervisors to remove references to restrictions placed on her during the investigation into flights by Perdue and other 2008 candidates for governor.

Leake said he was trying to assist Strach in getting the report completed in a timely manner. A public records request for the report had been filed by The News & Observer, and Republican Party officials had complained that the investigation was taking too long, Leake said.

"Kim is suggesting to you that if she could have had until next Christmas that she could have done better," Leake said. "We needed to bring this investigation to an end. 'End' doesn't mean whitewashed."

In a June 25 letter released with the investigative report, elections director Gary Bartlett said "no evidence surfaced indicating any intent of wrongdoing."

Strach, who has worked on the board's staff since 2000, could now be sidelined.

A provision approved in the waning moments of this year's legislative session provides $100,000 to hire a lawyer whom board members expect to take responsibility for investigations of campaigns. Two other positions for investigators were also approved.

Leake and Bartlett said they would like to see Strach focus on a backlog of more than 1,000 campaign finance reports that have gone unaudited while staff time was dedicated to other priorities.

Bartlett said he asked legislative leaders and the Perdue administration for the money for the positions. It was included in the budgets proposed by the governor and approved by the legislature, but the $100,000 for the lawyer was dropped from the final budget approved this month. The funding was restored in a vote on a separate bill at 3:21 a.m. Saturday, just before the body adjourned.

Chrissy Pearson, Perdue's spokeswoman, said the governor had supported the request in order to strengthen the Board of Elections. She said the idea that the positions were funded to sideline Strach is false. "We certainly were not involved," she said.

Accusations of conflict

Perdue's campaign did not properly disclose a total of more than $56,000 in air travel during the 2004 and 2008 elections, according to the board's investigation.

Though Perdue's campaign amended its campaign reports during the last year to include 41 previously undisclosed flights paid for by donors, the investigation Strach led uncovered a 42nd flight.

In September 2007, Perdue flew to a Michigan fundraiser where she received nearly $30,000 in donations.

In April, as Strach pressed the Perdue campaign to hand over documents related to its undisclosed flights, an attorney for the campaign sent a letter asking that Strach step aside because her husband is a lawyer who has worked for the state Republican Party.

Strach, who is registered as an unaffiliated voter, said that she did not see her husband's job as a conflict, and that it had not arisen during her previous investigations. Her husband has since resigned as general counsel of the party.

Fetzer sees obstruction

Tom Fetzer, chairman of the state Republican Party, said Leake's close management of Strach's investigation amounted to obstruction, especially the direction to close the probe without interviewing Ambrose, who resigned last year. Fetzer filed a campaign finance complaint with the elections board in October, triggering the investigation.

"Ambrose was Perdue's chief of staff and campaign manager during the time that these illegal flights occurred," Fetzer said. "For her not to be able to interview him is a glaring example of an attempt by the Board of Elections to mitigate the damage to Perdue."

The board is to take up the investigation's findings this summer.

Fetzer questioned whether Leake could be impartial. Leake attended a Perdue fundraiser this year.

Leake said Thursday that he was a guest at the governor's birthday party, which was a fundraiser, but that he had not made a donation. He pointed to his record on the board over the past 17 years, including his role in the 2009 hearings into unreported flights and other violations by the Easley campaign that led to a $100,000 fine.

"I was closer to Easley, and had known him longer than Perdue," Leake said. "Let's get real. The two Republicans on the board of elections were nominated by the Republican Party chairman. Everyone on the board is a partisan politico. They wouldn't be there if they were not. The fact that you might be a partisan Democrat does not mean you don't have the ability to be fair and judicious."

michael.biesecker@newsobserver.com or 919-829-4698

Government workers big pay is being cut and now we must cut government period.

Massachusetts where Obama got his idea for health care and look!!!!
Budget Cuts Force Hundreds of Layoffs
Hundreds of city and town employees are being laid off across Massachusetts as the recently signed state budget forces communities to cut back on librarians, police, teachers, and other workers to balance the books. More drastic layoffs were averted largely by union concessions that included pay cuts, deferred raises, unpaid furlough days, and changes in health care plans, officials said. (posted 7-8-10).

Swain County caught violating the law and counting the votes early in the day. State Board says that is okay. Read about it in Corruption Section.

Palin Fear

A lot of us have wondered why Obama spokestoad Robert Gibbs has been taking every available opportunity to belittle Sarah Palin.

It is always unseemly when a paid representative of the President uses his position and taxpayer time to slag [spit] on a private citizen or a new organization. Unseemly, of course, is part of the ambiance that you get with the current administration but the frequency of Gibbs� criticisms stood out even by the cesspool standards of the White House press operation.

Today what we�ve long suspected was the truth has been revealed. The White House fears Sarah Palin.

Her lengthy Saturday night keynote address to the National Tea Party Convention in Nashville and her debut on the Sunday morning talk show circuit with Fox News� Chris Wallace showed off a public figure at the top of her game � a politician who knows who she is and how to sell herself, even with notes on her palm.

This was not the first time that Palin has impressed me. I gave her high marks for her vice presidential acceptance speech in St. Paul. But then, and always throughout that campaign, she was laboring to do more than establish her own place. She was selling a ticket headed by John McCain against formidable Democratic opposition and burdened by the legacy of the Bush administration.

Blessed with an enthusiastic audience of conservative activists, Palin used the Tea Party gathering and coverage on the cable networks to display the full repertoire she possesses, touching on national security, economics, fiscal and social policy, and every other area where she could draw a contrast with Barack Obama and point up what Republicans see as vulnerabilities in Washington.

Her invocation of �conservative principles and common-sense solutions� was perfectly conventional. What stood out in the eyes of TV-watching pols of both parties was the skill with which she drew a self-portrait that fit not just the wishes of the immediate audience but the mood of a significant slice of the broader electorate.

I don�t know what Governor Palin�s plans are. While many might wish for her to run for office my view is that as a spokesman she is a strategic asset for conservatives that would be greatly diminished if she was serving as an elected or appointed official. Having her out on the stump for our candidates is a much greater boon to conservatives than seeing her essentially silenced by the work load and legal requirements of government service.

Be that as it may, the Be that as it may, the White House, far from dismissing her has pulled on its brown trousers . They are trying to use Alinsky Rule 5 on Palin and it is failing because their opinion doesn�t matter to an increasing number of Americans.

Broder gets that ridicule won�t work. He�s seen her in action and he respects her ability to connect with Americans, many of whom are fairly apolitical. At some level he knows the attempts at ridicule are going to rebound against the coterie of thugs in the White House.

Those who want to stop her will need more ammunition than deriding her habit of writing on her hand. The lady is good.

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A group of over 60 members of 9-12's, Tea Party, Tea Party Patriots, and other liberty loving groups meet in DC that past week-end and several issues were discussed.

1. The current administration will work to pass health care as is and attach "sidecars" to other bills down the road to change the bills to address the concerns of both houses. This will keep them from having to get a super majority. In simple terms they will work the system to cram it down our throats--call them now and tell them we are watching and not "Sidecars" better be even considered. Again it about the transparency that Obama said he would give.

2. no seat should be running unopposed. We just had a survey by our local tv station and 96% said congress should be replaced.. This does not spell victory for "mealy mouthed", "weak knee" republicans.

3. The liberty loving groups should take over the Republican Party and make it be the party of the people. A third party will work to keep the current power structure in power, especially since there are party loyalists in both parties that would die before they would vote for the other party.

That means that these folks are a great bunch of folks and they are radical about their belief in the constitution and love for liberty. The week -end ended with over 50 media coming in a asking questions of the group. The meeting was hosted by Freedom Works and it was amazing to see vocal discussion, strong arguements offered and yet a respect for each other thoughts.

our county commissioners are a lawyer, past president of A-B Community College, two educators, and director of a non-profit.

what does this tell us about how our schools and colleges are being used for political purposes behind closed doors and even non-profits get into the act.

It has been reported that Commission Boards before this board have done this all of the time. Stay tuned for those updates. Citizens Speak and Carolina Stompers are working hard on these issues.

check out www.carolinastompers.com for more details about the attorney general and political cover-ups there too..

The agenda itself was light, but public comment took up over half the Jan. 5 meeting, as the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners got an earful on its pre-meeting prayer.

� Over the holidays, Chair David Gantt called up each commissioner individually and they decided to keep the board�s current pre-meeting prayer until a federal court case against a similar prayer in Forsyth County is decided.

While that meant that the board didn�t discuss the matter at the meeting, the public had plenty to say, both for and against the policy.

�We have lived under the motto �one nation under God� for over 100 years. We became a great nation because we believe in prayer,� West Asheville resident Hope Herrick told the board. �I hope you will not cower down before a group of people that wants to turn our country from a god-fearing, god-loving nation into a dictatorship.�

The words �under God� were added to the Pledge of Allegiance, following �one nation,� in 1954. �In God We Trust� was adopted as the national motto in 1956.

Alex Cury, chair of the local chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, commended the board for considering a moment of silence instead of prayer.

�The law of the United States has long been clear and is very well established: the only way it�s constitutional to pray in a government session is a non-sectarian prayer,� Cury said. �Allowing a few moments of silence is the perfect solution � because then people think it�s important to pray will have an opportunity to pray, but others who are not part of the same faith tradition will not feel compelled. The government needs to be neutral in matters of religion.�

Jupiter resident Don Yelton criticized the board for deciding the matter by phone instead of in a public meeting.

�This doesn�t have anything to do with the prayer, folks, it has to do with you discussing this behind closed doors,� Yelton said. �I think you owe the citizens of Buncombe County an apology.�

N.C. Press Association attorney Mike Tadych has said that while there is no case law against the commissioners deciding the prayer matter by phone, it violates the intent of state open meetings law.

� Also in the public-comment period, residents who live near the abandoned (and contaminated) former CTS of Asheville site once more criticized what they see as lack of action by the commissioners � and demanded that missing video of their comments at a previous meeting be put up on the county�s Web site.

Arden resident Aaron Penland also said he found it suspicious that the public-comment section of the commissioners� Nov. 17 meeting, in which activists, including Penland, criticize them for their handling of the CTS situation, was mostly missing from the video of the meeting on the Buncombe County Web site. Currently, the video cuts off about 20 seconds into Penland�s remarks, though the printed minutes of the meeting do include their criticisms.

�When we come to you and ask for help, we come in faith that the message we put out is going to be put out and we�re going to continue.�

�We don�t censor or edit anything: that�s not the policy of this board,� Gantt answered, in reply to the criticisms, saying the board�s clerk would look into the matter. (THEY JUST POLL EACH OTHER OVER THE PHONE WHICH VIOLATED THE INTENT OF THE OPEN MEETINGS LAW. ADDED BY DON YELTON)

Chapel Hill Church Road resident Patricia Penner also asked the county to contribute funds to extend municipal water to 14 houses in her area, asserting that contamination is spreading.

� The board unanimously voted to close an unopened right of way in Swannanoa and contribute $40,000 to preserve the Kirstein Farm in Broad River in a conservation easement.

The behavior of Barack Obama and the far left Democrats in Congress continues to amaze.

Over and over and over again Obama, Pelosi, and Reid have criticized the actions and policies of the past. In return, they have promised a more open form of government. More open to whom? Lobbyists and left-wing radicals? Yes on both accounts. Clearly they weren't talking about the American people.

Obama promised he would not hire lobbyists in his administration. That promise lasted about one day. He and Nancy Pelosi promised transparency in the way Washington operates. Instead, we now have a process where the public is shut out of major actions of Congress. Just look at what's going on with the "negotiations" on the health care bill.

That tells us a lot about Fetzer. His ego is too big to let him listen to the members of his party. He like Obama see it as his party to do with it what he wants. Kinda like what Obama said, when I pass health care I will give myself an A-.

Obama has already placed himself up with FDR and claims to have saved us from a depression. Damn, tell that to the unemployed today. Puffed up egos seem to be the mark of these two so-called leaders.

Tom Fetzer is using the North Carolina Republican Party for a personal agenda.

Details will be given next week when I return to North Carolina and gather the history of this total control of the party being centered in one man. The Central Committee was totally duped into doing exactly what Tom wanted.

Those people around him better watch out as they may be entangled in a mess that will mar their character for life.

There is a group of grassroots people that will not let this man or any other person destroy the potential to make corrections to North Carolina's culture of corruption controlled by mainly Democrats and a few key Republicans that are all making money of the corruption in no bid contracts, gambling, video poker, non-profits that funnel money and votes to politicians.

It is amazing how the Democrats have blocked out Republicans in the health care debates in Washington, DC. The same actions are perpetuated in the Raleigh on committees and debates on the floor. We have the same tactics being practiced by the Democrat Chairmen of the Buncombe County Commissioners, David Gant.

Palin Fear

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Yep, they're scared