#NC-09: STILL no campaign report! (Where is it?)

 

 

 

The chuckleheads in Raleigh have been standing in  a circle for months now patting themselves on the back for — in their minds — eradicating vote fraud in the Ninth Congressional District.

 

 

Apparently,  the mission was ACCOMPLISHED once Mark Harris’s reputation was destroyed and he surrendered to the onslaught.

 

But we’ve had intel for MONTHS suggesting that the Dan McCready campaign pretty much self-funded a ballot harvesting operation — not much different from what’s been hollered about in reference to Mark Harris — by funneling money through two  Robeson County Democrat campaigns:  district attorney candidate Matt Scott and state senate candidate John Campbell. 

 

 

Scott has turned in all of his campaign finance reports.  And we’ve found substantial evidence there that money was transferred to renowned voter-hauling and ballot-harvesting sources within Robeson County.    Campbell, on the other hand, is a different story.  Final reports for 2018 were due at the end of the year.

 

Here we are creeping up on May 2019, and we have seen neither hide nor hair of ANY final 2018 report from the John Campbell campaign.    In fact, the last documentation the state board of elections has on file for Campbell is a Third Quarter report filed on 10-30-18, and a 48-hour report (filed on 11-1-18) documenting some significant wire transfers from the NC Senate Democratic Caucus.

 

There IS a letter in Campbell’s file showing that a late filing penalty for the Quarter Two 2018 report has been waived. That letter is marked as undeliverable.  

 

There is no evidence the state board of elections has attempted to contact Campbell or his team since 12-4-18.  So, we have no way of seeing any kind of documentation of the money that ran through the Campbell campaign in the weeks running up to the November 2018 election.  (You know, the one that had Josh Malcolm screaming ‘Foul’?)

 

 

John Campbell continues to serve as the vice chairman of the Robeson County School Board.  His home address is listed in the state elections board’s online file.  Why is it so hard to “find” him?  Why is there so little interest in getting him to comply with the law?

 

There was — and still is — a surprising lack of interest in Robeson County by our chief election law enforcers.  We’ve had reports of  the new county elections board chief electioneering and contributing to candidates while serving on the board.  We’ve had reports of unattended and completed absentee ballot request forms (and ballots) in Robeson County.  We’ve had reports of voter intimidation and manipulation inside Robeson County polling places.  

 

Reaction  from Raleigh?  *YAWN*.  (Who cares?  Mark Harris is GONE.  The Anointed Ginger One has his new election.)

 

This is nothing new.  I saw at least one drive-by media report describing the county as  a “frequent flier” in front of the state board of elections.   Why is there so little interest in charging down there, cracking some skulls, and cleaning the place up?  Could it have something to do with all of the campaign  cash that flows OUT of that county — arguably one of the state’s poorest?

 

The driveby media is cheering a bill in the state House now seeking to grant lil’ Kim and her crew at the elections board more money and more staff.    

 

They’re NOT effectively using what they’ve got NOW.

 

 

Right now, penalties are regularly waived for filing campaign reports late.  It takes federal intervention (Fletcher Hartsell) to actually crack down on the abuse of campaign funds.

 

 

There’s no interest in investigating Jason Saine’s $19,000 “clothing” buy.   (Anybody even ASK for a receipt?)  Or Kelly Hastings’s general campaign spending practices, for that matter.    Both of those were going on before the Ninth District nonsense blew up.

 

 

I can imagine it’s tough to probe people who can screw with your budget and even your professional livelihood.

 

Throwing more people and money at the state board of elections isn’t likely to help.  There need to be election laws and regulations with teeth, if they are ignored.  You need to have a staff more interested in serving the public good than schmoozing Jones Street.   And, right now, we don’t have ANY of that.