Auditor candidate's campaign cleared

The N.C. Board of Elections conducted an investigation into the campaign committee of a state auditor candidate Wednesday for possible funding violations.

But the BOE concluded that Les Merritt's campaign did not accept any contributions from businesses or corporations.

Instead, the Republican's campaign merely made a mistake in its reporting.

Amy Strange, campaign finance analyst at the N.C. Board of Elections, said Merritt had made personal contributions to his own campaign.

While reporting the contributions as "in-kind disbursements," Merritt's campaign committee failed to list them as "expenditures" in its political committee disclosure report.

The state elections board requires political committees to disclose two types of contributions: monetary contributions and in-kind contributions, which are any donations that are not monetary.

All in-kind contributions from businesses or corporations are illegal.

The investigation was spurred when Scott Falmlen, executive director of the N.C. Democratic Party, accused the campaign committee of accepting illegal contributions from businesses and corporations.

The Democratic Party accused Merritt's campaign of accepting in-kind disbursements from business and corporations, including a business based in North Carolina.

"Les Merritt, who seeks to be the chief watchdog of how taxpayer funds are spent, has a special responsibility to ensure that he and his committee obey the law," Falmlen said in his letter to the North Carolina Board of Elections.

"Clearly they have broken the law."

Joseph Dollar, treasurer for the Merritt campaign, said the board's request for investigation was just a "feeble attempt by the Democratic Party against the (Merritt) committee."

"They're just grasping at straws," Dollar said.

This investigation is just one example of the rising political tensions between the Democratic and Republican parties both country- and statewide.

Candidates at all political levels are feeling the heat as they round the final turn in the campaign trail before the elections to take place Nov. 2.

Despite the ruling of the N.C. Board of Elections, the Democratic Party said it still stands by the complaint.

"Accounting is fair game," said Schorr Johnson, communications director for the N.C. Democratic Party.

"He is not assuring taxpayers if he can't keep up with his own accounting."

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.