Boliek brought in over $1.6 million, over 550 percent more than previously elected Beth Wood, who resigned as state auditor in 2023 and was succeeded by governor-appointed Jessica Holmes.
According to the state auditor website, the position acts as a fiscal watchdog that investigates how public money is being spent by state institutions.
UNC is included in the public institutions that the state auditor looks into. In May, then-trustee Boliek suggested moving $2.3 million in DEI funding to public safety.
“It’s a bad idea to have funders from the institution that presumably will be subject to audits by the auditor funding that person’s campaign,” Mark Nance, a professor of political science at N.C. State University, said.
Boliek’s campaign website also said he helped bring ideological balance to the notoriously liberal campus.
Scarborough said he thinks Boliek was using his position on the BOT for political clout and his raid against DEI was a performative statement of value for North Carolina’s Republican base and to voters.
Rebekah Whilden, interim executive director of Carolina Forward — an independent nonpartisan advocacy organization for N.C. policy, said in an email statement that it would be political malpractice for Boliek not to leverage his personal networks, including the BOT, for his campaign.
Friends of Tim Moore
Nance said advisory boards within the UNC System, such as the Board of Governors and the BOT, are places that politicians like Moore put people to give them credibility.
In 2016, Republican legislators stripped the N.C. governor’s power to appoint two UNC trustees and gave appointment power of all 15 trustees to the General Assembly. Six board members are appointed by the legislature directly and eight are elected by the UNC Board of Governors, which is entirely appointed by the General Assembly.
Trustee Ralph Meekins said 15 years ago, he and Moore, who were both lawyers in the same community, discussed how Meekins could serve the state. He had an interest in becoming a UNC Trustee, and Moore advised him to start with the UNC Board of Visitors and move up to the BOT.
“I served for four years on the Board of Visitors, and was fortunate enough for him to have appointed me, but it was a political appointment, which is the way everyone is appointed on the boards,” Meekins said.
To get the day's news and headlines in your inbox each morning, sign up for our email newsletters.
Since 2010, Meekins has donated nearly $8,000 to Moore. Moore appointed Meekins to the BOT in 2019.
Jennifer Lloyd was also appointed to the BOT by the former House speaker.
“I’m here on this board, rightfully so. I’m not his political appointee. He has not instructed me to vote a certain way,” Lloyd said to The Daily Tar Heel in 2023 after her appointment. “Frankly, I believe Tim is also misunderstood. He loves this university and he’s done a lot to help this university.”
Lloyd has donated almost $10,000 to the former Speaker of the House and his political action committee, Friends of Tim Moore.
The entirety of the BOT has donated over $80,000 to Moore and his PAC.
Boliek and his campaign have donated over $18,000 to Moore, and Friends of Tim Moore gave over $10,000 to Boliek’s campaign. Campaign finance records did not show any donations from Briner to Moore or his PAC.
“It does come down to money, because money comes from approval — from the power structure,” said Nance. “So if Tim Moore says, ‘Yes, this person has my backing to run for office,’ the money is going to come in.”
The Board has a right to support personally aligned candidates, UNC Media Relations said in an email statement. They also said donations from trustees followed all campaign finance regulations.
“Any suggestions that campaign contributions influence the process of the trustees’ budgeting debate is unfounded,” the statement said.
‘Well-connected, high-wealth’
Whilden said most serious statewide candidates have strong networks that contribute to their campaigns.
“The UNC BOT is no different — it's a group of many well-connected, high-wealth individuals with the ability to give in a low-profile council of state race,” she said in an email statement. “Especially after the elimination of public funding programs in council of state races, serious candidates from either party have to leverage their personal networks to be successful.”
She added that the increased giving from BOT members to Republican candidates is demonstrative of the Board's ideological shift that the NCGOP engineered since they took power in the state legislature.
“In turn, these donors know they’re expected to generally conform to the ideological and personnel choice of the bodies or officials that appoint them,” Whilden said in an email statement.
The Daily Tar Heel reached out to Briner, Boliek and Moore for comment in addition to each member of the NC Legislative Oversight Committee. None responded by time of publication.
@abbypenderr
enterprisedesk@dailytarheel.com
