CRIMES AGAINST DEMOCRACY
April 14, 1998
To: U.S. Attorney Janice Cole, Eastern District of N.C., U.S. Senator Lauch
Faircloth, Governor James Hunt, State Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight,
State Senate Minority Leader Robert Shaw, Attorney General Michael Easley, Wake
County District Attorney Colon Willoughby
Dear Distinguished Leaders,
We write because each of you has a special role to play in addressing the recent
charges leveled by members of Farmers For Fairness (FFF) against House Speaker
Harold Brubaker and his associates.
In sworn testimony, FFF leaders paint a vivid picture of campaign contributions
being solicited and given in exchange for promised or expected legislative relief
for the hog industry. These charges parallel the still-unfolding scandals at
the N.C. Department of Transportation, which reveal a pattern of jobs, appointments
and road projects linked to political donations. They also occur in the context
of an escalating arms race in political fundraising, informal complaints from
lobbyists of being "shaken down" for large donations, and formal complaints
of money being laundered through various conduits to finance N.C. candidates.
The current campaign-finance system is a mess. It's a Model-T in an era of supersonic
travel. The problem has administrative, legislative, and judicial dimensions:
• The state Board of Elections -- the agency charged with overseeing
North Carolina election law -- lacks sufficient staff, funding, and enforcement
powers to carry out its basic duties to protect our democracy.
• Many political leaders -- the policymakers who could propose and
enact important reforms --find themselves too enmeshed in the fundraising hustle
to envision how serious alternatives could work.
• Local and state prosecutors -- the law enforcement officials who
could declare a war on crimes against democracy -- are so strapped for resources
or preoccupied with other problems that they do not focus on white-collar crimes
tied to political money.
Each of you has demonstrated strong leadership in the past on topics you care
about deeply. Individually and collectively, you could exert enormous influence
in overcoming the problem of money's corrosive power on politics, including
its impact on the public's growing cynicism toward politicians. We now call
upon each of you to do everything within your power to (1) pursue vigorous enforcement
of existing laws and (2) enact new laws to protect the public and clean up campaign
fundraising.
There is a disturbing parallel in the weak enforcement of our environmental
and our election laws; in fact, the current scandal may shed light on how the
two are intertwined. We have many rules on the books in North Carolina -- but
too often they are simply not being fully enforced, particularly when the target
is wealthy or politically well-connected. Whether it's a state official caught
fundraising on the job or a paper-pulp factory caught exceeding its pollution
limits, those in charge of enforcement go to excessive lengths to accommodate
the offender at the expense of the public.
Last week, the District Attorney of Union County said he will not prosecute
former Board of Transportation member Carroll Edwards. Edwards resigned following
revelations that he, among other things, used his position to gain over $1 million
in road projects servicing his factory. The law is quite clear that profiting
from his official actions is a felony. But the Union County DA says Mr. Edwards,
a friend and political patron, is "not malicious" and "I don't
think [he] to this day understands he did anything wrong." Edwards' son
is a former campaign manager for the same DA. Shouldn't the taxpayers at least
get their $1 million back?
In another recent case, the N.C. Division of Water Quality has shied away from
disciplining a Duplin County hog farm owned by Ralph Britt, the son of Lois
Britt, who is a Farmers For Fairness official and public affairs director for
Murphy Family Farms. The farm's lagoon is filled beyond state rules, and runoff
from its fields (sprayed with hog waste) flows into ditches feeding ponds used
by neighbors to water their livestock. Tests show fecal coliform levels in ditches
at 450 times the limit allowed by the state. Despite repeated complaints from
neighbors and a county commissioner, a state regulator would only concede, "It
probably is a violation," then added the cause might be "the El Nino
effect."
The Clean Water Fund of N.C. has documented numerous examples of lax enforcement
of environmental laws and the consequences of such inaction for the public.
After considerable pressure, DENR Secretary Wayne McDevitt has finally agreed
to meet with the Fund's representatives to review their concerns, included case
studies compiled as part of their Environmental Enforcement Campaign. Similarly,
Democracy South has formally complained about numerous examples of apparent
election law violations, but (with one notable exception) they go uninvestigated
because local District Attorneys refuse to act.
Given this disappointing record, and the gravity of the charges involved in
the Brubaker/FFF case, we are hereby seeking immediate assistance from federal
regulators, investigators and prosecutors to complement work that should be
undertaken by local and state officials.
Here are our specific requests to each of you:
• U.S. Attorney Janice Cole -- We ask you to initiate a federal investigation
of bribery, racketeering, extortion and/or other possible offenses, including
violation of the federal Hobbs Act which specifically addresses actions by state
officials engaged in quid-pro-quo dealmaking. We note that, according to FFF
sworn testimony, some of the campaign contributions solicited by, and delivered
to, Speaker Brubaker were made payable to a federal election committee, the
Republican National Committee. However, at least two of those donations do not
appear on the campaign disclosure lists of donations received by the Republican
National Committee, adding more mystery to this case.
• U.S. Senator Lauch Faircloth -- We note that Carter Wrenn testified
he became a political media consultant to FFF at your suggestion, and we note
that you have significant financial ties to the hog industry. Given your involvement,
we ask you to request a comprehensive investigation by the Federal Election
Commission of any improper solicitation, receipt, and/or transfer of political
contributions involving Speaker Brubaker and/or individuals and companies associated
with FFF, including the donations to the Republican National Committee mentioned
above and others solicited from Randolph County businesses. We also urge you
to encourage thorough debate of innovative approaches to cleaning up the campaign
finance mess at the federal level. What is your own position on a Clean Money
option for candidates who voluntarily reject campaign solicitations and accept
strict spending limits?
• Governor Jim Hunt -- We ask that you provide increased funding
in your budget for the state Board of Election and that you encourage tough
prosecution of crimes against democracy. Do we want North Carolina to become
known for its campaign finance scandals, where (as the Wilmington Morning Star
wonders) the current fiasco is only "sleaze as usual"? You have acknowledged
that the link between political appointments and campaign donors "is something
we've got to look at very hard." But we ask you to go much further, to
champion solutions to the quid-pro-quo relationship endemic to the current system.
We echo the Raleigh News & Observer editorial (1/25/98) that calls on you
to embrace "the real cure" to the money-in-politics cancer, namely
"the financing of election campaigns not from the bank accounts of people
who may have ulterior motives in contributing, but from the public coffers as
a legitimate investment in choosing the best possible leaders." Will you
be a leader to clean up politics?
• Senate President Pro Tem Marc Basnight and Senate Minority Leader
Robert Shaw -- Given the difficulties facing the House leadership, we seek your
commitment to initiate debate and pass a comprehensive package of ethics and
election law reforms, including the Clean Election Act, a statutory Ethics Board,
a strengthened Elections Board with expanded staff and powers, new controls
on the flow of campaign money (especially soft money and party transfers), and
restrictions on the appointment of political donors to policy-making positions.
We also urge you to strengthen regulation (and enforcement) of the still-expanding
hog industry, focusing liability for compliance on the large hog integrators
who often make contract growers "serfs on their own land." Your leadership
is especially vital to demonstrate that the attack ads run by FFF are not weakening
legislators' resolve, a goal FFF leaders repeatedly stated in sworn testimony
earlier this month.
• Attorney General Michael Easley and Wake County District Attorney
Colon Willoughby -- We ask that you cooperate in seeking the appointment of
a special prosecutor to focus on the Brubaker/FFF charges and related state
election law or criminal violations. Both of your offices face serious limitations
in pursuing this case; we ask that you frankly discuss in public the weaknesses
inherent in the North Carolina statutes, which put the power to authorize a
criminal investigation and prosecution in the hands of local DAs, despite their
inadequate resources. We also urge you to invite the participation of federal
law enforcement agencies and the U.S. Attorney and to collaborate fully with
them.
In many ways, this is a test case to demonstrate how much North Carolina honors
its reputation as a "good government" state. It is also an opportunity
to modernize the entire framework of ethics and election law to meet the challenges
presented by today's politics. We stand ready to help you meet that challenge
and encourage you to take bold steps. Thank you for your leadership.
Sincerely, on behalf of the attached list*,
Peter MacDowell, Executive Director
Democracy South
605-A Highway 54 West
Chapel Hill, NC 27516
*Signers to "Crimes Against Democracy" Letter, April 14, 1998:
Jacques Alexis, president, Open Minded Seniors, Halifax County
Kim Allen, education director, Enviro 1st, Inc.
Louise Antony, professor of philosophy, UNC-CH
Joyce Brown, board member, Conservation Council of NC
Van Crandall, Sierra Club Electric Utility Deregulation Committee
Barbara Zelter Earls, director, Project JUBILEE of the NC Council of Churches
Robert Epting, attorney, Epting & Hackney
Chris Fitzsimon, executive director, Common Sense Foundation
Nan Freeland & Ginny Lindsey, co-directors, Clean Water Fund of NC
Gary R. Grant, executive director, Concerned Citizens of Tillery
M.B. Hardy, staff scientist, Applied Research Associates
Joseph R. Haun, chair, Coalition for Campaign Finance Reform, Buncombe County
Jan Harris, president, Brunswick Environmental Action Team
Rev. Steven A. Hickle, pastor, Fairmont United Methodist Church, Raleigh
Virginia H. Hutson, Greensboro leader, NC Alliance for Democracy
Sally Jones, Steering Committee, Friends of Forsyth County
Robin D. Keller, delegate, Pattie Harrison Crossroads Community, Nash County
Denise Lee, president, Anson County CACTUS
Gale Lewis, secretary-treasurer, Alliance for a Responsible Swine Industry (ARSI)
Pete MacDowell, executive director, Democracy South
Mark Marcoplos, spokesperson, Orange County Greens
Sister Evelyn Mattern, NC Council of Churches
W. Warren Murphy, president, NC Alliance for Democracy
Tom O'Connor, executive director, NC Occupational Safety & Health Project
Elizabeth M. T. O'Nan, director, Protect All Children's Environment, McDowell
Co.
Greg Parker, president, Wildlife Action Inc., Lumber River Chapter
Lewis Pitts, director of Mental Health Unit, Legal Services of NC
Karen Priest, member, Bladen Environment
John P. Rascoe, leader, Bertie County Indian Woods Community
J. George Reed, legislative program associate, NC Council of Churches
Michael Rulison, president, NC Consumers Council
John Runkle, president, NC League of Conservation Voters
David E. Sullivan, chair, Piedmont Plateau Group, NC Sierra Club
Helen Tart, secreatry, Transportation Roundtable, NCATR
Pricey Taylor, board member, Kathleen Price Bryan Family Fund
Marcus Tillery, chair, The Land Loss Fund
Janet Zeller, director, Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League
(organizational names provided for identification)