Cooper's ACC tourney trip a campaign affair

There were no official meetings, according to his office, but Cooper attended games, did some fundraising and took meetings on behalf of the Democratic Governors Association. The governor's campaign and the DGA covered trip costs, including airfare, hotel, meals and incidentals, according to the Governor's Office.

Campaign strategist Morgan Jackson declined to say who the governor met with or detail fundraising activities. He said trip costs, including tournament tickets the campaign bought through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, will be detailed in Cooper for North Carolina's next filing, due in July.

The governor, Jackson said, "did a little bit of everything" on the trip.

Cooper is a double graduate from UNC-Chapel Hill, earning his undergraduate and law degrees from the university.

The only apparent taxpayer costs for the trip would have been the travel costs of the governor's State Highway Patrol protection unit, which a patrol spokesman put at about $2,300.

Cooper took commercial flights to and from New York, according to the Governor's Office and to the campaign.

In that letter, Lewis noted both men would be in New York for the tournament, and perhaps they could meet.

That would have been a more attractive invitation, Jackson said, if Lewis and the rest of the legislative majority had sought input before passing three different bills altering the board, forcing the governor to sue.

"These guys are as serious about getting together as they are about going to the moon," Jackson said. "Everything that they do is political theater."