NC Supreme Court Justice flouted campaign spending laws, complaint says

Longtime campaign finance watchdog Bob Hall, in an affidavit filed Monday with the North Carolina State Board of Elections, said Berger and the other officials broke state law by contributing money from their campaigns to the NC for Justice PAC, which was founded April 20. The group is supporting candidates for the state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court.

State elections officials declined to comment, saying that campaign finance complaints and investigations in North Carolina are confidential.

Judges and justices are elected in North Carolina. Battles for seats on the state’s highest courts are increasingly in the spotlight as the judiciary takes on disputes over redistricting, voter rights and education funding. Abortion could also go before state judges and justices in the coming years.

NC for Justice has not filed a full organizational disclosure report or a complete quarterly finance report. The PAC had received six contributions through May 5, according to a partial quarterly financial report sent to election officials. Five were from candidate campaign committees.

Sen. Jim Perry, R-Harnett, and Court of Appeals Judge Jeff Carpenter each gave $5,600. Berger gave $4,000. And Sen. Todd Johnson, R-Union, and Rep. David Willis, R-Union, each gave $1,000, according to the PAC’s partial report.

Hall says the law doesn’t allow them to contribute to PACs or independent expenditure committees.

NC for Justice PAC didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Nor did Berger, Carpenter, Perry or Johnson.

Willis said there was a “communication mix-up” made when sending his contribution check. “It was supposed to have been sent from my personal account,” he told WRAL. “A refund was requested last week when we realized the error.”

Hall is asking the state board of elections to find all five contributions illegal and require the PAC to forfeit them to the civil penalty fund. He suggested that Berger’s relationship with one of the state’s most powerful Republicans—Senate leader Phil Berger Sr.—could complicate the case.

“I recognize it may be difficult for the Board of Elections to rule against actions by the son of state Senate boss Phil Berger Sr. who may retaliate by undercutting the Board’s budget,” Hall said in the complaint.

This is not Hall’s first complaint against Justice Berger. He previously asked the state elections board to “investigate and penalize” the judge’s campaign committee for failing to disclose who paid for three campaign fundraisers in 2016.

The committee later revealed that three events had been hosted by a lobbyist and two political appointees, Hall said in Monday’s affidavit.

“The Board declined to issue any penalty for Berger’s failure to disclose this vital information to the public,” he says. “In this case, I am not asking for a penalty against Berger or his committee.”

Hall is also asking the elections board to shut down the PAC, alleging incomplete paperwork, failure to timely disclose its spending, and potential illegal spending.

The mailer also endorses Michael Stading, another Court of Appeals candidate running against fellow Republican Charlton Allen, and Trey Allen, who’s running in the Supreme Court primary against April Wood. Justice Berger has endorsed all three of the candidates backed by the new PAC.

“How could the PAC create that mailer, which includes a third party’s bulk mail permit number, without incurring a disclosable expenditure?” Hall asked in the complaint.

WRAL wasn’t able to confirm whether the mailer was actually sent to voters.

Longtime Democratic election law expert John Wallace said the contributions are likely illegal.

When state lawmakers took up campaign finance reform in the wake of the corruption trial of former House Speaker Jim Black, Wallace said, they deliberately excluded PACs and independent expenditure committees from the list of legal recipients for candidate campaign funds. Wallace testified before state committees while the laws were being written.

“A candidate committee is not permitted to make a contribution to a PAC under NC law,” Wallace told WRAL News. “In this instance, multiple candidate committees apparently made such contributions, and the [state elections] board will have to impose appropriate penalties.”