Campaigns without managers

It's the same Aaron Lay

In May, a Gaston County grand jury indicted Michael Aaron Lay on two counts of election fraud related to his votes in Gaston County during the 2004 primary election. Lay, now 26, worked on McHenry's 2004 campaign for Congress.

Lay will be on unsupervised probation for six months after accepting deferred prosecution last month.

Lay does not seem to have quite kicked the McHenry co-location habit. He is paid by Graham's campaign at a Raleigh address owned by McHenry associate Jason Deans where Deans is registered to vote (and delinqent in paying vehicle tax). Lay got into trouble by being registered to vote at McHenry's Cherryville house along with Deans and others.

Gas tax revenues were already declining relative to highway use because of fuel efficiency. The cap compounds our infrastructure problem by further limiting income. "Starving the beast" won't solve problems in a growing state.

And before you mention the talking point, the $170 million transfer to the General Fund, as legislated, is fine by me, but not the amounts over that, which should be repaid.

Lets see - Graham spent millions helping the taxpayers of this state by fighting to cap and/or repeal the state gas tax (we have the highest gas tax in the Southeast!)and saved the taxpayers at least $155 million this year.

Conversely, state Senator Fred Smith bragged about spending over $2 million for his purchase of his jet. BTW - Fred did not vote for capping or reducing the gas tax. Instead, Fred voted for the Senate budget that raised non-voter approved debt by over $700 million, increased spending by 7% and increased fees. Given his voting history in the Senate (missed over 25% of the Senate votes)we should be thankful anytime he casts a vote...

Who knows what Bob has been doing...

I thought everbody knew Tom Fetzer is the man behind Bill Graham's curtain. Fetzer is the custodian of Graham's 527 Committee "North Carolina Conservatives United, Inc." at 709 Hillsborough St., the building housing Fetzer Stephens and owned jointly by Fetzer and Graham personally. In fact Graham gave Fetzer power of attorney to purchase the building and co-sign the $1 million loan.

North Carolina Conservatives United is almost entirely funded by Graham to the tune of $2.2 million (except for $100,000 contributed by Larry Cloninger of Salisbury) and most of the expenditures have gone to Fetzer Stephens. The 527 committee (or 4,999 committee, as I like to call them) and the partnership with Fetzer are giant loopholes in campaign funding where large sums of money can wash back and forth between entities.

Is "Aaron Lay" the same as Michael Aaron Lay of Patrick McHenry campaign fame (http://www.charlotte.com/local/story/230921.html)? Or a relative?
Just curious.