Kim Strach

Board looks into national party groups

ryanteaguebeckwith — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 16:07:49 -0400

North Carolina's chief campaign finance investigator says two national party groups seeking to influence elections are breaking state law.

Kim Strach, deputy director of the State Board of Elections, testified Tuesday in a board hearing. The board is examining how the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee and the Republican Governors Association raise and spend money for North Carolina, the Associated Press reports.

Strach said the two groups are raising money on behalf of sister organizations registered in North Carolina but aren't disclosing the contributions properly. The groups disagree.

The Republican sister group has spent $3 million to support GOP nominee for governor Pat McCrory. The Democratic group is supporting General Assembly candidates.

The elections board could order the groups to comply with the law or block them from spending in the state.

Election official: McCrory reports complete

bniolet — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 14:32:05 -0400

A senior elections official says it was a Board of Elections computer glitch that led to incomplete information on Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory's campaign finance reports.

Kim Strach, deputy director of the state Board of Elecitons, said McCrory's first quarter reports were filled out completely to include occupation and employment information for donors. But when the state's Web site pulled the information for report searches, a glitch left some fields blank.

Strach said she discovered the error after a story highlighted the missing information in McCrory's reports. She spoke with campaign officials from the McCrory campaign today.

McCrory's campaign won't have to amend its reports. Strach said that elections officials will add the missing information to the publicly available database.

On Friday, McCrory campaign Manager Richard Hudson said campaign officials had collected the required information and submitted it according to the Board of Election's instructions. Hudson said McCrory has always stressed transparency.

"This is something that he has taken very seriously from the beginning," Hudson said.

Elections official: Wright cashed check

bniolet — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 11:38:10 -0400

A Wake County jury heard evidence Tuesday that former state Rep. Thomas Wright secretly transferred tens of thousands of dollars from his campaign accounts to himself over several years.

Wake County District Attorney Colon Willoughby introduced into evidence several charts detailing the Wilmington Democrat's campaign transactions, David Ingram reports.

One chart showed that 91 percent of the transfers Wright made to himself were not disclosed on campaign finance reports. Wright is charged with obstruction of justice for what prosecutors say was his failure to disclose more than $100,000 in campaign contributions.

Kim Strach, deputy director of the State Board of Elections, testified that in one case Wright simply cashed a check from a political action committee for himself. She added that he has yet to file any amendments to his campaign finance reports.

Under from cross examination by Wright's attorney, Doug Harris of Greensboro, Strach agreed that Wright did not take any steps to obstruct her investigation other than once providing an incorrect name for his campaign treasurer.

Harris told the jury in his opening statement that Wright's behavior doesn't fit the charge.

In April, a jury convicted Wright in Wake Superior Court on three separate charges related to financial improprieties. He is due to be released in May 2015, though a conviction for obstruction of justice could add at least four months to his sentence.

Elections board rejects Moore complaint

mtomsic — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 16:13:41 -0400

The State Board of Elections denied Richard Moore's request to declare an ad supporting Beverly Perdue as express advocacy.

The National Education Association sponsored the radio ad that supported Perdue's stances on education.

To qualify as express advocacy, an ad has to "use the magic words to support (Perdue's) candidacy," said Kim Strach, deputy director in charge of campaign reporting at the Board of Elections.

"There is nowhere in that ad where it says vote Bev Perdue for governor," Strach said.

The courts have defined the "magic words" and what constitutes express advocacy in the N.C. Right to Life case, which is still ongoing.

More after the jump.

Strach: Wright accepted $5k in cash

ryanteaguebeckwith — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 11:12:23 -0500

State Rep. Thomas Wright accepted more than $5,000 in cash contributions for his political campaigns without disclosing any of it on state forms, according to testimony Thursday.

The contributions are in addition to almost $350,000 in campaign, charitable and corporate money that investigators say Wright handled improperly or used for personal expenses, David Ingram reports.

Political candidates in North Carolina are allowed to accept cash contributions of up to $50, but they must disclose them in filings with the State Board of Elections or a local elections office.

Kim Strach, the state board's lead investigator, testified before a House panel that Wright disclosed none of the cash contributions he has received since 2000. Her staff discovered the contributions when they examined records of Wright's five bank accounts.

"There are cash contributions" in the records, Strach said. But, she added, "There are no cash contributions disclosed on the reports."

More after the jump.

Elections board struggles with backlog

ryanteaguebeckwith — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 15:11:18 -0400

The State Board of Elections is still struggling with a backlog of unaudited campaign finance reports because it can not find two people with the expertise to do the work.

The jobs offer a salary as high as $48,000 annually, but the catch is they expire Dec. 31, 2008. Lawmakers, when they created three auditing positions last year, made them temporary, Dan Kane reports.

That caveat has created huge problems for the board. So far, it has only been able to hire one employee who still remains. Two others left last spring for permanent positions. Two postings of the jobs have not produced enough qualified candidates.

"They are decent paying jobs," said Kim Strach, the board's campaign finance director. "It's just that people want some stability."

Elections director Gary Bartlett said he had asked lawmakers to make the positions permanent in this year's budget so the board can catch up on the campaign filings and not fall behind again, but lawmakers did not take up the request.

He thanked lawmakers for seeing the problem in the first place and trying to address it, but "we just need some permanency."

Correction: An earlier version of this post misstated the date.

A seizure?

bkrueger — Tue, 31 Jul 2007 16:33:40 -0400

Don Beason's loan to Jim Black could have been seized.

Under state law, his $500,000 check to Black would have been an illegal campaign donation, said State Board of Elections investigator Kim Westbrook Strach, reports Ryan Beckwith.

In theory, the elections board could still decide to seize the check -- and a second one for the same amount written two weeks later -- since there is no statute of limitations on illegal donations.

"I guess it's a possibility," she said, noting it would be up to the State Board.

Campaign or personal expenses?

bkrueger — Tue, 15 May 2007 15:04:37 -0400

An investigator with the state elections board testified this afternoon that state Rep. Thomas Wright may have used as much as $250,000 in campaign contributions for his personal use over the past six years.

Kim Strach, the elections board investigator, testified that a review of Wright’s bank records found that money contributed to his campaign was spent on purchases from places such as Victoria’s Secret, Circuit City, Home Depot and Sears, Andy Curliss reports.

Strach testified that Wright also spent campaign contributions on airline tickets, gas and hotel rooms.

But Strach also noted that until Oct. 1, state law allowed campaigns to spend money on anything they wanted as long as the expenditures were disclosed. She said it was not clear if some of the expenditures were campaign-related.

Wright, a New Hanover County Democrat, is one of two lawmakers who are subject to hearings this week by the State Board of Elections into campaign finance irregularities. Wright declined to testify this morning, citing the Fifth Amendment. State and federal law enforcement authorities were monitoring the proceedings.

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