Former Gov. Mike Easley testified that he didn't know much of anything about how his campaign worked.
He didn't count the money and only called potential donors when he was forced to by his fundraisers. His campaign must now forfeit $100,000 — $60,000 to pay for flights and $40,000 as a penalty.
As of June 30, Easley's campaign had $121,984 in its account, according to campaign finance records.
Board chairman Larry Leake said its very easy for campaigns to spend all their money, which would make it difficult to collect assessments from the Board of Elections.
That's why, Leake said, the board is recommending to the General Assembly that state law be changed to make a candidate personally liable for such penalties.
"Candidates do not accept sufficient responsibility and ownership of their campaigns," Leake said.
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Jane Pinsky, director of the N.C. Coalition for Lobbying and Government Reform, said candidates are already required to put their name at the end of campaign commercials to ensure they are responsible for what is said in their name.
"Now they need to be legally responsible for what people are doing in their name," Pinsky said.
Damon Circosta, executive director of the N.C. Center for Voter Education, said the hearings showed the state should consider more publicly funded campaigns.
"Unless we're willing to underwrite some of these costs, there are going to be people are are going who try to trade money for access," Circosta said.
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