Grass Roots North Carolina / Forum For Firearms Education

Post Office Box 10665, Raleigh, NC  27605

877.282.0939 (Phone)      919.573.0354 (Fax)      www.GRNC.org

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Press Contact:                  704.907.9206

E-mail:                                President@GRNC.org

Release date:                   October 18, 2018

 

 

Supreme Court candidate & gun control PAC

violate NC campaign laws

 

Grass Roots North Carolina files ethics complaint against
Hollywood PAC with State Board of Elections

 

In an exercise of extreme irony, a candidate for the state’s highest court appears to be knowingly violating state campaign laws.

 

As recently celebrated in “Vogue” magazine, Hollywood film maker Sarah Ullman formed a super PAC, calling itself “One Vote at a Time” (OVAAT), to elect candidates who support gun control, most recently in North Carolina.

 

Over-limit $50,301.49 contribution not reported

 

Advocating for Anita Earls for NC Supreme Court, however, an elaborate scheme concocted by Ullman’s Washington lawyers has violated North Carolina election laws, apparently with full cooperation of candidate Earls herself.

 

At issue is the $50,301.49 cost of campaign videos OVAAT makes for candidates, in this case with the apparent full cooperation of the candidate, Anita Earls, who is featured in extensive interviews throughout the videos.

 

Gun group files complaint

 

In response, the state’s main gun rights organization, Grass Roots North Carolina, today filed a complaint with the North Carolina State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement alleging that:

 

ð        One Vote at a Time (OVAAT) gave Anita Earls and her “Earls for Justice Committee” contributions – specifically “in kind contributions” nine times larger than the $5200 currently allowed by NC election laws;

 

ð        Although Earls’ campaign committee reported a small in-kind contribution for “Food for Film Crew,” Anita Earls failed to report the $50,301.49 that OVAAT spent to produce the video featuring interviews with Earls; and

 

ð        OVAAT failed to report the contribution to the Earls for Justice Committee.

 

Complaint

 

Independent expenditure PACs (a/k/a “super PACs) are prohibited from donating money directly to candidates or coordinating campaign messages and expenditures. To bypass the restriction, Ullman devised the scheme to create a conventional state PAC (in addition to the super PAC), which then colluded with Earls to create campaign videos now featured on OVAAT’s website and in emails sent to potential contributors. But Earls and OVAAT ran afoul of campaign laws by failing to report the over-limit “in-kind” contributions to the Earls campaign, raising a serious question: Is Earls trying to hide her collusion with gun control groups?

 

Said the cover letter for the complaint:

 

On behalf of Grass Roots North Carolina, I hereby submit the attached Complaint and Request for Investigation.

 

Based on the facts summarized therein, it is our belief that one or both of One Vote at a Time North Carolina (a NC PAC) and the Earls for Justice Campaign Committee (a candidate committee for a state election) have engaged in violations of North Carolina campaign finance laws. In short, One Vote at a Time raised and spent over $50,000 to produce, in close coordination with the Earls campaign, a professional video supporting the election of candidate Earls. This is an “in-kind contribution,” which was not reported as such, and which far exceeds the allowed value of $5,200. The Earls campaign accepted this illegal contribution by coordinating and assisting in the production of the video, yet also failed to report it.

 

We respectfully request a full and complete investigation of this matter. The salient facts, with citation to public records, are listed in the Complaint.

 

See the complaint at:

 

https://www.grnc.org/images/OVAAT_complaint.pdf