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/https://grnc.org/wp/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/OVAAT_complaint.pdf