Owens, Padgett file campaign finance reports
The Herald-Sun (Durham, N.C.)
May 8, 2012 Tuesday
Copyright 2012 The Durham Herald Co. All Rights Reserved

Section: LOCAL NEWS; C; Pg. 1
Length: 668 words
Byline: Ray , Gronberggronberg@heraldsun.com, ; 919-419-6648

Body
DURHAM - Reports from two would-be County Commissioners indicate that they, like several of their fellow
candidates, to a significant degree may be self-financing their campaigns.Challenger John Owens told the county
Board of Elections he'd raised $7,234 for his run in today's Democratic Party primary.Fellow challenger Rickey
Padgett reported raising $5,086.Owens' disclosure indicated that he'd donated $3,762 to his cause, mostly
through a series of in-kind contributions. They included a $2,900 expenditure for campaign signs.Padgett on his
filing counted a $2,086 loan among his proceeds.That item appeared on a line that customarily indicates that
candidates have dipped into their own pocket to advance money to their campaign. But Padgett didn't list the
source of his loan, an omission county Board of Elections Director Michael Perry said would spark a follow-up
query.Candidates have to disclose the source of loans, even those from their own wallet. "Looks like he's missing
some stuff there," Perry said of Padgett's filing.
"We'll have to get him to give us that information."The reports from Owens and Padgett were the last Perry's staff
released for the 14 candidates in this year's County Commissioners primary.Time stamps indicate that election
workers received both on May 1, a day after the deadline for first-quarter reports. Perry's staff posted them to the
Web late last week.The Owens and Padgett reports were each short on big-name local donors.Padgett did say
he banked $1,000 from Jerry McLaurin, a Raleigh property investor, and $500 from Deborah Powers, a Wilmington
concessions and midway operator.He also received $100 from Republican Party activist and Durham Planning
Commission member Teiji Kimball, and $100 from K&L Gates lawyer and former County Commissioner Lewis
Cheek. Cheek is now a resident of Greensboro.Owens has banked, among others, $525 in contributions from
Durham marketing business owner Ian Kleinfeld.The filings didn't much change the financial pecking order in the
commissioners race, where challenger Wendy Jacobs and incumbents Brenda Howerton and Ellen Reckhow have
opened significant leads on the competition.Jacobs has raised $20,024, Reckhow $14,280 and Howerton this year
$5,818.Howerton actually started her fundraising last year and opened 2012 with $14,098 in the bank. That
combined with this year's donations means she's had $19,916 available for the spring campaign.Reckhow had
$2,956 in the bank to start the year, meaning she's had $17,236 at her disposal during the campaign.Prior filings
also suggest that challengers Dilcy Burton, Anita Daniels and Elaine Hyman are to a large degree self-financing
their campaigns. Of them, only Daniels has banked a significant number of outside contributions. She's raised
$9,179, of which $3,394 was from her own wallet.But the largest force in the campaign, financially, has been
Southern Durham Development, the company behind the controversial 751 South project.It's spent, through a
group called the Durham Partnership for Progress, $54,100 to promote a ticket that includes Howerton, Padgett
and incumbents Joe Bowser and Michael Page.The move has sparked complaints that the developers have
coordinated their advertising campaign with the four candidates.But Kim Strach, deputy director of the State Board
of Elections, late last week ruled that there was "no evidence" that the fliers the Partnership for Progress has sent
out were planned in coordination with the candidates.She based that on written statements obtained from the
developers and the candidates.Strach had basically telegraphed the finding by noting last week that state law
doesn't bar candidates from distributing fliers created by independent political action committees. The law only
Akela Lacy

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Owens, Padgett file campaign finance reports
targets the planning and creation of campaign material.The complaints the State Board received for the most part
concerned allegations that poll workers representing some of the candidates had in fact distributed partnershipfunding fliers.

Classification
Language: ENGLISH

Publication-Type: Newspaper

Subject: ELECTIONS (90%); CAMPAIGNS & ELECTIONS (90%); LEGISLATIVE BODIES (90%); COUNTIES
(90%); COUNTY GOVERNMENT (90%); CAMPAIGN FINANCE (89%); ELECTION AUTHORITIES (89%);
POLITICAL PARTIES (78%); PRIMARY ELECTIONS (78%); POLITICAL DONATIONS & FUNDRAISING (78%);
FUNDRAISING (72%)

Company: K&L GATES LLP (53%)

Geographic: DURHAM, NC, USA (89%); GREENSBORO, NC, USA (79%); RALEIGH, NC, USA (59%)

Load-Date: May 23, 2012

End of Document

Akela Lacy