Posted on 03/11/2003 9:14:38 AM PST by Stew Padasso
Former farming officials indicted
Commissioner Phipps' campaign treasurer and one other face charges
SHARIF DURHAMS Raleigh Bureau
RALEIGH - A federal grand jury indicted two former N.C. Agriculture Department figures Monday in matters related to public corruption, reigniting a campaign fund-raising scandal that swirled around Agriculture Commissioner Meg Scott Phipps last year, two sources close to the investigation said.
The 42-page indictment names Linda Saunders, Phipps' campaign treasurer in her successful bid for the office in 2000, and Bobby McLamb, a former Democratic agriculture commissioner candidate who joined Phipps' campaign after the 2000 primary.
Phipps was not named in the indictment, the sources said. The sources would not give details about charges. Investigators are expected to announce the indictments today.
Phipps apologized publicly last June after the State Board of Elections ruled her campaign committed more than a dozen violations of N.C. law and said that, in some cases, she intended to mislead.
The Elections Board ordered Phipps to pay $130,000, believed to be the highest such penalty in state history.
The commissioner said she had put too much faith in her campaign workers and wrote she was unaware of many problems until she heard about them during testimony.
Among the violations: Accepting large amounts of cash contributions, taking money from corporations and giving McLamb's campaign $64,000 to pay off political debts. The state limits donors, including campaigns, to $4,000 per election cycle.
"She admitted quickly there were mistakes made through the campaign," said Mike Blanton, a department spokesman. "She and her husband learned things in the campaign finance investigation ... they were unaware of."
In the state investigation, Saunders took much of the blame, telling Elections Board members she did not understand state campaign law. Phipps had removed Saunders from her campaign post before Saunders resigned in November as an assistant at the Department of Agriculture. McLamb also has left the department.
Saunders and McLamb could not be reached Monday night.
Witnesses also testified that Phipps' campaign pressured N.C. State Fair vendors to donate. Phipps opened the fair to competitive bids for the first time in 50 years, but the elections board inquiry revealed a financial connection between her family and the company that won the midway contract, Amusements of America.
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