It was fascinating watchin the State Board of Electionshearings Monday. You didn’t have to be Perry Mason to see that Chairman LarryLeake and the Board were carefully crafting a web designed to catch formerGovernor Mike Easley. The board has obviously done its research and is wellprepared.

Some have wondered why the testimony of Lanny Wilson, NickGarrett and McQueen Campbell didn’t venture into the Mary Easley hiring, Easley’sreal estate investment at Canonsgate, the renovation of the Easley home inSouthport, the marina lease at Southport orother reported transgressions. My guess is that these are items under investigationby federal authorities and will be revealed later.

The mission of these hearings is to determine if Easley andhis campaign violated state laws regarding the collection and reporting of campaigncash and expenditures. The State Board isn’t through. Perhaps the bigbombshells have exploded, but there’s more to come before Easley himself iscalled to testify. This will be the high point of these hearings. The former Governor will beasked to comment on whether or not he instructed his campaign to pay forrepairs to his home, thus committing insurance fraud, among other possibleviolations.

The State Board already has, to many minds, enough testimonyto recommend the case to Wake District Attorney Colon Willoughby forprosecution. Easley’s testimony will be on the record and can be used in thataction.

Irrespective of any other outcome from these hearings theone overwhelming conclusion that must be reached is the screaming need for furtherreform in our election laws. We must change laws that allow candidates, PACs orcorporations from contributing large amounts to political parties that can thenbe funneled as in-kind contributions to individual candidates. The current lawprohibits this practice but everyone knows it happens and merely winks at it.

Republicans should be glad their behind-the-scenes effortsto remove chairman Leake from presiding at the hearings were not successful.Leake isn’t pulling any punches in his administration of the hearings, removingany prospective charges of political favoritism.

We were amused at Tuesday’s News and Observer columnbemoaning Easley’s metamorphosis from a hard-charging, crime busting DA andAttorney General to just another politician on the take. We’ve been toSouthport, we’ve talked to people who live there, as well as to many others whohave had contact with Mike Easley throughout his career, both at the coast andin Raleigh.They tell us he was always looking for favors, slow to pick up a check at arestaurant and willing to take advantage where he could. One politician callshim “Alligator arms,” because of his penchant for allowing others to pay thetab at meals. This is not new conduct, it is an ongoing pattern. But there is adifference between being cheap and breaking laws. That appears to be what weare hearing now.