RALEIGH, N.C. – North Carolina Gov. Mike Easley preferred sending an e-mail to getting on the phone, meeting in small groups instead of giving speeches, and spending a quiet weekend at home rather than traveling the Democratic Party’s rubber-chicken circuit.
“I like to get to work and solve problems,” Easley said in a 2005 interview before his second inauguration, adding that for all the pomp, “I don’t like it as it applies to me personally.”
While the former governor has a jocular side, Easley’s reticent, all-business persona stands in contrast to the swirl of allegations surrounding him and former first lady Mary Easley.
Authorities want to know more about free flights on privately owned aircraft and loaner cars from dealerships, a land purchase in a gated coastal community and how Mary Easley got her job at N.C. State University in 2005 that now pays her $170,000 a year.
So far, Easley has released a one-sentence statement defending himself and has not responded to several requests for interviews from The Associated Press. And Mary Easley stood silent next to a podium at a news conference late last week, something her lawyer said was prudent as he explained she had no plans to resign.
“It is my considered judgment that this is the best course of action,” Mary Easley’s attorney, Marvin Schiller, told reporters.
The Easleys haven’t been charged with any crimes and it may be months or longer before it’s determined whether the Easleys did anything unethical or illegal. What is clear is that scrutiny of the largely silent couple threatens to damage the public’s view of Mike Easley’s accomplishments as governor and attorney general.
“It’s difficult to see how (his) legacy won’t be tarnished,” said David McLennan, a political science professor at Peace College in Raleigh. “The difficulty with the lack of transparency is it creates the perception that they’re hiding something.”
A federal grand jury received testimony last week from a Highway Patrol trooper who was the supervisor of Easley’s former security detail. The FBI subpoenaed travel records about privately owned aircraft on which the Easleys and their son rode, and asked for Mary Easley’s personnel records at N.C. State.
The State Board of Elections is investigating if the airplane travel violated campaign finance laws and why Easley’s campaign failed to put its use of a sport utility vehicle from an eastern North Carolina dealership on campaign reports years ago.
Some political observers say it’s too early to make assumptions.
“You’ve got to try to back away, and say, ‘All right, what happened here?”‘ said Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic consultant whose former clients include former Gov. Jim Hunt and then-U.S. Sen. John Edwards. “And we’re not going to know that for some time.”
While the legal machinations are complicated, the alleged preferential treatment of the Easleys is simple for the public to grasp, said Carmine Scavo, a political science professor at East Carolina University.
“There’s his wife’s job. Everybody understands that. And there’s flying on planes,” Scavo said. “In office, he pretty much had a squeaky-clean reputation, and now a lot of people are re-examining that.”
Easley’s behind-the-scenes governing style during his eight years as governor largely served him well.
He won praise for legislative victories that expanded his nationally recognized public school reforms such as free preschool for at-risk 4-year-olds and two-year college degrees for teenagers before they leave high school. He also helped pass a state lottery with profits going to education.
“It’s important for the current chroniclers of the day, including the media, that they will provide a fair and balanced view of his record,” said Eddie Davis, former president of the North Carolina Association of Educators, the state’s top teacher lobbying group.
But Easley also took heat during his final year in office. He defended his wife’s expensive taxpayer-funded trips to Europe, got sued over destroyed e-mails in his office and was criticized for failing to fix a tattered mental health treatment system.
“He was in a hole and kept trying to work his way out of it,” said Andy Dedmon of Cleveland County, who was House majority whip during Easley’s first two years as governor.
Republicans have jumped on the allegations, demanding independent investigations and that Mary Easley resign.
Few Democrats have come to the Easleys’ defense. Current Gov. Beverly Perdue, who as lieutenant governor didn’t have a close relationship with Easley, and many legislators are taking a wait-and-see attitude.
“We’ve heard a whole lot of suppositions and what-ifs and what-abouts,” said Senate Majority Leader Tony Rand, D-Cumberland, Easley’s closest ally in the Legislature. “I would hope that people would withhold their judgment on all of this until we know something about this.”
