Marcum Accuses Opponent of Violations

As of Tuesday, April 24, 2012

State Senate candidate John Marcum has filed a complaint with the State Board of Elections alleging campaign law violations by Sen. Jerry Tillman, of Randolph County.

Marcum, a Pinehurst Republican, is one of two challengers opposing Tillman in a May 8 GOP primary for Senate District 29. No Democrat filed for the race, effectively making the winner next month the senator for the newly drawn district.

In the complaint filed Friday, Marcum alleges that Tillman’s signs were placed along state highways in Randolph and Moore Counties about a week before they were allowed, that some of his campaign literature violates state law because the “paid for” attribution is too small and that a billboard for Tillman on N.C. 211 lacks proper campaign disclosure.

“It is difficult enough for newcomers to compete with long-term incumbents and their large funding, without such violations also being used to their advantage, campaign after campaign,” Marcum said in his complaint to the state, pointing out that Tillman has been fined at least twice in the past for campaign finance violations.

Tillman on Monday acknowledged that some of his volunteers put out signs on state roads a week before they were permitted and that he had them removed when informed that it was too early. He said the campaign will no longer use the fliers in question.

He said his campaign did not pay for the billboard on N.C. 211 between Seven Lakes and Pinehurst. He said it could be a citizens group or some other political action committee.

“I don’t have a clue where that came from,” Tillman said. “My campaign did not do it. It was news to me. It was a surprise. If we are out of compliance, we will address it. We want to be in compliance.”

Marcum said that Tillman was told to remove the signs after Marcus complained to the Moore County Board of Elections about the road signs being put out a week early.

“Of course, they were put back up the next week, and in this process he gained an illegal week of advertising against his opponents during this short campaign,” Marcum said in the state complaint.

Moore County Elections Director Glenda Clendenin confirmed that Tillman’s campaign was contacted and told to remove the signs from state-maintained roads after Marcum complained. Under state law, signs can be placed 30 days prior to the start of one-stop voting, which was March 20, she said. Most towns allow campaign signs 30 days prior to the election, which was April 9.

Marcum contends in the complaint that Tillman distributed thousands of campaign fliers bearing a “paid for” attribution that is a violation of campaign law because it is too small.

“The attributions almost require a magnifying glass to read,” he said in the complaint. “There are thousands of copies still on tables at political offices and other locations. Please require that these be destroyed with appropriate censure and penalty to Tillman’s campaign.”

Tillman said he was unaware that the font was too small until he was contacted by the State Board of Elections. He said it would be nearly impossible to retrieve them now.

“We have used the same size for 10 years,” he said. “We will not use those cards anymore unless we can get them reprinted, which is unlikely. These cards are everywhere. I don’t know where they all are now.”

Marcum said in the complaint that the billboard for Tillman on N.C. 211 between Seven Lakes and Pinehurst “does not have an explicit campaign attribution to Tillman but has an apparent list of corporate donors in small print at the bottom. There is no report in the campaign records of a PAC bearing these names. Please investigate the source and proper attribution, and have the billboard removed if appropriate.”

He also raised questions about Tillman’s campaign signs being affixed to the metal supports of county and state highway road signs.

“These campaign signs appear to be either fastened directly to the metal stakes or lean against them standing on a small wooden stake,” the complaint says. “Please review the applicable law and determine whether these signs should be removed.”

Marcum contends that this is not the first time Tillman has been found in violation of campaign election laws and fined.

“Because of this poor start to his current campaign, we have examined your records of his previous campaigns and have found previous violations involving fines,” Marcum’s complaint says. “One involved a failure to timely disclose, just prior to the election, six separate corporate donations of $1,000 each.”

According to state campaign finance records, the state fined Tillman $500 on Oct. 20, 2010, for failing to report the contributions within the required 48-hour time period after they were received. His campaign was also fined $500 on Feb. 28, 2011, for failing to report a $1,000 contribution with the 48-hour time period.

Tillman said his campaign missed that deadline by a few hours and that his campaign paid the two fines.

Marcum added that there have been “numerous examples of violations not rising to the level of a fine or formal complaint” in the past.

“Accordingly, I would appreciate your reviewing all state BOE (Board of Elections) records, together with the records of the Randolph and Montgomery County BOEs, and send us the results of all such incidents as soon as possible,” he wrote in the complaint. “I’m sure you will agree that a long-term senator with numerous campaigns under his belt should be knowledgeable of campaign law requirements. Given that background and his record of violations, it seems that Tillman has little respect for the BOE requirements.”

Tillman responded, “What this sounds like to me is desperate tactics.”

Contact David Sinclair at (910) 693-2462 or dsinclair@thepilot.com

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cmptrepair 1 year ago

no biggy. tillman is the man for all criminals except those without art pope's money. pope has 500 spending money in all four pockets. chump change. well we know he is above the law going back into the general assembly, so don't be surprised by the way he votes. next time he will be too old to run. same old same old carolina politics. go figure why all those who work week to week want him in office? coupon millionaires perhaps,.

Bflat 1 year ago

Look at who supports him and therein is the problem when people keep voting in the same ole carreer politicians. We now have a higher gas tax, and next we will get fracking that will destroy our water supplies, and a politician that thinks he is above the law and can do anything with a whole string of campaign violations. He gets bailed out by those that have "self interests." Vote him in and get the same ole good boys politics that destroys our county and state. Try talking to some people up in Randolph County and you will find out they are tired of Tillman.

cmptrepair 1 year ago

big money from the liquor and wine folks ;-)"

have a drink or two or three on tillman

http://www.votesmart.org/candidate/campaign-finance/41075/jerry-tillman

hes the man with a plan and plenty of bank and energy support. way to go tillman, should we look forward to new hikes in interest rates and power bills?

PBinNC 1 year ago

Humbly suggest Marcum spend some time on the issues. A lot of this sounds like a petulant fifth grader. I don't think the current legislature has done anything worthwhile for NC, and don't expect this election to make any difference unless all of them are thrown out..something not possible.

phstresident 1 year ago

Vote for none of the above!

cmptrepair 1 year ago

vote for tommy davis. independent thinker, doesn't or hasn't taken pac money or special interest money. doesn't litter the roads with clutter, and is a straight shooter when listening to others views on topics of interest to Moore and Randolph county citizens. he's my choice.

AFCHIEF 1 year ago

Not voting for Tommy Davis, aka TODA. He is a liberal and Marcum is nothing but a blowhard who wants to stir up the pot in a negative manner in Pinehurst

JD 1 year ago

I would rather vote the person who is not a career politician and who is also against Fracking. Why does Tillman want to poison the ground water of his constituents? Oh wait he doesn't work for us, it's for his lobby friends. Tommy at least represents working people. Some of these tea party wannabe patriots hiding in conservative clothing are just being hateful.

Bflat 1 year ago

The reason we have so many problems in government is because people keep electing the same ole politicians that do whatever they want to. Some of them have repeated election campaign violations not just on signs but on reporting funding. (Excuses used: didn't know, missed deadline by a couple of hours, someone else put up signs, and the list goes on and on)

If these repeat offenders get away with criminal acts, you can be sure this continues during the ongoing terms of office. Big money is pumped into campaign by special interest groups who will expect favors in return that are not always in the best interests of Moore County and its citizens. Yet, people line up like sheep and vote mindlessly for those crooks.

The wasteful spending is about to bankrupt this State and when cuts become necessary it affects many people in a negative way but nothing is done to solve the reason why it became that way in the first place. Too many "do nothing" agencies and employees suck the life out of state funds and budgets, too many school management drawing top salaries, and too much wasteful spending in many areas of government are going to bankrupt this State.

There are serious issues to be addressed concerning Environment and protecting our water supplies. We have other serious concerns about puppy mills in our state that needs to be addressed but other politicians have not followed through on that. Our state has a higher gas tax than surrounding states. It needs to be lowered because families and businesses are struggling plus schools have trouble because of gas costs cutting into its budget.

Tommy Davis will address all the issues. He is a Moore County native with the important credentials needed to carry the County forward and to solve critical issues in the State.

JoeGarrison 1 year ago

John Marcum on April 23, 2012 at 7:36 pm Hi Brant,

"Thanks for your quick action in publishing our BOE complaint this weekend. It raises serious concerns about Tillman’s long history of abuse of campaign laws. I don’t know who your “loyal reader” is since he was unwilling to identify himself. Most newspapers do not publish or comment on such unattributed comments and leave them in the blog/comment space where authentication is not required. Your reader may be unaware that for state campaigns such as mine, State G. S. 136-32 specifies signs may be placed along state controlled highways 30 days before the start of one stop voting–in the latter part of March. Due to a late start we didn’t even receive our signs until April 10. We started putting out a few signs along the state arteries beginning around around April 15. Then late last week we went back and placed some signs on the town streets, including some in Southern Pines, and there were other candidate’s signs already there. County and municipal regs are 30 days or more as far as I know. Apparently Southern Pines has adopted an ordnance which is more restrictive than the other towns in Moore County. So I’m afraid we jumped the gun there by a few days and will correct it. If any other readers notice problems, please call or email me directly at jmarcum@nc.rr.com. Thanks"

So John Marcum admits his signs in SP was a violation. Sounds like Mr. Marcum needs to worry about campaigning and stop whining. This is a post from Marcum on the www.dailyhaymaker.com blog.

Posted this the other day but hey it still works:)

JoeGarrison 1 year ago

@cmptrepair- I think "straight shooter" given the recent controversy with Tommy was a poor choice of words:)

cmptrepair 1 year ago

you must not have attended the republican ladies luncheon at the pinehurst members club. no you didn't. didn't hear tommy speak either.

"straight shooter" - a straight shooter (American & Australian) someone who you can trust because they are very honest He'll mean what he says - he's a straight shooter. (American) See also: straight http://idioms.thefreedictionary.com/a+straight+shooter

not too smart are you joegarrison. that's why tommy is running and your driving around the county sticking up road clutter. you go joe. you'll be somebody one day.

JoeGarrison 1 year ago

Actually I haven't been putting up signs except the vote for Amendment one signs:) As for being somebody one day, well I am somebody, I'm a conservative, blessed with a great job, a wonderful wife and son and Yorkie. And again if you would actually read the posts if there was a more conservative candidate in the race I would vote for them over Tillman, but considering the alternative he is the only choice.

emb6683 1 year ago

@cmptrepair- I think "straight shooter" given the recent controversy with Tommy was a poor choice of words:)

Actually, I got a chuckle out of that response.

Bflat 1 year ago

It is not surprising that certain people support a candidate that violates campaign rules & laws and that has a string of election funds violations. What else does Tillman do wrong? Oh yes, he wants to make elections of Judges to be partisan. Since when does political party affiliate affect Judges? Next will come people filing lawsuits that they wanted a Republican Judge and the Democrat Judge did wrong handling a case. We have more serious issues than worrying about whether a Judge is Republican or Democrat, and Tillman's sponsorship of a bill like that just wastes time. Tillman is backed by a lot of sellf interest groups, so if you want fracking and the future loss of our water supplies he's your man. How about higher insurance rates...I see insurance companies pumping money into his campaign...also there's the gas tax that was increased and he did nothing about that. Marcum's business experience is mostly overseas and he ran 2x for Mayor in Pinehurst and lost, so his own Town/Village didn't support him.

cmptrepair 1 year ago

tommy davis is a straight shooter, he along with Rick Rhyne, Ronnie Davis, Glenn Wilson won the regional's for law enforcement competition for 5 years straight-shooting. thanks for the chuckle and joegrarrisons snide remarks from a good christian boy.

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