From: Tom West
Sent: Wed, May 22, 2013 6:23:06 PM
Subject: Randy Voller asked about $3,327 in charges for Vegas trip
Looks like our Pittsboro mayor is having money problems AGAIN.
http://www.journalnow.com/news/state_region/article_cd650636-c285-11e2-9c2f-001a4bcf6878.html
Records obtained by The Associated Press show state Democratic Chairman Randy Voller made $3,327 in charges to Southwest Airlines and the Wynn Las Vegas Hotel on an American Express Business Gold Card embossed with his name and that of the N.C. Democratic Party. He said he’s paid off the balance in full.
Voller, a Pittsboro real estate developer with a recent history of financial problems, had asked for the card shortly after he was narrowly elected as chairman in February.
What Voller says he didn’t know was that the business card was backed by the personal credit of then-Interim Executive Director Tammy Brunner.
In an interview with AP, Voller said he believes a portion of the Vegas charges, including a $557 dinner at a restaurant within the casino, were justified because he asked friends from across the country to give to the party and was therefore networking with potential political donors. He was also accompanied by Jim Neal, a Chapel Hill Democrat and friend hired as a national fundraising consultant.
After questions arose about the trip, Voller said he used personal funds to pay off the entire $5,434 balance on the credit card on May 6. He still plans to list a portion of his costs for the Las Vegas trip as an in-kind donation from himself on the party’s campaign finance disclosure report to the N.C. Board of Elections.
“There were no party funds expended on any of that,” Voller, 44, said of the Vegas trip. “I have fixed the situation.”
The credit card charges are the latest dust-up for Voller, who the AP reported in February had $286,000 in liens filed against him by the state of North Carolina and IRS for back taxes and penalties.
He has made an annual March Madness trip for more than a decade to meet with friends from his time as a student at basketball-crazed Indiana University, he said.
Note that Voller offered no proof of this assertion.