news-record.com

Pat McCrory, a Republican and former Charlotte mayor who has all but announced a 2012 bid for governor, said Monday he is not worried about the State Board of Elections review of his 2008 gubernatorial campaign finances.

“They haven’t told us of any unlawful action in the complaint,” McCrory told me after he spoke at the N.C. Farm Bureau’s annual meeting. “I expect it to be resolved quickly if they do it right.”

McCrory questioned why the state board was taking up complaints that were filed nearly two years ago by the state Democratic Party. The review comes just after three people associated with Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue’s campaign were indicted for actions related to the 2008 campaign last week.

“I’ve gotten calls from some of my supporters that they’re having to sign affidavits that they in fact wrote these checks when there was never any suspicion that they didn’t,” McCrory said.

You can listen to my four minutes of conversation with McCrory about the SBOE conversation by clicking on the player below.

Update: I asked McCrory's "why now" question to Gary Bartlett, director of the State Board of Elections. His reply via e-mail was this:

The State Board by unanimous vote directed staff to complete the inquiry into the Andrew Whalen complaints against Pat McCrory by December 21, 2011, so to resolve outstanding issues and complete before filing begins. Their directive came before the indictments. As you are aware, between high level investigations and audits, Campaign Finance has a tremendous workload and these complaints on their face did not appear to go to a high enough level to supplant work being performed.