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Note: Follow Wednesday's hearings live online at this Capital Beat blog post. You can also see video at the News & Observer.

RALEIGH — So what, and who, should we believe?

On Monday, McQueen Campbell testified under oath to the State Board of Elections that then-Gov. Mike Easley told him to bill about $11,000 in home repairs as airplane flights, which would have been a lie and a violation of campaign finance laws.

On Wednesday, Easley contradicted his friend, a businessman and campaign aide.

“There was never any conversation with him or me where he could imply, read my mind, or anything else that I wanted him to submit any bogus invoice,” Easley said.

These differing stories are not the only issue the board is probing. But after three days of hearings, including nearly five hours of testimony from Easley himself Wednesday, the two versions of events provide one of the most stark conflicts the board must resolve.

“Someone is probably not telling the truth,” said board Chairman Larry Leake, summing up what he could tell after three days.

The broader question at issue is whether Easley’s campaign and the Democratic Party colluded to evade campaign finance laws or merely used the rules in place to their fullest extent.

Other questions are swirling around Easley. A grand jury is probing multiple incidents associated with his administration, from how his wife landed a high-paying job at N.C. State to the details of a complex land deal in a coastal community.

But Wednesday, Easley focused on questions raised by the state’s campaign finance regulators, taking full advantage of his first chance at a public forum to defend his honor.

“Gov. Easley was very convincing today,” said Gary Pearce, a longtime Democratic strategist who worked for former Gov. Jim Hunt. “You see why he was elected to statewide office and others weren’t.”

In fact, Easley seemed every bit the affable, considerate, aw-shucks good-ol’-boy he liked to portray in office as he sat for hours of questions. He entered the room greeting lawyers, journalists and other onlookers by name, much as if he had just stopped by to pitch his latest policy idea.

“Before we go any further, I do want to say I appreciate the board serving,” Easley said as he settled into his seat. “I know it’s an inconvenience and I know it doesn’t pay that well. But I do hope since I had the privilege of appointing some of you on to say thank you for the service.”

Three current board members — including Leake, a Democrat, and Greensboro Republican Charles Winfree — were originally Easley appointees.

At some points, Easley fell into what sounded like campaign rhetoric, railing about how paying for prekindergarten and creating jobs was more pressing than tending to campaign details.

Other times, Easley was blunt, as when answering questions about Campbell’s testimony. The 38-year-old businessman told the board that he had twice arranged for repairs to Easley’s private home in Raleigh. But instead of paying for those repairs outright, Campbell said Easley told him to bill the campaign for flight time.

Easley denied that.

And he said that if Campbell needed payment for thousands of dollars worth of apparently unpaid but legitimate flight-time charges, he should have billed the campaign. Leake asked Easley how Campbell would have known that.

“He’s not an imbecile, and I’m sure it’s been explained to him, and I’m sure he knows he has to bill the campaign,” Easley said.

At other times, Easley fell back on his penchant for telling stories to answer questions. For example, the board has looked into a lease deal for a GMC Yukon that Easley obtained from Fayetteville car dealer Robert Bleecker. That deal apparently didn’t require Easley to make regular payments or pay the taxes on the car.

Leake asked Easley if Bleecker had ever called to collect. No, Easley said, he usually dealt with others at the dealership about the car.

“The last time I talked to Mr. Bleecker, I was vacuuming out my fireplace and the vacuum cleaner came unhooked and all the dust started blowing out the back and I had to hang up, and we didn’t discuss the car at all,” Easley said.

There were times when Easley simply said he didn’t know about the campaign fundraising details the board asked about. One of the major questions in the hearing revolves around whether the Easley campaign and state Democratic Party officials too closely coordinated their fundraising.

“We believe we have identified an account referred to by the North Carolina Democratic Party as the governor’s account. You have any idea what that is?” Leake asked, proffering documents that outlined fundraising strategies.

Easley said he wasn’t sure, but that it might have been a way to make sure he was meeting his fundraising obligations for collaborative campaign efforts.

“I’m not trying to be evasive; I just don’t know a lot of this campaign stuff,” Easley said under questioning from Republican board member Bill Peaslee. When he ran in 2000, Easley said, he was still working as attorney general. In 2004, he was busy as the sitting governor.

“Where was your campaign headquarters?” Peaslee asked at one point.

“I don’t know,” Easley replied.

Is it possible a candidate didn’t know where his re-election campaign headquarters were?

“I can believe it,” Pearce said. “A candidate’s job is to get votes, not run the campaign. In ’96 when Hunt was running for governor, I’m not sure he ever went to the headquarters. We wouldn’t have wanted him there.”

Leake said the board will try to reach a decision on the issues today. It must decide whether to clear the campaign of wrongdoing or levy a fine. The board also has the option of referring the case to state and federal prosecutors.

In the end, board members said Wednesday, that decision comes down to who they believe.

“People’s memories fade as the years go by and people see things from different perspectives, and somewhere amongst it all is what really happened,” Peaslee said at one point in the hearing. He added later, “We’re trying to reconcile all the different things people are telling us.”

Contact Mark Binker at (919) 832-5549 or mark.binker@news-record.com