In 2008, Mark Kleinschmidt voted in favor of allowing Chapel Hill taxpayers' money to fund political campaigns with the idea that "big money" would be kept out of Chapel Hill politics.

Less than a year later, Kleinschmidt decided to take advantage of the very program he voted in favor of and managed to receive $13,000, courtesy of you. What was the catch? Those who opted into the program would be limited to raising $4,500 on their own, not to exceed $20 per donor. How has this "Voter Owned-Elections" concept worked out?

The short answer is it has not.

A special interest group, calling itself "CHC PAC" has managed to illegally sponsor a $2,000 mailer which encourages voters to, "vote for Mark Kleinschmidt." "CHC" is not registered with the N.C. or federal PAC database and has thus managed to singlehandedly violate a multitude of N.C. election and campaign finance laws while conducting their activities.

Evaluating the magnitude of this mailer, it is hard to believe there was no cooperation or communication between "CHC" and the Kleinschmidt campaign. As such, do these sorts of activities not undermine the original purpose of "Voter-Owned Elections"? Clearly $2,000 greatly exceeds $20. Even though this $2,000 expenditure was not a formal donation to the Kleinschmidt campaign, it is clear this expenditure has directly benefited Kleinshmidt's tax payer funded campaign.

I encourage my fellow citizens to contact the N.C. State Board of Elections and demand an investigation into "CHC PAC" and their illicit activities.

Kendall Law

Chapel Hill

Editor's note: Kleinschmidt has said he had no involvement with the CHC flier.