The North Carolina Democratic Party today filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Office of the Inspector General to obtain a detailed list of Chairman Kevin Martin’s recent travel.

The request comes in the wake of numerous news reports that Chairman Martin may be using public funds and his position as Chairman of a large government agency to seek elected office in North Carolina.

“Members of Congress who are running for office are closely regulated to ensure that they are not campaigning on the taxpayer dollar – why shouldn’t Kevin Martin be held to the same standard?” said NCDP Chair Jerry Meek.

“Our citizens deserve to know whether their taxpayer dollars are being used for Kevin Martin’s political gain,” Meek said.

Mr. Martin’s end game of elected office has been widely reported. The New York Times (11/24/07) wrote that Martin is “widely expected to run for office someday in his native North Carolina,” and Roll Call Newspaper (12/20/07) reported that his “political ambition is no secret.”

Chairman Martin has a long history within the Republican Party. He served as lawyer on Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation team and was a key player in the 2000 Bush-Gore election recount where many African American votes were systematically discounted. Martin also served as deputy general counsel for the Bush 2000 campaign; and led the transition team's effort to pick new FCC Commissioners, including himself on the short list of potential nominees.

“Mr. Martin has been a longtime crony of the conservative movement and the Bush Administration,” Meek said. “We are concerned this conservative operative may be misallocating public funds to seek higher office and we want to get to the bottom of it.”

In the past month, the U.S. Congress has also launched an investigation into Mr. Martin’s stewardship of his agency. Other FCC Commissioners have commented that Martin has failed to inform them or the public of proposed agenda items and rules, creating an agency that lacks transparency, arrives at predetermined conclusions and completely disregards public commentary.