The two Republicans vying to be NC auditor on how they would approach the job

After none of the Republicans who ran for state auditor earlier this year earned enough votes to win the primary outright, the top two vote-getters will face off against each other in a runoff next week.

GOP voters will choose between Jack Clark and Dave Boliek in Tuesday’s second primary, determining which candidate will run in November against Auditor Jessica Holmes, the Democratic incumbent appointed last year by Gov. Roy Cooper.

Republicans haven’t occupied the office since 2009, when longtime Auditor Beth Wood began her 15-year tenure as North Carolina’s top government watchdog. (Wood resigned in December after pleading guilty to misusing her state-assigned car for private use. She had previously pleaded guilty to a hit-and-run charge that stemmed from a crash in downtown Raleigh.)

Clark is a certified public accountant and research assistant for a budget chair in the N.C. House. Boliek is an attorney and small business owner who has served on the UNC-Chapel Hill Board of Trustees since 2019, including as the board’s chair.

The auditor, one of 10 statewide elected officeholders who serves on the Council of State, is responsible for keeping track of how taxpayer money is being spent and identifying waste or fraud through audits and investigations. The auditor’s office conducts oversight of spending across all levels of government, from executive branch agencies and departments, to local governments at the county and municipal levels.

Ahead of the May 14 runoff, The News & Observer spoke with Clark and Boliek about their platforms and how they would approach the job of auditor, what distinguishes them from each other, and what their pitch has been to GOP voters.

Jack Clark

Clark, the first-place finisher in the March primary, hasn’t held any prior elected office. He told The N&O he decided to run for auditor because “auditors don’t usually run for office,” and he believed voters would support a candidate with auditing and accounting experience.

Before joining Rep. Kyle Hall’s staff in January 2023, Clark worked as an external auditor at Grant Thornton, and an internal auditor at Parexel. As a research assistant for Hall, a Stokes County Republican, Clark said he’s seen the legislative budget process up close, and has the experience to audit how taxpayer money is allocated and spent.

As auditor, Clark said he would help set up “controls and procedures to prevent fraud” from happening in the first place. He also said the job of an auditor is similar to the job of a judge, in terms of being “impartial” and “free of bias.”

“Tone at the top is the most important aspect of any company or organization’s culture,” Clark said in an interview. “If the people at the top are telling you to get things done, we don’t care how, or telling you to specifically meet one way or another, that’s going to impact everyone underneath. So, as the (head) of the audit department, I’m going to set the tone that we’re going to find the facts, we’re going to find the truth, we’re not there to push our own personal agenda.”

Clark said that he hasn’t pledged to audit anything in particular while campaigning, because that could make him seem like more of a “combatant than a partner.”

If he were to be elected, Clark said he will keep an open mind in determining where to begin oversight, prioritizing areas or parts of government that have the largest amounts of money and the fewest or least-comprehensive audits.

“I want to be a trusted resource, I want to be trusted by everyone in the state, and if I’m campaigning on pledging certain things, it might hurt that trust,” he said.

Over the last two months, Clark said he’s been focused on trying to engage with grassroots supporters by visiting as many county Republican parties as possible.

It’s difficult to campaign for statewide elected office while working a day job at the General Assembly, but Clark said he works a schedule with reduced hours that allows him to travel to events and do other campaign work during evenings and weekends.

In addition to Hall, Clark said he’s been endorsed by GOP Reps. Jeffrey Elmore, Wayne Sasser, Ray Pickett, Jeff McNeely, Jake Johnson, and the Iredell County Republican Men’s Club.

Dave Boliek

Boliek finished in second place during the March primary, trailing Clark by just 1.14%.

Since then, however, the former UNC Board of Trustees chairman has been endorsed by two of the other four Republicans who ran in the primary: Charles Dingee and Jim Kee. He also has the support of Jeff Tarte, a former state senator and mayor of Cornelius, who also ran in the primary and came in fourth. (Tarte can’t endorse candidates under the rules of the Lake Norman Chamber of Commerce, where he serves as board chair, Boliek said.)

On his campaign website, Boliek also touts endorsements from several key GOP lawmakers, including Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore.

In an interview, Boliek said that between running businesses that included a government contract firm that serviced U.S. Defense Department contracts across the country, serving as a prosecutor in Cumberland County, and chairing the Board of Trustees at UNC, he has wide-ranging experience “of being somebody who can get things done.”

“If voters are looking for somebody to show up at the state auditor’s office with a Ziploc bag full of No. 2 pencils, and a calculator in his or her hand, don’t vote for me,” Boliek said. “I want to go to the office to set a tone, identify the areas where taxpayers can save the most money, and gain the most efficiency.”

Boliek didn’t hesitate to point out areas of government that he believes are long overdue for a thorough audit, identifying the Division of Motor Vehicles as “target No. 1,” saying that the agency has “failed” to serve North Carolinians “efficiently” and with “an eye toward customer service.”

The DMV’s performance has been an ongoing area of concern for the General Assembly as well. In March, lawmakers on a joint transportation oversight committee spent nearly three hours grilling DMV Commissioner Wayne Goodwin and his staff about the agency’s efforts to address staff shortages, reduce long lines and improve the appointment process.

Boliek said the agency’s problems aren’t because of its “hard working” staff, but because of a lack of leadership from the current secretary and the governor’s office.

He identified election integrity as another area where he believed the auditor’s office is “uniquely situated to effectively give the voting public confidence in the way elections are run in our state.”

Boliek outlined a few different actions that could be taken to do that, including the scrubbing of voter rolls to “make sure that they’re accurate,” and a number of different types of audits, covering machines and technology, systems and compliance, and voter tabulation.

Having led and continued to serve on the UNC Board of Trustees, Boliek said the auditor also needs to look at the proliferation of administrators in public schools, universities and state government.

Boliek said it’s important for auditors to not go into an audit “presupposing a result,” but said that “in the same token, someone who has been a leader cannot go into an office without bringing their own personal experiences, and their own personal knowledge.”

“I hear complaint after complaint after complaint about teacher pay, and about classroom size, but when I was in high school, there might have been one or two assistant principals,” Boliek said. “I know, today, you go to one of these high schools, there’s a dozen assistant principals.”

Boliek said his campaign schedule has been packed with events across the state. On a recent weekend, he said, his day started with a breakfast at the Cleveland County Republican Men’s Club, continued with speeches in Waynesville, Gastonia, and Marshville, and concluded with a dinner in Lumberton.

Boliek said that although the auditor’s office has been “an overlooked office that has not garnered much attention” in the past, he’s been encouraged to meet people on the campaign trail who are interested in the race, and what the office does.

“I think that’s good, I think that’s good for the people of North Carolina.”