State government watchdogs sniff around for fraud, waste and abuse of public resources.

But not State Auditor Les Merritt.

He would rather use state resources for political purposes.

The State Auditor's Office has visited the North Carolina Democratic Party website 217 times in the past six months. In the past two weeks alone, Merritt's office has clicked on our website five times.

Like most watchdogs, Merritt is loyal. His state computers have logged on to our website more than the Democratic National Committee, the Obama campaign and the Clinton campaign combined.

More traffic comes from the State Auditor's office, a public agency funded by public tax dollars, than from the entire city of Fayetteville or state of Kentucky.

Merritt's tenacity in using state resources for political purposes knows no bounds.

The State Auditor's Office visits three or more pages when monitoring our site, with the main interest being in content that could affect Mr. Merritt's chances of re-election. "Beth Wood fundraising" and "Beth Wood democrat" were among the Google searches used to connect to our website.

Mr. Merritt also uses state resources to check out BlueNC, a liberal blog, about 15 times in the past six months and NCGOP once.

Les Merritt: a state government watchdog or a dog that won't hunt?

Merritt By the Numbers:

• 217 - the number of times the State Auditor's Office used a state computer to visit our website
• 44 - the number of times the State Auditor's Office checked out Democratic rival Beth Wood on our website
• 37th - the State Auditor's Office's rank among visitors to our website
• 27 - number of visits to links about our Sanford-Hunt Dinner
• 41 - the number of times the highest resolution monitor in the State Auditor's Office has visited our website

Click here for documentation.

Additional documentation is available upon request.