LOD: McCrory’s Sweepstakes Windfall

New research by Democracy North Carolina reveals more ties between Gov. Pat McCrory’s 2012 election campaign and the corruption scandal that caused Lt. Gov. Jennifer Carroll of Florida to resign two weeks ago. Last week, Gov. McCrory said $8,000 was being sent to a Durham charity to purge his campaign account of the $8,000 donated by Chase E. Burns and his wife Kristin, who were both arrested for racketeering and conspiracy related to a multi-state gambling operation based in Florida. Our earlier research shows that Burns was the single biggest donor to General Assembly candidates in 2012. Now it turns out the McCrory campaign took in another $8,000 from a second man arrested in the Florida scandal and his wife, as part of at least $70,000 that major donors tied to sweepstakes gambling gave McCrory in 2012. A law/lobbying firm representing a sweepstakes company may be in the middle of many of these donations, just as McCrory’s old law/lobbying firm was in the middle of the Burns donations. The Associated Press says another sweepstakes gambling scandal in Ohio also involved political donors in North Carolina. What will come out next?