Half a million dollars in gambling, marijuana campaign donations flowed to lawmakers considering related votes
Donors tied to gambling and marijuana businesses gave North Carolina lawmakers more than $500,000 during the first six months of the year as the General Assembly weighed proposals to expand each industry, according to a new analysis by a campaign finance watchdog.
Most of that money came from out of state, according to Bob Hall, a former executive director for Democracy North Carolina who analyzes North Carolina campaign donations. Many of the donations came from donors who have been sanctioned in the past for questionable operations or from people who hadn’t donated to a North Carolina state legislator’s campaign before last year.
“Suddenly, they’re writing checks for $2,000 or $5,000 to a legislator,” Hall said in his report. “It looks like a lobbyist or somebody told them that this is a pay-to-play state — ‘You need to put in the money if you want your bill passed this year or next.’”
The $530,650 Hall cataloged in his report is in addition to $885,000 in video poker industry donations that Hall laid out in May as part of a complaint he filed with the State Board of Elections. Those donations came between 2019 and 2022, with nearly $100,000 of Hall’s total arriving after last November’s legislative elections, suggesting donors’ interest beyond helping certain lawmakers win elections.
Hall said he also forwarded his new analysis, covering the first six months of 2023, to the State Board of Elections. The session has featured a now-stalled proposal to legalize medical marijuana in the state, a successful push to legalize mobile sports betting and an ongoing effort to legalize new casinos and video lottery terminals.
Any investigation the elections board might undertake would proceed in secret under a law the General Assembly passed years ago to govern those inquiries, and a board spokesman declined to comment on Hall’s analysis
Lobbying on gambling and marijuana proposals has been aggressive this legislative session. Hall said 38 gambling-related businesses and associations are paying 71 different lobbyists. Most of those businesses and groups are based outside the state, Hall said, based on paperwork filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State. Thirteen pro-marijuana groups registered 29 lobbyists for the session, Hall said.
North Carolina campaign finance laws prohibit lobbyists from delivering or making campaign donations to state lawmakers at any time, and it forbids lobbyist principals — typically a designee for a company or another entity that hires a lobbyist — from donating during the legislative session. But the law doesn’t prohibit people with business before the General Assembly from donating, including executives at a company that employs a lobbyist, so long as that executive is not listed as the company’s lobbyist principal.
State law allows even lobbyist principals to donate just before a legislative session, and it’s common for lawmakers to hold fundraisers in the days before a session begins. Many of the donations Hall cataloged are dated shortly before the current legislative session began in January, though others came during session.
In his release, Hall criticized lawmakers accepting industry money and profiled a “dismal dozen” donors.
One of those donors is Robert Huckabee III, the head of a video lottery company called Southland Gaming. Huckabee’s campaign donations in the early 2000’s figured prominently in a State Board of Elections complaint Hall filed at the time that helped kick off a wider investigation that led to the federal prosecution of then-Speaker of the House Jim Black.
Black was eventually convicted of other crimes. Huckabee himself wasn’t charged. In recent years Huckabee began giving heavily again to North Carolina political campaigns. And Hall logged $37,000 in donations over the last six months.
Huckabee didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment. Hall included other donations Huckabee made in 2022 as part of a State Board of Elections complaint filed in May. Huckabee told WRAL News when that report was filed that he didn’t do anything wrong in 2002 or now and said he contributed to political campaigns to support a push to legalize and regulate video poker machines, which state lawmakers have tried to outlaw for decades with limited success.
Hall also noted donations from executives at Accel Entertainment, a video gambling company recently fined $1 million as part of a settlement over alleged violations of Illinois state law. The company declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
“It’s hard to understand why legislative leaders would want to help these shady characters, particularly in the gambling industry, until you see all the money they give politicians,” Hall said in his report.
Hall noted some bipartisan giving but said the top campaign recipients are all key members of the Republican Party’s legislative supermajority, including state Rep. Jason Saine, who Hall said raised $42,200. Saine, R-Lincoln, has been a vocal supporter for changing the state’s gambling laws for some time, and he sponsored legislation opening the state to legal sports gambling both this year and last year.
“I think it’s been clear where I’ve been, particularly on gambling issues in the past,” Saine said “And I’ve been open to medical cannabis as something to be discussed. … I don’t think anyone should be surprised.”
Senate budget writer Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, raised nearly $35,000 in Hall’s tally, and House Majority Leader John Bell, R-Wayne, raised $29,000. Jackson said the donations won’t sway his vote. Bell declined comment Tuesday, saying he had not seen Hall’s report.
Hall noted that his analysis covers only reported donations over the first six months of 2023, not any of the legal dark money that may be used to fund election year ads.
“There are so many wealthy interests involved in this all-out push for legalization, and so many secretive ways to move political money,” Hall said. “I’m just showing you a slice here.”
