Half a million dollars in gambling, marijuana campaign donations flowed to lawmakers considering related votes – Medical Marijuana Program Connection

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 ’d never 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…