“Cockroach Theory” and Corruption
The North Carolina Republican Party’s corruption problem is much, much worse than it looks
It’s been a hard year for North Carolina Republicans.
Republicans in our state have lurched from one corruption scandal to the next these past months.
Last week, just as their most recent party chairman, Robin Hayes, was facing sentencing in one of the biggest bribery scandals in North Carolina political history… another one broke. This time, it was David Lewis, one of the most powerful Republican legislators in the state, who was indicted on federal charges for embezzling money.
Unfortunately, there’s a pattern here. But first, let’s take a moment to put Hayes and Lewis into context.
What’s Going On… Just Right Now
1 — Richard Burr, the Republican senior senator from North Carolina, is currently under FBI investigation for insider trading on COVID.
The FBI seized the senator’s phone as evidence in this ongoing investigation. Burr recently stepped down from his chairmanship on the Senate Intelligence Committee as a result.
2 — Robin Hayes somehow avoided jail time for a multimillion-dollar bribery scheme.
Robin Hayes — former Republican Congressman, NCGOP party chairman, and longtime dean of the state party — conspired to bribe the insurance commissioner for a wealthy donor. He was “more than happy to help,” he told the donor, who is now headed to prison — “I’ll get ‘er done.”
3 — Republican Congressman Mark Walker narrowly avoided indictment in the same bribery scandal as Hayes.
Walker received $150,000 in exchange for making personal appeals to the insurance commissioner on the same donor’s behalf. The only reason Walker seems to have escaped charges is because he forwarded all the money to the RNC instead of his own campaign.
4 —The NCGOP literally tried to steal a Congressional election — and almost succeeded.
In North Carolina’s Ninth Congressional district, both the Republican candidate, Mark Harris, and the state Republican party attempted election fraud through ballot harvesting to steal an election. It very nearly worked.
5 — Republican Senate Leader Phil Berger has been improperly “double-dipping” state reimbursements for years and refuses to pay it back.
For years, Phil Berger — the most powerful Republican legislator in North Carolina — has reimbursed himself for his housing in Raleigh both from his campaign funds and from the North Carolina state government. This is plainly against established ethics rules, but no one will make him pay back the $72,000 in taxpayer money he’s taken. (Berger also sold his last townhouse at a tidy profit to a prominent lobbyist with business before the legislature that Berger controls.)
6 — David Lewis just used his campaign account as a piggy bank.
Lewis, also one of the most powerful Republican legislators in Raleigh and a major figure in North Carolina’s gerrymandering saga, stole $65,000 from his campaign committee and put it in his pocket.
None of these facts are in dispute. In fact, a lot of the details are even worse than they sound.
There’s Something Rotten at the NCGOP
The Hayes case is particularly bad for North Carolina Republicans. Hayes has been a major figure of the state party for decades. That he displayed such breezy nonchalance with a proposed bribery scheme — all caught on tape by federal investigators — suggests that it wasn’t his first time having that type of conversation.
The North Carolina Republican Party — the NCGOP — is a professional operation that manages millions of dollars and advises significantly more. Between the nearly 30 staff on their website, hundreds more in county-level parties and closely allied third-party right-wing groups like NC Civitas and the John Locke Foundation (and their funder, Art Pope), the NCGOP is a major organization.
A party chairman does not enter into a multi-million dollar bribery scheme without lots of help.
All of which is to say, the chairman of the party does not enter into a multi-million dollar bribery scheme — which required routing bribes through NCGOP accounts before finally landing at the intended official — without significant and active cooperation of multiple other staff members. This is the sort of thing you need expertise for — the Finance Director and Accounting Director, for example. At a minimum, the Executive Director has to be in on it. Indeed, this is why the NCGOP’s hyper-aggressive executive director, Dallas Woodhouse, stepped down from his position (but escaped charges).
But the David Lewis indictment suggests that rot goes even deeper.
Ex-Representative David Lewis, the architect of the NCGOP’s signature racist and hyperpartisan gerrymander, was not particularly inventive in his plan to embezzle tens of thousands of dollars from his donors. All he did was register routine contributions to the NCGOP, as seen in his Q3 2018 campaign finance report below, but actually deposit the money into a private bank account that he opened with the name “NC GOP Inc.”
The problem with this scheme is that it would be quickly noticed at party headquarters. Most House Republicans are not routinely cutting $50,000 checks to the state party; and of course, Lewis was one of the most prominent members of his caucus. Are we supposed to believe that no one at the NCGOP noticed that the $65,000 above never materialized — even those whose jobs it is to track this stuff?
Even at the NCGOP, you don’t just “lose” $65,000.
The Executive Director, Finance Director, Accounting Director and probably many more would immediately notice the discrepancy between what Lewis reported above and what actually showed up in their bank account.
Yet no one said anything. No red flags went up. No one leaked. No one snitched when a major Republican figure was clearly stealing money from his donors. No one on the outside would even have discovered the scheme if federal investigators hadn’t looked into Lewis’s finances in connection to the Hayes scandal. (One of the donors who has now gone to jail in the Hayes scandal personally “loaned” Lewis $500,000 — and then didn’t collect when the “loan” came due. 🤔) No one at the NCGOP itself said anything.
That doesn’t sound much like a political movement dedicated to leading our state. It sounds more like the mob.
Cockroach Theory
Political corruption is like a cockroach infestation. There is never, ever, just one.
Party operatives who enable, arrange and help conceal large bribes and embezzlement by major party figures don’t do it as a one-off thing. It’s a whole culture; one in which standard rules of right and wrong — let alone laws — are considered suspended.
Would you hire an accountant or employee who had previously been an accomplice to embezzlement? Probably not. Unless, of course, you had something similar in mind.
What else is going on at the NCGOP that we don’t know about — yet?
For obvious reasons, political corruption cases are among the highest-sensitivity cases investigators cover. There is a lot of leeway given, and the standards of evidence are very, very high. Only the most brazen violations — like Hayes’ — are usually pursued.
Which is why, when you see repeated and outrageous violations like those at the NCGOP, it makes you wonder — what else is going on that we don’t know about?
Anything Goes Now
There are likely dozens of people in the NCGOP with knowledge about corruption cases like these, plus others that haven’t yet come to light, who haven’t said anything because they just don’t want to undermine “their team.” This abyss of partisanship is precisely what has led to the “conservative” and “family values” GOP’s full-on embrace of the corrupt, racist and lying philanderer Donald Trump. Anyone at all can see that it’s pure hypocrisy, but Republican diehards don’t care. What matters is that he’s their guy — just like David Lewis and Robin Hayes are their guys too. They’re on the same team, and that’s all that matters.
As long as their “greater good” of fighting Democrats takes priority over simple right and wrong, anything goes.
The NCGOP and its operatives are not stupid or obtuse people. They know perfectly well that hyperpartisan gerrymanders are undemocratic, unfair and make it impossible for the other side to win, no matter how the people vote. They know voter ID is racist. Of course they know their efforts to restrict the franchise disproportionately affect people of color — that, after all, is the whole point. (The NCGOP — in David Lewis’s words, no less — said so in open federal court.)
Lying. Cheating. Stealing. Bribery. And more lies, lies and lies. The North Carolina Republican Party has very publicly shown us who they really are. Its members will seemingly tolerate any sort of behavior in their pursuit of power. This kind of deeply-grooved tribalism is clearly toxic — but it’s also a present reality that we must deal with.
There’s no rehabilitating these people. All we can do is fire them.
This fall, the voters of North Carolina have a choice between a party that is demonstrably rotten to its core, or the adults in the room.
This fall, we have to clean house. Sweep these men out of office. Vote Democratic and put North Carolina on a better path: a more just, compassionate and honest one, where our state can be in the headlines for our achievements again, and not for clownish corruption scandals.
Here’s how you can help today.
The Long Leaf Pine Slate is dedicated to breaking the Republican majority in the North Carolina General Assembly. Learn more about us at LongLeafPineslate.org and follow us on Twitter at @ForwardCarolina.
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