NC governor’s race: Latest on Robinson staff losses; DHHS meets with Balanced Nutrition
Welcome to the governor's race edition of our Under the Dome politics newsletter. I'm Dawn Vaughan, The News & Observer's Capitol bureau chief.
Within the past week, the Republican candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, has lost most of his campaign staff and half of his staff in the lieutenant governor's office in the wake of allegations that Robinson posted hateful, racist and sexually explicit comments on a pornographic website, including referring to himself as a "Black NAZI."
Robinson is running for governor against Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.
As of Friday evening, Robinson had not sued CNN, which broke the story , though he denies the report and announced he hired a law firm to look into the possibly of suing. Meanwhile, there has been an exodus of both campaign and lieutenant governor's office staff, including loyalists who had worked for him during his 2020 run for lieutenant governor.
Those who left the lieutenant governor's office are Brian LiVecchi, who has served as Robinson's chief of staff and general counsel; Director of Government Affairs Nathan Lewis; Policy Director Jonathan Harris; and Director of Communications John Wesley Waugh. The only person replaced so far is LiVecchi; his job now belongs to Krishana Polite, who had been the deputy chief of staff.
Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis told reporters this past week that by Friday, Robinson needs to have a "modicum of evidence" and a good attorney to settle the CNN allegations in court, The N&O previously reported.
My colleagues at The State in South Carolina, a fellow McClatchy newspaper, reported that Republican Gov. has also distanced himself from Robinson, and that the Republican Governors Association will no longer be spending any advertising money on Robinson's race.
This week I asked spokespeople for Republican Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore if they are maintaining their endorsements of Robinson, or if they attended a remote meeting about which Robinson posted on social media, in which he says "Now is not the time for intra-party squabbling and nonsense." I have not received a response from either Berger's or Moore's office.
DHHS meets with Balanced Nutrition
I've written extensively about the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services' ongoing scrutiny of the since-closed nonprofit run by Yolanda Hill, Robinson's wife. I have an update on my reporting about Balanced Nutrition.
In July, the state ordered Balanced Nutrition to pay back more than $132,000 in disallowed expenses. And earlier this month, I broke the news that the federal government may also be looking into the nonprofit . The Southeast Regional Office of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food and Nutrition Service had asked the state "to provide documentation associated with the Notice of Serious Deficiency and the OIG (Office of Inspector General) complaint received related to Balanced Nutrition, Inc."
Much of the interaction between Balanced Nutrition and N.C. DHHS this year has been about meetings, documents and attorney letters. The state agency has confirmed it held a "scheduled informal conference" meeting with Balanced Nutrition in Raleigh on Sept. 16. Now DHHS is reviewing additional documentation from Balanced Nutrition, a DHHS spokesperson told me, though the agency didn't say what that documentation entails.
A record of those at the meeting show DHHS staff, Hill, and lawyers from both sides were there.
