A liberal advocacy group in North Carolina has filed a formal ethics complaint against Governor Pat McCrory. Progress NC is accusing the governor of failing to disclose financial ties to corporations. It’s the latest, and most formal, in a series of accusations from the group.
As its name suggests Progress NC, and it’s campaign arm Progress NC Action, pushes Democratic candidates and causes. The group has hounded the governor for conflicts of interest since before he took office. It started a website calling him “Pay To Play Pat” and it’s accused the governor of being a “puppet” of his former budget director, major Republican donor Art Pope.
The latest is this week’s ethics complaint, centered on an Associated Press story published in December.
It alleges that the governor failed to report he was a director of mortgage company Tree.com, as detailed in the AP story, as well as that he held stock in his former employer, Duke Energy.
But, the governor states his affiliation to Tree.com in another part of the form—a form the ethics board later changed, calling it confusing.
McCrory also had announced publicly that he held Duke stock, and sold it before he filled out the form.
The governor has denied any wrongdoing, and called the AP story “malicious.”
