Sen. Jim Perry: Gamblin’ Man
As if we needed another example of how big money from special interests rules the day — every day — in the North Carolina General Assembly.
Perry, the state Senate majority whip has been identified as the “leader” in the effort to bring sports gambling to North Carolina. Perry’s efforts have paid off well for him AND apparently many of his Jones Street colleagues.
Robert Willenborg, CEO of Illinois-based J&J Gaming Ventures, has blessed Perry with $10,600 cash. Other lucky NCGA beneficiaries of Willenborg’s generosity include:
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Another very generous dude in the gaming industry is Wilmington-based Bobby Huckabee, head of Southland Gaming of the Virgin Islands.
Huckabee has given Perry $11,200. Huckabee’s wealth got spread around to several other of Perry’s colleagues in the legislature:
Sports wagering passed the Senate this week. Let’s look at how everyone voted, shall we?:
Of course, the House needs to be included on this:
*I$n’t democracy, um, GRAND ???*
You might not like gambling, but it should be every individual’s right to choose. We are not sheep and we make our own decisions. I like sports betting, as do most other young republicans. Just FYI, neither J and J gaming or Bobby Huckabee are in the sports betting business.
Moffitt carried the bill in the Senate for Chairman Saine. Perry didn’t even file a bill for it this year and then he hurt the industry by demanding the elimination of promotional bet deduction and higher taxes of 18%. (Even Virginia is only 15%) He is supposed to be a business guy, well that seems anti business to me. Some how, the Senate thinks they own decisions about taxes in NC.
Saine worked his rear off to get Sports Betting passed and he deserves the credit. He is much more reasonable and easier to get in to see about issues. Saine has a better personality than Perry and is more popular with folks at the General Assembly. Senators always get too much credit on issues. It is also BS that campaign money just flows to some of the their Chairs, like Finance, because all of the bills have to go through that committee.
House members have to work 2-3 times as hard to raise money. Perry would be an average member in the House. When Saine’s bill got to the Senate, Perry wouldn’t even meet with some of the industry people. He told them he had learned about it last session and did not have any questions. When some did get meetings, he kept his computer out and would run a spreadsheet on their assumptions instead of listening to them. He is a grumpy old dude and needs to retire.
Jim Perry has to be one of the biggest whores for the special interests in the General Assembly. For him, it is all about the Benjamins, and this is hardly the only issue where that is the case.
Perry was one of the ringleaders pushing the Obamacare Medicaid expansion, something Republican activists and voters were dead set against. But if you look at his campaign reports, it is easy to see why Perry was so active on the leftwing side of this issue. He was bought and paid for by Big Medicine. He arrogantly sold out his constituents to this special interest group for money.
Then there is last year’s NC Green New Deal, HB951, being pusihed by the very “woke” energy monopoly Duke Energy and by the wind and solar grifters. Again, Jim Perry was their whore, taking in their money and doing their bidding, but it was his constituents who got screwed, with a law already giving electric customers rate hikes, and certain to go much, much higher as this “green energy” boondoggle progresses.
The list could go on.
Jim Perry is such a prostitute for the special interests, he ought to mount a red light above his legislative office door. Sadly there are too many special interest Republicans like him in the General Assembly. They all need primaries to replace them with principled legislators.
This is nothing but legalized bribery. Republicans are even better at it than the Democrats. A sad day for North Carolina.