Amid new disclosures, NC Republicans should withdraw their support of Mark Robinson | Editorial

In a fit of MAGA fever, Republican primary voters pushed aside two more-qualified candidates and chose Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson as their party’s gubernatorial nominee.

Now, as Election Day nears, the backers of the broad-shouldered, blunt-spoken Trump acolyte must be wondering, “What have we done?”

As new disclosures are added to the list of problems with his background, Robinson is laying clear claim to being not only unqualified, but as one who should be disqualified to serve as the state’s next governor.

It is at the point where responsible North Carolina Republicans who truly care about the well-being of their state should concede their party’s error and endorse Robinson’s Democratic opponent, state Attorney General Josh Stein.

The latest disclosure of Robinson’s troubling background came last week. The state Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) announced that a Greensboro nonprofit at one time run by Robinson’s wife, Yolanda Hill, must repay $132,000 for disallowed expenses submitted to a federally funded child care meal program. The amount could grow if DHHS expands the scope of its review.

Robinson previously worked for the nonprofit, Balanced Nutrition. So did his son and daughter.

The Associated Press reported that “Balanced Nutrition, funded by taxpayers, has collected roughly $7 million in government funding since 2017, while paying out at least $830,000 in salaries to Hill, Robinson and other members of their family, tax filings and state documents show.”

The disallowed expenses were not merely the result of sloppy paperwork. And the pressure on Balanced Nutrition to justify its billing does not reflect, as the nonprofit’s attorney claims, “political bias in the treatment of Balanced Nutrition and Ms. Hill based on the fact that Ms. Hill’s husband is the Lieutenant Governor.”

The causes of the overcharges are suspicious. In one case, Balanced Nutrition billed the government for more than $10,000 for food and related items it purchased for Gingerbread Learning Academy in Fuquay-Varina, but the child care center says it did not receive any resources from Balanced Nutrition.

Robinson’s wife, who abruptly closed the business in April amid the state inquiries, could meet with DHHS officials to explain why the questioned charges are legitimate, or how they may have been submitted in error. But she has refused the department’s repeated calls for a meeting. Robinson campaign spokesman Mike Lonergan said the DHHS’s review, part of a standard compliance assessment, was “politically motivated,” by a “Democrat-run state agency.”

DHHS may ask the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspector general investigate Balanced Nutrition’s handling of the food program, but a spokesperson for the state agency said, “Given several steps remain in the administrative process, (DHHS) has not yet made a determination as to whether to request an investigation.”

The Balanced Nutrition issue follows upon a recent disclosures that Robinson and his wife ran a Greensboro child care center in the early 2000s that was cited for a raft of violations. Those violations included claims that the center presented falsified documents showing that staff had passed training requirements and criminal background checks. DHHS took no further action after Robinson and his wife gave up the business in 2007.

All this adds to what’s already known about Robinson’s past problems. He has been evicted for nonpayment of rent, declared bankruptcy three times and failed to file federal income taxes for the taxable years 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, and 2002.

Robinson says shirking his obligations is some sort of everyman trait, just the financial bumps and bruises endured by all people of limited means. He says in a recent campaign ad, “I’m running for governor because we deserve to be represented by someone who’s actually lived like us.”

Most people don’t live like Robinson. They pay their rent. They pay their debts. They pay their taxes. And when they are questioned, they come forward. They don’t stonewall or repeatedly walk away from what they owe.

Social conservatives swooned over Robinson because he is adamant about gun rights, opposed to abortion rights, critical of gay and transgender people, skeptical about the Civil Rights Movement and willing to say that public school teachers are indoctrinating children with liberal ideology.

But soothing some people with what they want to hear shouldn’t be enough. Candidates should also be assessed based upon what they’ve done, or haven’t done. Conservatives can no longer pretend that Robinson passes that latter test. He’s not deserving of office or of their vote.

This story was originally published July 30, 2024 at 4:30 AM with the headline "Amid new disclosures, NC Republicans should withdraw their support of Mark Robinson | Editorial."