Senator Tillis’ ties to embattled Postal Chief and corrupt GOP megadonor Louis DeJoy continue to come under further scrutiny after a report in the New York Times revealed that a DeJoy-backed super PAC is now pumping money into “rescuing” Tillis’ flailing reelection campaign. The PAC’s activities are “the latest example of a potential conflict of interest” at the Postal Service on behalf of one of the most vulnerable Republicans up this cycle, and is “the first time in six years” – or since Tillis’ 2014 reelection campaign – that it has invested in a Senate race.

Senator Tillis’ “close ties to top postal officials have come under scrutiny in recent months.” He has received more money from DeJoy than any other vulnerable Republican up this cycle and was “one of the biggest beneficiaries” of a corrupt straw donor scheme that funnelled $300,000 to his reelection campaign. And now, a PAC run by DeJoy’s boss is trying to rescue Tillis’ campaign. In return, he’s carried DeJoy’s water in Washington, refusing to call out mail delays that hurt our rural communities and veterans and blasting an investigation into DeJoy’s as a “witch hunt.”

“Senator Tillis’ reelection campaign continues to be shrouded in corruption, and this new report that top officials at the Postal Service are trying to rescue his flailing campaign is just the latest example of Senator Tillis being tied at the hip to corrupt GOP megadonor and UPSP chief Louis DeJoy,” NCDP spokesperson Robert Howard said. “Senator Tillis continues to cash in on his ties to corrupt GOP donor and USPS chief Louis DeJoy – taking his money, benefiting from a corrupt straw donor scheme, and now having a super PAC swoop in to rescue him – and in return he’s looking out for DeJoy’s interests in Washington, not North Carolina’s.”

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

New York Times: PAC Led by Postal Official Pours $20 Million Into Rescuing Tillis
By Catie Edmondson and Luke Broadwater
October 5, 2020

Key Points:

• The Republican “super PAC” American Crossroads plans to pump about $7 million over the next month into a bid to secure Senator Thom Tillis’s North Carolina re-election and save the party’s Senate majority, raising fresh questions about partisanship at the United States Postal Service, where one of the political group’s leaders holds a powerful post.

• The infusion — which leaders of the group said would bring its total investment in the critical race to more than $20 million — will pay to blanket the airwaves in the state with advertisements attacking Cal Cunningham, the Democrat challenging Mr. Tillis in a contest widely seen as a linchpin for control of the Senate. The deep involvement of American Crossroads, which is led in part by Robert M. Duncan, whom President Trump installed at the helm of the Postal Service’s board of governors, is the latest example of a potential conflict of interest at the highest levels of the agency charged with carrying out vote-by-mail operations for the November elections.

• Mr. Duncan founded the political group and sits on its board of directors, but its spokesman said he is not involved in day-to-day operations. Still, his position has underscored how a tight-knit circle of Republican donors has risen to power at the Postal Service, and fueled concern among Democrats and government ethics specialists that their partisan preferences could compromise its independence.

• “There really is a reason to feel like this almost sacred institution in American life is being politicized, and these continued actions by Robert Duncan don’t do anything to dispel that,” said Noah Bookbinder, the executive director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a liberal government watchdog group.

• American Crossroads has already spent $13.8 million attacking Mr. Cunningham. The North Carolina spending spree marks the first time in six years that the group has made such a significant investment in a Senate race.

• Mr. Tillis’s close ties to top postal officials have come under scrutiny in recent months.

• Mr. DeJoy, whom Mr. Duncan personally recommended for the job, was a major donor to Mr. Tillis. Employees at the North Carolina-based logistics company Mr. DeJoy used to run, who said they were pressured to donate to his preferred candidates, contributed nearly $300,000 to Mr. Tillis in 2014.