The man at the center of a state inquiry into 9th Congressional District election results indicated in a signed declaration last year that he essentially took cash under the table during the 2014 elections to help Bladen County’s current sheriff.
McCrae Dowless, who worked this year for Republican congressional hopeful Mark Harris’ campaign, as well as for Sheriff Jim McVicker’s re-election, said in the declaration that he took $5,800 in 2014 from a Bladen County sweepstakes parlor operator. He said it was cash he needed to pay a team of campaign workers.
Dowless said the money flowed after conversations with McVicker’s campaign manager, former Bladen County Republican Party Chairman Landon Bordeaux. In a separate legal filing, sweepstakes parlor owner Jeff Smith testified that he made these payments at Bordeaux’s request.