Forest gets $1M donation from Durham investor

The donation buoyed a large cash haul for Forest, who's tied to several different fundraising committees and so widely expected to run for governor in 2020 that he's already picked up endorsements.

Forest's lieutenant governor's campaign sent out an email late Thursday, providing fundraising totals for three entities: His regular campaign committee, a super-PAC named Truth & Prosperity and the Republican Council of State Committee. The campaign specifically noted that Forest raised money for all three groups, and it put the total raised going back to the end of the 2016 elections at more than $3 million.

It did not mention that $1 million of that came from Greg Lindberg, the owner of Eli Global, an international investment firm based in Durham. Lindberg wrote a check to Truth & Prosperity on Dec. 29, according to committee records filed with the State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.

The deadline to file the most recent round of campaign reports with the board hits Friday, but Truth & Prosperity's was already available through the board's online database Thursday evening, as was the latest disclosure from Forest's regular campaign committee. The Republican Council of State Committee's filing wasn't yet available, leaving WRAL News unable to immediately confirm who gave the $1.4 million Forest's campaign said he raised in that account.

Forest's campaign said he chairs the Council of State Committee, which was created in May 2017. Attempts to reach the group's treasurer and a Forest spokesman for more information were not successful. The group also has a separate "building fund" listed in state campaign finance records, and this entity's purpose wasn't immediately clear.

Lindberg has given to several North Carolina politicians, but particularly to Forest and to former Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin, who's now chairman of the state Democratic Party. The two represent different sides of the political spectrum.

Lindberg gave nearly $10,000 in 2016 to Goodwin's re-election campaign, campaign finance records show. He gave $5,000 in 2017 to the man who beat Goodwin in that race, current Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, a Republican. That April donation was refunded, though, about half a month later, records show.

An attempt to reach the committee's initial treasurer, who according to campaign records works at Eli Global and has also donated money to both the Goodwin and Forest campaigns, was not successful Thursday.

Truth & Prosperity's initial treasurer was David Longo, a Charlotte businessman who is heavily involved with another Forest-affiliated group, The North Carolina Promotion and Development Fund. This is a 501(c)(4) entity that Longo has run and funded and which provided the lieutenant governor's office television studio equipment.

Longo has also donated in the past to Citizens for Accountability, another pro-Forest committee, as well as to Forest's campaign committee.