NC Attorney General Josh Stein’s financial ties to Cal Cunningham

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham participates in a televised debate with U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, not shown, at WNCN-TV in Raleigh, N.C., Tuesday, Sept. 22, 2020. (AP Photo/Gerry Broome)

RALEIGH — Attorney General Josh Stein was on the committee that steered a contract to a company tied to Cal Cunningham when Stein was a member of the General Assembly.

From 2011 to 2016, then state Sen. Stein was a member of the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations, which was in charge of active contracts over $25,000.

Advertisements

According to bid documents, there were two contracts totaling around $262,000 which were awarded to a company called WasteZero during the time Stein sat on the commission. During that same time-frame, Cal Cunningham served as both general counsel and vice president of WasteZero.

Statements of Economic Interest filed by Stein reveal that he was an investor in WasteZero while he sat on the Joint Legislative Commission on Governmental Operations.

According to campaign reports, Josh Stein’s Senate campaign committee received $4,250 from Cunningham and various WasteZero employees.
In 2014, WasteZero did not have any contracts in North Carolina, but Cunningham was pitching services to Raleigh city leaders. That was the same year WasteZero established a headquarters in Raleigh.