RALEIGH — Last week, it was reported that North Carolina businessman Tom Hendrickson had switched his support from Joe Biden to Mike Bloomberg.
Hendrickson is the leader of the Democratic dark money group called Moving NC Forward. The 501(c)4 group has raised money in support of Gov. Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein and WRAL reported the group had promised “access to Cooper and his staff.”
Bloomberg’s campaign announced in December of last year that Hendrickson’s daughter was picked as Bloomberg’s state political director. Hendrickson is no longer listed in the state employee directory for the governor’s office.
Kathryn “Katie” Hendrickson was hired in January 2017 to work as the deputy director of Boards and Commissions in Cooper’s office. She had previously been a transition aide for the Cooper campaign.
The job of the deputy director of Boards and Commissions is to identify and vet individuals for the governor to appoint to the state’s various boards and commissions.
While serving in this role, Katie Hendrickson’s parents, Jill and Tom Hendrickson, have been appointed to several boards.
In November 2017, Jill Hendrickson was appointed to the Tryon Palace Commission. The following month, her husband Tom was appointed to the Global Transpark Authority and later was appointed again to the Marine Fisheries Commission in August 2018.
Tom Hendrickson has been a long-time donor to Cooper, donating $15,100 to his campaigns since 2000.
Documentation available on Moving NC Forward shows the group has the same address as that of Nexus Strategies, a political consulting firm run by Scott Falmlen, who is the former Cooper for NC campaign’s custodian of books and a former campaign treasurer when Cooper ran for attorney general.
Records show that Perkins Coie attorney Jonathan Berkon helped to set up Moving NC Forward. Berkon and former Hillary Clinton campaign attorney Marc Elias were the attorneys who represented Democrat Dan McCready during the NC-09 ballot proceedings.
Records filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State in 2019 detail the group brought in close to $1 million. The records show Moving NC Forward received grants from businesses totaling $897,000, had unrestricted contributions of $28,000 and had other unlisted assets of $423,650.
