In my home state of Arizona, the Fiesta Bowl is the premiere event of the year. It’s a big-money event and there’s a bigtime effort to ensure the bowl gets a top-notch game. The Arizona Republic is reporting on allegations by some bowl employees that they were encouraged to make campaign contributions to particular candidates and that the contributions were then reimbursed by the bowl in the form of bonuses. If true, that would be illegal. In North Carolina, of course, we are very familiar with campaign finance shenanigans.
Over the past decade as the Fiesta Bowl worked to maintain its elite position as one of the top postseason college-football games, employees made contributions to politicians friendly to the bowl, including some donations that may violate campaign-finance laws.
Past and present Fiesta Bowl employees have told The Arizona Republic they were encouraged to write checks to specific candidates and were reimbursed by the bowl.
Such reimbursement would violate state and federal laws that prohibit funneling corporate campaign contributions through individuals. Participants could be charged with misdemeanors and felonies
