RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Republican incumbent Pat McCrory and his Democratic opponent in the undecided North Carolina governor’s race have together sent or received hundreds of messages from private email accounts.
It’s a practice scorned by transparency advocates. McCrory’s re-election team described Attorney General Roy Cooper’s scant use of state-provided email as “questionable” when it sought to compare his Democratic rival to Hillary Clinton’s email problems.
The Associated Press learned from documents provided under North Carolina’s public records law that both McCrory and Cooper have conducted state business via private emails accounts.
Neither McCrory nor Cooper responded when The AP emailed their personal accounts asking why they communicated outside official channels or what advantage they gained from the practice.
Cooper currently leads by just over 10,000 votes out of more than 4.7 million cast.
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