Top aide for North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson is resigning, adding to staff separations

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The top aide to North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson within state government is quitting, a state official said Wednesday, marking another staff separation from the Republican nominee for governor following a CNN report stating he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board.

Brian LiVecchi, Robinson’s chief of staff and general counsel, will resign effective next Tuesday, according to state Sen. Benton Sawrey, who has known LiVecchi for many years. LiVecchi didn’t return a phone call and email Wednesday seeking information about any staff changes within the Office of the Lieutenant Governor. However, Sawrey said LiVecchi had given him authority to confirm his departure.

“Brian and his staff worked every day to help make North Carolina the best state in the nation,” Sawrey said. “He’s a true public servant that led by example and tackled every issue thoughtfully.”

Over the weekend, Robinson announced that four key staff members on his gubernatorial campaign staff had left their jobs, including senior adviser Conrad Pogorzelski IIi and campaign manager Chris Rodriguez. Pogorzelski separately Sunday named eight campaign workers who had stepped down, decimating the team six weeks before Robinson’s election with Democratic nominee Josh Stein. Robinson vowed to rebuild the campaign staff and remained optimistic about the electoral outcome.

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CNN’s report last week unearthed posts it said Robinson left on a porn site’s message boards in which he referred to himself as a “black NAZI;” said he enjoyed transgender pornography; said in 2012 he preferred Hitler to then-President Barack Obama; and slammed the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as “worse than a maggot.”

Robinson, who would be the state’s first Black governor if elected, has denied writing the messages that CNN says were from over a decade ago. He said Tuesday his campaign has hired a law firm to help investigate how what Robinson calls “false smears” originated. But that hasn’t stopped top Republicans from distancing themselves from Robinson. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump endorsed Robinson before the March primary and has let Robinson speak at the former president’s in-state rallies. But he was not involved in Trump rallies on Wednesday in suburban Charlotte and last weekend in Wilmington.

The Republican Governors Association has cut off support for Robinson, with no new ad placements. Stein’s campaign and his allies have outraised Robinson and his supporting groups, running commercials and posting videos criticizing Robinson for his past inflammatory comments on abortion, LGBTQ+ issues and the role of women. Other state Republicans have said that unless Robinson produces evidence soon to refute the allegations in the CNN report the GOP must turn its focus to other critical races in the battleground state.

Robinson said in a post on X that he spoke with Republican leaders across the state Wednesday morning “and made it clear: This is an election about policies, not personalities ... From President Trump to our local community officials, we must vote Republican.”

The Lieutenant Governor’s Office is small — the office website identifies eight employees — and Robinson’s duties are few. They include presiding over the state Senate and serving on the State Board of Elections. His office also handles constituent services. Robinson tackled other issues, such as boosting work apprenticeships and opposing what he considered political indoctrination in the public schools. The lieutenant governor’s four-year term, like the governor’s, concludes at year’s end.