Rep. Mary McAllister is a Democrat from Fayetteville.

According to a report published by Democratic researcher Joe Sinsheimer last year she sponsored a bill that read: “There is to be appropriated from the General Fund to Operation Sickle Cell, Incorporated, a non-profit organization, the sum of five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) for the 2006-07 fiscal year.”

Rep. McAllister is on the board of Operation Sickle Cell. And earns $115,000 salary working for the organization. A fact she failed to disclose when she filed her bill.

Then she compounded her error with sleight-of-hand. She wrote her constituents: “Contrary to what was reported in The Fayetteville Observer… Operation Sickle Cell was not targeted to receive $500,000… Rather, Operation Sickle Cell was one of the 4 separate sickle cell centers across North Carolina targeted to share the funding…”

Did she read her own bill? It’s hard not to conclude Rep. McAllister misstated the facts gambling no one would catch on.

In the same letter she also said her failure to disclose her ties to the Sickle Cell Foundation was “an oversight.” In other words, when she was disclosing her conflicts of interest, she forgot to include an organization paying her $115,000 a year – which is even harder to believe.

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