Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) stepdaughter is facing controversy in her candidacy to become the next mayor of Burlington, Vermont.
Carina Driscoll, who is running for the position the progressive Vermont senator once held, is facing scrutiny over payments her business used to receive from her mother’s college.
When Jane O’Meara Sanders was president of Burlington College, the college paid $500,000 to Driscoll’s business, the Vermont Woodworking School, between 2009 and 2012.
“It speaks to the way she does business,” Carol A. Moore, who succeeded Jane Sanders as Burlington College’s president, told Fox News, suggesting that the sweetheart deal would affect Burlington’s mayoral election next month.
Moore accused Driscoll of siphoning money from the college with the blessing of her mother to fund her for-profit venture.
“The partnership and the financial agreements were brought to the board by Jane Sanders and developed by Jane Sanders and Carina Driscoll,” said Moore, who led Burlington College until its 2016 closure and currently serves as president of Columbia College in South Carolina.
The college made headlines for its financial troubles in 2016 when it went into bankruptcy for failing to pay its loans.
Jane Sanders was also the subject of an FBI investigation for allegedly manipulating donor levels to make the school look like it had more income.
Driscoll, who is running as an independent, will face off against incumbent Democratic Mayor Miro Weinberger and independent candidate Infinite Culcleasure on March 6.