patrick ballantine

Now that's a lotta money to owe:

Former state Sen. Patrick Ballantine has filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, listing assets of $819,937 and liabilities of $6.2 million, according to court records.

Ballantine, of Wilmington, listed debts totaling more than $3 million in connection with investments in The Peninsula development in Ocean Isle Beach, where he held a 12.5 percent interest, according to the filing in late June in U.S. Bankruptcy Court for Eastern North Carolina.

"My family is just one of the millions of families" going through bad times, Ballantine said.

Er, how many of those "millions of families" could get their hands on six million bucks?

In a civil suit filed by a former employee:

The lawsuit, filed in New Hanover County Superior Court, also alleges Ballantine, a Republican who ran unsuccessfully for governor in 2004, participated in “racketeering activity” and fraud, including inflating the quantities of waste the company disposed of at the New Hanover County Landfill and charging customers based on the inflated amount.

The suit names Waste Hauling Services, Ballantine, Russ Britton, Jeffrey Milliken and George Cunningham Jr. as defendants. It seeks more than $10,000 for eight separate claims, including breach of contract, fraud, and unfair and deceptive trade practices.

Quick: What causes a politician's popularity to tank? A controversial vote, weak performance, general voter unrest ... all can cause poll numbers to drift downward. But for your approval ratings to really bottom out, it takes a scandal.