Last Thursday, Judd Gregg, New Hampshire's senior senator, collected a check for $853,492 after matching five out of the six numbers pulled on Wednesday's $340 million Powerball drawing. Of all the tickets sold, Gregg's ticket was one of only 49 that matched five numbers.
"Even senators can be lucky," Gregg told reporters while picking up his check at the Washington, D.C., Lottery Claims Center.
Gregg, father of senior Josh Gregg, purchased $20 worth of Powerball tickets at a Washington, D.C., Citgo station while headed from Baltimore to Washington for a Senate vote. After allowing the machine to randomly choose his numbers, a clerk at the gas station had to chase after Gregg as he was leaving because he had forgotten one of his tickets.
"She was a very pleasant young woman. She might have kept it, and for all I know it might have been the winning ticket," Gregg said.
Though Gregg is already a millionaire, with his most recent financial disclosure statement putting his assets between $1.5 and $6.2 million in stocks and investments, his wife is currently remodeling their home and already has plans for the money.
Gregg said a portion of his winnings will go to the Hugh Gregg Foundation. Named for Gregg's father, a former New Hampshire governor, the foundation reportedly supports New Hampshire Charities, though the Portsmouth Herald, a Portsmouth, N.H.-based newspaper, noted that no charity in Hugh Gregg's name could be found in the state attorney general's office or on Guidestar.com, a directory of federally-recognized charities.
A Guidestar.com search does, however, show a charity called the Harry Alan Gregg Foundation, which shares the name of Judd Gregg's grandfather and is associated with the Crotched Mountain Foundation.
The Harry Alan Gregg Foundation is dedicated to providing grants to students in New Hampshire colleges and universities studying in fields that will help the mentally or physically handicapped.
The jackpot was the largest Powerball drawing and second-largest U.S. lottery drawing in history. The resulting publicity surrounding the drawing was what tempted Gregg, the chair of the Senate Budget Committee, to purchase his tickets, as he normally doesn't play the lottery, he said.
"Every American believes in good fortune and good luck and I'm no different," he said.
Josh declined to comment on his father's win. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
