Just the Ticket for a Millionaire Senator

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg, a New Hampshire Republican who’s already a millionaire, won $853,492 playing the lottery this week.

Prompted by the frenzy over Wednesday’s $340-million Powerball jackpot, the New Hampshire Republican bought $20 in tickets. One of the tickets matched five of the six numbers in the Powerball game.

He collected a check Thursday for the winnings.

Gregg bought the tickets at a Washington gas station, allowing the ticket machine to pick his numbers at random. As he was leaving, a clerk ran after him because he had left one of the tickets behind.

“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 during a news conference conducted by telephone.

The lawmaker said he didn’t buy lottery tickets often but was intrigued by the publicity surrounding the huge jackpot.

“Every American believes in good fortune and good luck, and I’m no different,” he said.

Gregg, 58, said he would donate part of his winnings to the Hugh Gregg Foundation, which supports New Hampshire charities and is named after Gregg’s late father, a former governor of the state.

And the rest? “Whatever my wife tells me to do with it,” he joked.

According to his latest financial disclosure form, Gregg has between $1.5 million and $6.2 million in stocks and other major investments.

The only jackpot-winning ticket was sold in Jacksonville, Ore. The holder of the ticket did not immediately step forward to claim the largest jackpot in Powerball history and the second-biggest in U.S. history.

Gregg’s ticket was one of 49 that matched five of the six numbers.