Team Perdue: Doing All They Can Without The DOT.
Perdue Veto Image via Takaai Wabu
Bev Perdue is so successful at failing that it’s a good thing she’s not running again.
Her ‘top aides’ made headlines last year for receiving advance copies of confidential employment data to spin the Governor’s jobs reporting – in violation of federal law.
Fast forward a bit – her top aides have apparently pulled an edit job that would make MSNBC proud if it were video.
From the News and Observer, emphasis mine:
RALEIGH — Gov. Bev Perdue’s office, under fire over the disclosure that top aides altered a state transportation official’s position on funding for toll road projects without his knowledge, said Tuesday that her staffers had only “suggested some edits” to paperwork while seeking to ensure the projects stayed on track.
Perdue, a Democrat who is not seeking re-election, did not comment on the issue. Her press secretary issued a statement.
Republicans called what happened something much different: a possible crime that merits serious review.
The Senate Rules Committee chairman launched an inquiry, using the word “fraudulent” to describe the letters sent to lawmakers last week that appeared to reverse the state Department of Transportation’s position on whether the legislature should provide $63 million next year for two toll roads.
Sen. Tom Apodaca, a Hendersonville Republican, said DOT officials will be asked to speak at a committee hearing Wednesday morning, and representatives of Perdue’s office would be asked to speak at a second hearing Thursday morning.
The Republican candidate for governor, former Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, issued a statement that said the disclosure in The News & Observer of what happened was an apparent “blatant manipulation of data and facts to mislead” by Perdue’s office.
McCrory called for Perdue to ask the State Bureau of Investigation to review the matter.
Apodaca, in comments to reporters, said his committee could refer the issue to a district attorney depending on how the hearings go.
Change of message
The hearings will focus on a pair of letters rushed to the legislature last Thursday morning with the signature of Jim Trogdon, the DOT chief operating officer. Trogdon drafted portions of the letters at the request of Perdue staffers, but he later retracted what had been delivered because they contained revisions – added by Perdue staffers – that Trogdon said he had not authorized.
His electronic signature had been added to the documents without his knowledge, he wrote in a follow-up letter to lawmakers.
Related Links:
LL1885 
You must be logged in to post a comment.