The McCrory Duke stock non-story
Chests are being thumped defiantly at Low-T headquarters on Raleigh’s Jones Street. The McClatchy drive-bys are convinced that they have found Gov. Pat McCrory’s Watergate:
Gov. Pat McCrory failed to disclose his ownership of Duke Energy stock this year in two state ethics filings and sold the stock after a torrent of bad publicity about the company’s coal-ash spill, the governor’s office acknowledged Wednesday.
News Flash: It is NOT a crime to sell stock in a company AFTER bad news about said company goes public. It’s actually stupid — in most situations like that — NOT to sell. (I’d be willing to bet that McCrory LOST money in the sale.) MORE::
McCrory filed a new ethics and economic disclosure that now makes clear he owned at least $10,000 of Duke Energy stock on the last day of 2013, reversing disclosure filings he made in April and May. Public officials who “knowingly” do not disclose correct information about their financial interests are subject to possible criminal penalties.
A lawyer for McCrory said through a spokesman the incorrect filings were a mistake based on the lawyer’s misunderstanding of the time frame covered by the earlier disclosures. McCrory signed the forms.[…]
The governor’s main ethics disclosure statement, covering 2013, was required to be filed by April 15 this year – and McCrory turned it in that day. In the filing, McCrory made no mention of holding any Duke Energy stock as of Dec. 31, 2013. A supplemental filing in May also did not disclose that McCrory held Duke stock at the end of the year.
Ellis issued a statement Wednesday that he said could be attributed to Bob Stephens, McCrory’s general counsel.
“When the governor submitted his (Statement of Economic Interest) form in April 2014, he had divested himself of all utility stock,” the statement says. “The form was completed based on my understanding that the information to the question should be current as of April 15. Following discussion with the State Ethics Commission, it was clarified to me that disclosure should be based upon ownership as of December 31 and we took steps to correct it immediately.”[…]
Was it a surprise that McCrory had ties to Duke Power? Of course not. He worked there for 29 years. It’s not all that unusual for employees of major corporations to have stock in their employer.
Democrats and the drive-bys have tried to paint McCrory as a major player at Duke who used his mayoral and gubernatorial powers to benefit his now-former employer. I had the chance to talk with a now-retired former senior Duke Power executive a couple of years ago at a social gathering. He happened to mention that — while he was working at Duke — he had NO idea that the then-Charlotte mayor was working at Duke until he heard about it in the media coverage running-up to the 2–8 gubernatorial race.
Yep. Ol’ Pat was *quite the player*, indeed.
From what I know about the folks surrounding our governor, it’s pretty safe to chalk this up to a staff screw-up. The forms got corrected. Case closed. Move on.
There are a lot of things to hit Ol’ Pat on. This ain’t one of them.
If you really want to dig into a bona fide scandal, why not dig into what happened to the state board of elections investigation of state senator Fletcher Hartsell’s campaign finances?
But the Rag Observer says nothing about the negative outcomes from the southern invasion and Obama’s Welfare Refugee Program. They are just part of the Obama-Hagan puppet media and you should never spend a penny buying fish wrapping paper.
”Newspaper” is too respectable a term for these leftwing propaganda sheets.
Duke Power – later Duke Energy, paid McCrory his full salary while he was Mayor of Charlotte, despite the fact he supposedly put in full-time hours for a part-time job.This is SOP for Charlotte business Elites. All the major employers as pay their employees full salaries if they hold elective office, both locally, and on a state level. That a former Duke executive would obfuscate during a conversation about McCrory is not surprising. Duke Energy was more than happy to pay McCrory to help implement company public policy. Big business loves big government, after all light rail does run on electricity. The current DE stock controversy may indeed be nothing, but until a timeline is established regarding the sale of the stock in question I would reserve judgement. McCrory’s most substantial ” achievement ” as Mayor was the implementation of the Charlotte Light Rail System. Over a period covering most of his 7 TERMS, he midwifed the process. Every single pubic statement he made regarding the cost and ridership of the project was a total fabrication to persuade the public to vote for a sales tax increase to fund the boondoggle. Literally billions of federal, state, and local tax dollars are being pumped into this disaster in perpetuity. Any corporate executive who mislead his stockholders to the extent McCrory mislead the citizens of Charlotte with be residing in a penitentiary. Never concede any moral question to our Governor.
I think the worst that can be said here is that Giv Pat needs to reevaluate his legal counsel. Might want to review some other choices but that another issue.
I wonder if his legal counsel is a Republican, or if he is a Democrat or Unaffiliated like so many of the appointees of this administration?
Don’t forget that this administration wanted to increase the federal gas tax to help our infrastructure. Duh!!! Where do you think the money is coming from for the light rail and all their green products? Our road and bridges upgrade projects.