The Republican Party of North Carolina is lashing out at the Charlotte Observer for abruptly memory-holing a story published Saturday night regarding the scandal involving the stimulus money awarded to the immediate family of Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC). The Observer blamed its partner WBTV, but didn’t say anything about the article being inaccurate. It just vanished.
Titled “Memo: Grant given to company run by Sen. Hagan’s husband needs ‘legal review'” (the article is cached here), the piece opens with the news that, “State officials say a stimulus grant given to a company run by Kay Hagan’s husband needs ‘further legal review.'” This potentially damning information was found in a memo obtained by WBTV.
State officials say a stimulus grant given to a company run by Kay Hagan’s husband needs “further legal review.”
WBTV obtained a memo written by the Department of Energy and Natural Resources which includes a letter to the state’s auditor from last month. The memo states that NCDENR is looking into potential conflict of interest claims involving Senator Kay Hagan.
NCDENR says they have reviewed grant records and found conflict of issue claims warranted further legal review. Kay Hagan’s husband manages one of the companies in question, who received an energy efficiency grant money in 2010.
The grant totaled $250,644.
The piece is written by WBTV’s Chris Dyches, who has yet to return a message left by Breitbart News.
Stories involving money from President Obama’s 2008 stimulus (which Hagan voted for) benefiting Hagan’s husband and other family members, have popped up in New Media and in the Carolina Journal Online, which has done a lot of the digging. Thus far the response from mainstream media outlets, like the left-leaning Observer, has been to either ignore the story or go on the record without pushing the scandal, as the left-wing Politico did in late September.
According the Real Clear Politics poll of polls, on the night the Observer yanked the unfavorable story, Hagan was statistically tied with her Republican opponent Thom Tillis. The week before, the Observer endorsed Hagan for re-election.
Democrats sure got it good.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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