Across the state, people are waiting in breathless anticipation for who will win the coveted “Worst Week in Raleigh” award. Turns out, there’s no clear winner. But if I had to name one person, it would be former SEANC executive director Dana Cope – again. You might remember that back when Cope was accused of financial impropriety, the SEANC leadership defended his spending habits and pretty much called the organization’s whistleblowers as a bunch of liars.
Now, with the state expanding their probe of Mr. Cope, the SEANC Board has finally thrown him under the bus, apologizing to the whistleblowers and commending them for their willingness “to stand up for SEANC and protect the organization that we all love.” Despite Cope’s resignation, the Board decided to grant him a severance payment. They’ve already recovered half the payment and the SEANC attorney expects to get all of it back. It’s not clear how much the severance package was, but it was probably somewhere between $140,000 to $200,000. That’s a lot of money to lose in a month’s time, and under such a cloud.
Honorable mention: Pat McCrory. The Senate doesn’t like his incentives plan at all and are probably going to shred it to pieces. They’re particularly concerned that the governor’s plan helps the three wealthiest counties and doesn’t pay enough attention to the rest of the state. At the same time, Progress NC continues to aggressively raise questions of ethical violations at the governor’s office.
The one saving grace for McCrory was a decision by a three-judge panel that the legislature had overstepped its constitutional authority by creating independent commissions tasked with overseeing a number of environmental issues, including the Duke Coal Ash cleanup. While this is really inside baseball and is just another skirmish between McCrory and the legislature, this is a big win for the governor, one of the few times where he’s won a battle with the General Assembly. In the end, this victory was a rare bit of sunshine in a fairly mediocre week for the governor.
So Dana Cope, congratulations once again for winning this prestigious award for the second time. You’ve earned it, really.
These folks also had a bad week sometime in the past. Their misfortune is archived here:
March 6, 2015 – Wake County Board of Commissioners
February 27, 2015 – Tony Tata
February 20, 2015 – Jeff Jackson (Best Week in Raleigh)
February 13, 2015 – Dana Cope
February 6, 2015 – Thom Tillis
January 30, 2015 – Julia Howard
January 9, 2015 – NC House Democrats
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
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