Worst Week in Raleigh: Tony Tata

by | Feb 27, 2015 | Carolina Strategic Analysis, Features, Transportation | 8 comments

We’re having a Tony Tata beatdown today at PoliticsNC.

Apologies for the title, which is kind of a misnomer. As it turns out, the reason Tata, McCrory’s Secretary of Transportation, is getting so much heat is precisely because he wasn’t in Raleigh for the winter storms that came to our state this week. Instead, he was in Chicago promoting a novel he wrote, “Foreign and Domestic”, a thrilling tale of a dishonored U.S. Army Captain working to clear his name by bringing an American Taliban to justice. Liberals for some time now have been questioning Tata’s commitment to the job, noting not only his taking the time to write novels but also his role as an occasional contributor to Fox News.

Tata, a retired U.S. Army Brigadier General, came to NC politics by way of the Wake County Public School System. The then-Republican dominated board appointed Tata as Superintendent, hoping he would bring some military discipline to the system. By all accounts Tata did a pretty good job, but not long after Democrats took over the board, he was given a pink slip. Shortly thereafter, he was appointed to the Transportation gig when McCrory took office.

Concerns about Tata’s outside projects were first raised by Rob Schofield of NC Policy Watch, whose initial post on the subject was greeted with a lot of eye-rolling. Just three weeks later, with the imagery of the Transportation Secretary being away from the state at a critical period, Schofield probably feels vindicated, and there’s now more of a spotlight on Tata’s “double life.”

Still, this is somewhat “inside baseball”, and as far as bad weeks go, this one isn’t so bad. No one is calling for Tata’s head, mainly because it’s hard to argue that his absence really made a major difference. The key thing here is that concerns about Tata was once confined to lefty blogs. Now, the state media is paying attention too.

Tony Tata, for inadvertently giving liberal gripes about your job commitment a wider audience and bringing their concerns somewhat closer to the surface, you’re the winner of this week’s “Worst Week in Raleigh” award. Congrats, or something.

These people also had a bad week:

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

Do you know an NC political figure who had a bad week? Nominations are accepted in the comments, or you can e-mail us.

8 Comments

  1. Donald Ball

    Your contention is seriously that there is nothing the director of the state department of transportation could or should be doing to oversee the response to a series of major winter storms? Seriously?

  2. Apply Liberally

    I’m with you, “Disgusted,” on all you say. Tata should resign. He needs to “honorably discharge” himself if he is going to pursue other interests that clearly can only divert his attention from NCDOT matters.

    And re: your words on the GOP and vet affairs, to me it is truly mindboggling hypocrisy for Republicans to always wrap themselves in the American flag and always give great lip service to our nation and its armed forces, but then consistently vote against increased Vet Admin appropriations or major Veterans programs/reforms. And also, in similarly hypocritical fashion, they cause the shut down the government for political posturing purposes ((as they did in October 2013), but then go to the WWII Memorial in D.C. for a news op among veterans to rant against Obama and the Dems for ….wait for it….shutting down the government!

  3. Someone from Main Street

    Here’s to hoping Tata took vacation days when shilling his book in Chi-town… OR perhaps he was really there to import the Chicago way into NCGOP tactics? (Not that NCGOP needs ANY help in that area.)

  4. Eilene

    Yeah, John…I’m with Apply Liberally on this one. While I don’t think heads will or should roll over this little faux pas, I do think Mr. Tata needs to seriously consider if he actually has the time to commit to his job for the state. If not, he should resign once he gives the Governor time to search for a suitable replacement. If he does have the time, and wants to be committed to his role in NC government, he should probably not go on book tours during the height of winter, when the roads are going to be covered with ice and snow. He easily could have picked up a phone and rescheduled his Chicago trip, once the forecast made it clear that we were in for a little bit of weather.

    The point you made was pretty snarky, really. I can’t believe those pesky liberal journalists thought it was worth writing about….OR, maybe anyone with some common sense would think it would be a good idea for the transportation secretary to be around during a winter storm event. Who cares what his affiliation is, or mine, for that matter. This is a common sense issue.

  5. River Rat Dem

    Tata should know about the American Taliban.

  6. Apply Liberally

    So let me get this straight? Tata wins your award NOT BECAUSE he has a income-earning, attention-diverting, second job as an author, and also NOT BECAUSE he chose to be out-of-state and some 800 miles away tending to that second job during a major statewide storm event which adversely affected all modes of NC transportation (the efficiency and safety of which are his primary job’s major responsibility)?? Rather, you say he gets your vote ONLY BECAUSE HIS BEING IN CHICAGO THIS PAST WEEK MADE THE STATE’S “LEFTY” MEDIA TAKE NOTICE OF HIS DUAL-JOB STATUS?? Really, John? Really?

  7. larryt

    You know dude not everyone who thinks Tata is a charlatan is a liberal. The Tea Party School Board brought the guy to Raleigh and no he wasn’t doing great when the subsequent Board kicked him to the curb while they tried to salvage what had been and is again an effective and good School Board and System in Wake County. Tata is nothing more than a charlatan dressed up as a politician. Oh wait, that could be said about a lot of politicians. If Tata wants to be a writer and a big star the guy needs to leave lowly North Carolina…he seems to already spending a lot of time not here anyway.

Related Posts

GET UPDATES

Get the latest posts from PoliticsNC delivered right to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!