Monday, September 29, 2008

Sewell resigns NCDOT Board under a cloud

Per Greensboro News and Record:

With political pressure mounting, Lewis W. Sewell Jr. had no other choice than to resign from the state Department of Transportation board. Funneling $375,000 for improvements to a highway abutting property he and business partners owned in Jacksonville was a clear, self-serving conflict of interest, not the protocol oversight he claimed.

Caught up in the fallout is Democratic gubernatorial candidate Bev Perdue, who early last week hadn't decided whether to attend a fund-raiser Sewell had planned for her. It ended up being canceled.

Even so, Republican opponent Pat McCrory seized on the controversy to again paint Perdue as being part of the state's entrenched political establishment.

The latest DOT flap should be reason enough to elicit pledges from both candidates to rid the board of partisan political shenanigans.

http://www.news-record.com/content/2008/09/26/article/short_stack_food_for_thought_quick_and_over_easy