Dwane Powell, Jan 22, 2016, in the Raleigh News & Observer

New Memo Shows That McCrory Was Pulling Strings All Along for His Big Donor

McCrory & Keith Sr.

Graeme Keith Sr.'s private state contract to do prison maintenance got more push from Governor McCrory than has been previously known.

It wasn't known previously because page 2 of a memo written by a high-ranking prison system official got mysteriously left out of a public records request at the end of October. The missing page 2 of a memo written in January of 2015 by Joe Prater, a deputy commissioner in the Division of Correction, suddenly showed up in a subsequent public records request put in by the Raleigh News&Observer. Oops.

Page 2 of that now notorious document was Joe Prater's c.y.a. memorialization of conversations he had with prisons director Frank Perry in which Perry revealed that The Guv had leaned on him a good deal more than was previously known to give Graeme Keith's company a contract extension because he was a friend and -- more importantly -- a major donor to The Guv's campaign.

The McCrory cronyism and pay-to-play web just gets tighter.

Pay-to-Play Is a Hard Habit To Break

Mr. Graeme Keith Sr., who's been in the news a lot lately for getting the governor to intervene for him in a contract renewal -- I've donated to your campaign, and now it's time for me to get something in return -- also had great good fortune after contributing over $30,000 to former Mecklenburg County Sheriff Jim Pendergraph. Keith, in fact, got his very first prison maintenance contract from Sheriff Pendergraph -- a no-bid contract, at that -- which is now worth some $7 million a year.

That's a lot of sweeping, presumably, but also a very good return on the investment. (And incidentally, McCrory went cheap. Pendergraph, not so much. He also got another $86,000 out of Keith for "consulting services.")

"The decision to award the contract without competitive bidding was not in the best interest of taxpayers, according to contracting expert Paul Light. Seeking bids from competing companies helps ensure that the public gets the best possible deal, experts say....

"The two sheriffs who succeeded Pendergraph – Chipp Bailey and Irwin Carmichael – have kept the contract in place. Those sheriffs also got campaign contributions from officials with The Keith Corp."

McCrory Admin.: They Think We're Dumber Than 2-Dollar Dogs

“It was inappropriate. It was uncomfortable. But there has been no quid pro quo and therefore no crime.”

--Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry, testifying before an NCGA committee yesterday about comments made by Graeme Keith Sr. that he was owed something in return for his contributions to Gov. McCrory

Are you kidding me?

The estimable and also rich Mr. Keith said he was owed in a meeting organized by McCrory, and in which McCrory sat, to get the Department of Public Safety to reconsider its decision not to re-award Mr. Keith a profitable contract. Mr. Keith said I've given money and I'm owed out loud in that meeting, with McCrory at the table.

McCrory, far left, with Graeme Keith Sr.
next to him

McCrory says he was in a "side conversation" at the time, or was checking his smart phone, or was having his blood pressure monitored, or something distracting, but the bottom-line, The Guv assures us, is that he didn't hear Mr. Keith make that statement, because if he had heard it, McCrory now claims, he would have ended that meeting immediately, because the man in the matching red sweater that McCrory has had his arm around in public and on whose shoulder he has slobbered should know better than cause the top elected official to commit a crime.

It doesn't wash. It doesn't pass the smell test. And it's embarrassing to see members of the McCrory administration making excuses for this Royal Dumbass.

More McCrony Pay-to-Play: You Give 'im the Bucks, You Get the Action!

Seems to be a definite pattern with this governor.

If Graeme Keith Sr. and now the Shelton Winery bros. can get such direct, quick action out of Squishy, squeezing him like a K-Mart sponge, what else have the big political sugar daddies been getting from McCrory that we don't yet know about? Inquiring minds want to know.

McCrory obviously knows from his days as Duke Energy's mayor in Charlotte that his main job is keeping the big boys happy.

Is "toady" still a word?

McCrory Intervened in "Pay-to-Play" Corruption

From reporting today by the Raleigh News & Observer:

Graeme Keith Sr., a Charlotte developer and retired banker, pursued private maintenance contracts in state prisons since 1999. Keith’s contracts at two prisons were set to expire Dec. 31, 2014; a third would have ended four months later. According to a Department of Public Safety memo, Keith told prison officials and McCrory that “he had been working on this project ‘private prison maintenance’ for over ten (10) years and during that time had given a lot of money to candidates running for public office and it was now time for him to get something in return.”

The Keith Corp. got the contract extension after McCrory intervened with prison officials. We call that bribery and public corruption. Along with this bottom-line: privatization of prison maintenance "did not lead to significant savings."

Pals in matching sweaters: McCrory, far left,
 hanging onto Graeme Keith Sr.

To his credit, Secretary of Public Safety Frank Perry opposed The Guv on the contract extension, saying that "private maintenance wasn’t saving money and posed a greater security risk."

Keeping his bases covered, Keith was also a big contributor to leading Democratic candidates when they ran the joint.

The FBI is now investigating and interviewing the people involved in this piece of political bilge.