Gov. Roy Cooper has added a communications director whose name may be familiar to regular readers of Carolina Journal.
Cooper selected Sadie Weiner, who worked for former U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., and most recently was communications director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. She will oversee the governor’s press and communications office.
While on Hagan’s staff, Weiner was involved in the media battle defending her boss over a controversial stimulus grant Hagan’s husband Chip and son Tilden received to install solar panels on a building owned by a separate company Chip co-owned. The dispute over the stimulus grant and the ethics concerns it raised may have played a role in Hagan losing her Senate seat in 2014 to Republican Thom Tillis.
Weiner told Politico in August 2014 that Hagan had consulted a Washington, D.C., attorney to ensure there were no ethical problems with the senator’s husband receiving a taxpayer subsidy for his business. In an October 2014 debate with Tillis and Libertarian Sean Haugh, Hagan contradicted Weiner’s earlier statement, saying, “I have no role in my husband’s business. I have a job that keeps me busy. … What I did ask was for my husband to get the opinion of an ethics attorney. He did so and the lawyer said it was appropriate.”
Cooper also picked Jordan Whichard as director of intergovernmental affairs. His job is to work with county, state, and federal governments. Whichard previously worked in the White House on intergovernmental relations. He most recently worked in human resources and benefits at Hill, Chesson & Woody.