North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue has now called on her North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) Chairman David Parker to resign, according to local news reports.
Loretta Boniti of News 14 in North Carolina tweeted about Perdue’s call for Parker’s resignation late on Tuesday.
In a story on News 14’s website, Perdue is quoted as saying that she thinks Parker should resign for the “good of the party.”
“I told him that the party had to get back to focusing on our core values: strengthening schools, creating jobs and expanding opportunities for all North Carolinians,” Perdue said.
Perdue’s call for Parker’s resignation comes after she told a different local news reporter to “get over it” earlier on Tuesday when asked about the ongoing sexual harassment scandal roiling her state’s party. Perdue is the de facto head of the NCDP as she’s the highest-ranking elected official in the state and a Democrat.
It’s unclear if Parker will actually resign. NCDP spokesman Walton Robinson has not returned any of The Daily Caller’s requests for comment on the issue.
This scandal has begun spreading up the chain into the national political realm in recent days, and may have national implications as President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party head to Charlotte, N.C. in just a few months for the Democratic National Convention.
MSNBC’s Chuck Todd tweeted earlier Tuesday asking what “Chicago” — meaning Obama’s re-election headquarters —thought of the ongoing “dysfunction” in the NCDP. Politico’s Alex Burns has described Perdue’s “get over it” video moment as “politically gruesome.”
Neither Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse nor Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt have returned TheDC’s requests for comment on their thoughts about the sexual harassment scandal.
In emails TheDC obtained last week and was the first to publish, North Carolina Democratic statehouse candidate Watt Jones said this scandal could spell political disaster for President Obama and Democrats heading into this election year. Jones was arguing with Parker about the scandal and said the party could be “doomed” if the story got out in the press.
“If this hits the media, the Democratic Party, our candidates, and our credibility are doomed in this election,” Jones wrote to Parker.
NCDP Executive Director Jay Parmley resigned after TheDC’s initial reports that he allegedly sexually harassed low-level communications staffer Adriadn Ortega. The email chain TheDC first published confirmed the allegations of sexual harassment and that the party made a financial settlement with Ortega before having Ortega and Parmley both sign non-disclosure agreements to keep the scandal quiet.
Since Parmley’s resignation on Sunday, several other high-ranking Democrats in North Carolina have called for his boss’s resignation as well. Democratic gubernatorial candidates Bob Etheridge and Walter Dalton, the current lietenant governor, have called for it, as have U.S. Democratic Rep. Larry Kissell and the Charlotte Observer’s editorial board.
Now Perdue has joined the choir.