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It Pays to Be a Hagan

Unlike John Fogerty, Tilden Hagan is a senator’s son, and, shockingly, things have worked out pretty well for him. By sheer coincidence, after his mom voted for the 2009 stimulus package, a company Tilden Hagan co-owned with his future brother-in-law was awarded a taxpayer-funded contract to install solar panels. The company overseeing the project, JDC Manufacturing, was, by sheer coincidence, owned by Tilden’s dad. The deal appears to have violated JDC’s own conflict-of-interest policy. Oh well.

Carolina Journal, which has been doggedly reporting on the case, has uncovered new details suggesting that the paperwork filed on Tilden’s behalf was, at best, a bit sketchy:

RALEIGH — U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband Charles "Chip" Hagan, a Greensboro attorney, certified to the North Carolina licensing board for electrical contractors that their son Tilden Hagan worked 3,500 hours installing electrical wiring and equipment over a period of 324 days in 2012 — requiring Tilden to work consecutive 76-hour weeks over that period.

Carolina Journal calculated the hours by comparing claims the Hagans made on applications Tilden Hagan filed for North Carolina contracting licenses in the "limited" and "unlimited" categories. On both applications, only one person attested to Tilden’s experience as an electrical installer: Chip Hagan, Tilden’s father. On the application for an unlimited license, a second person attested to Tilden’s experience: William Stewart, Tilden’s brother-in-law.

Surprisingly, the Hagans didn't respond to requests for comment. What makes Tilden Hagan's application even more suspicious is that he was apparently enrolled in medical school at UNC-Chapel Hill during the time when he was supposedly working those 76-hour weeks (almost 11 hours per day, including weekends). Tilden’s application also stated that he had been employed at his company, Solardyne, since February 2009, even though public records indicate the company was not formally established until August 2010, just days before his father’s company applied for the federal stimulus grant.