Dear PoP – Whoa – is this what corruption looks like?

“Dear PoP,

We were sitting inside Room 11 last week and looked out to see these MC Dean contractors hanging a Jim Graham campaign sign. I can’t say that I saw them placing the sign, but I did notice them stapling it and placing it just right. I thought at first (trying to give them the benefit of the doubt) they were just adjusting it so they could do real city business on that lamp pole, but nope. After dealing with the sign they just packed up and moved on.

MC Dean is a locally based contractor, but they’re international (a friend works for them, contracted by the US Army in Germany), so it seems like they’d be a bit too expensive for Graham’s campaign coffers to hire just for the sake of hanging his signs.

This just seemed wrong, and all of us sitting at the table were shocked.”

Sorry for the delay in posting but it fell off my radar until I saw this Washington Post article:

“Bill Dean, president and CEO of M.C. Dean, said his crews covered “specific areas” of the ward for Graham, with employees working several nights last week. A portion of the work, he said, is being done as an “in-kind” donation to Graham. Dean said he closely tracks the work to comply with campaign finance laws — which, in D.C. ward races, limit any individual or corporation from donating more than $500 to any one candidate. The Graham campaign would be billed for any overage, he said.”