Carter Wrenn, in Talking about Politics blog:

When Pat (McCrory) took office the only place most people had seen him or heard him speak was in his campaign’s TV ads — and in those ads Pat was attractive and reasonable. …

But a few months later, when two of Pat’s campaign aides were appointed to jobs in the Department of Health & Human Services after he was elected, the press began asking questions. At first Pat chose not to answer, but when the reporters kept asking he explained the aides were fine young men who were smart and qualified and the salaries were fair. The aides were making $85,000 and $87,500 each. And they were each 24 years old.

At that moment I think the old perception people had of Pat began to unravel and, watching him, they started to think, “He’s not the man we thought he was.”