Congressman Alan Mollohan gets special Attention ...Front Page New York Times Article
Choose your liberal or conservative newspaper: The Wall Street Journal and the New York Times both have had Mollohan on their front page two days in a row. Both articles are on Gundovald. Mollohan says that "someone cooked up a sinister stew" and "I think everyone will feel comfortable with this" ...WBOY-TV Video
Congressman's Special Projects Bring Complaints
As lawmakers have increasingly slipped pet projects into federal spending bills over the past decade, one lawmaker has used his powerful perch on the House Appropriations Committee to funnel $250 million into five nonprofit organizations that he set up.
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Stephen Crowley/The New York Times
Alan B. Mollohan, left, senior Democrat on the House ethics committee, with Commerce Secretary Carlos Guitierrez at an appropriation hearing Friday.
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By The New York Times
Fairmont, W.Va., is the hometown of Representative Alan B. Mollohan.
Those actions have prompted a complaint to federal prosecutors that questions whether any of that taxpayer money helped fuel a parallel growth in his personal fortune.
The most ambitious effort by the congressman, Alan B. Mollohan, is a glistening glass-and-steel structure with a swimming pool, sauna and spa rising in a former cow pasture in Fairmont, W.Va., thanks to $103 million of taxpayer money he garnered through special spending allocations known as earmarks.
The headquarters building is likely to sit largely empty upon completion this summer, because the Mollohan-created organization that it was built for, the Institute for Scientific Research, is in disarray, its chief executive having resigned under a cloud of criticism over his $500,000 annual compensation, also paid by earmarked federal money.
The five organizations have diverse missions but form a cozy, cross-pollinated network in the forlorn former coal capitals of north-central West Virginia. Mr. Mollohan has recruited many of their top employees and board members, including longtime friends or former aides, who in turn provide him with steady campaign contributions and positive publicity in their newsletters.
The conservative National Legal and Policy Center in Falls Church, Va., filed a 500-page complaint with the United States attorney for the District of Columbia on Feb. 28 challenging the accuracy of Mr. Mollohan's financial disclosure forms. The forms show a sharp spike in assets and income from rental properties from 2000 to 2004.
Federal authorities said yesterday that they were reviewing the complaint, which was reported in The Wall Street Journal.
The case has led several Republican leaders to call for Mr. Mollohan's removal from the House ethics committee, where he is the senior Democrat.
In a statement yesterday, he said, "These groups were not created to benefit me in any way, and they never have."
Mr. Mollohan noted that the National Legal and Policy Center had attacked other Democrats and their union supporters and that it began its inquiry last May after he had voted against Republican efforts to water down House ethics rules.
"Obviously, I am in the crosshairs of the National Republican Party and like-minded entities," said Mr. Mollohan, who faces a serious electoral challenge in November. Vice President Dick Cheney is scheduled to headline a fund-raiser on April 21 for the Republican whom the White House recruited to run against Mr. Mollohan.
"They are angry at me, and I fully expect that from now until November they will continue to make baseless charges against me, my record and my family," the statement said. "I will vigorously defend my service and not be intimidated by their heavy-handed tactics."
In previous interviews, Mr. Mollohan acknowledged that he had failed to pay 2004 taxes on income from rental properties in Washington and North Carolina, resulting in a state lien of $8,948.28 being filed on Dec. 1. He said the case was resolved by final payments of all taxes, interest and penalties by January.
"Obviously it's totally my fault," he said. "I just neglected this, and it was paid late, and I regret that."
In the last three years, Mr. Mollohan, a Democrat first elected in 1982 to a seat long held by his father, has bought $2 million worth of property on Bald Head Island, N.C., with Laura Kurtz Kuhns, a former employee who now runs one of the organizations and is on the boards of two others.
He was unapologetic about his earmarks, saying that local lawmakers knew their constituents' needs best, and that he was hardly alone in mainlining money back home. "The amount of money in the transportation bill spent in Illinois in earmarked projects is astronomical," he said. "It puts $100 million on the I.S.R. building in real perspective."
The earmarking occurred as an abundance of local projects was added to spending bills outside the normal budget review, from $32.9 billion in 2000 to $64 billion in 2006, the Congressional Research Service said. Although it is impossible to trace individual earmarks for certain, an analysis by Citizens Against Government Waste, a Washington watchdog, found $480 million added in the House or in conference committees, most likely by Mr. Mollohan, for his district since 1995. That sum helped West Virginia rank fourth on the watchdog list � $131.58 for each of the 1.8 million West Virginians this year.
posted by Gundovald at 4/09/2006 11:13:00 PM
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