Del. Phil Hamilton, of Virginia Beach, was one of the most powerful legislators in the General Assembly.
He was chairman of the powerful Health, Welfare and Institutions Committee in the House of Delegates. He was the No. 2 Republican on the omniponent Appropriations Committee, chaired by Del. Lacey Putney, of Bedford. He also was a House budget conferee who, each year, played a key role in developing the state’s budget.
Behind Speaker of the House Bill Howell, of Stafford County, and Putney, he was arguably the third-most powerful person in the Assembly.
The operative word in all this is “was,” for Hamilton resigned the House seat he held for 21 years. Nov. 3, he lost his re-election race to a political novice by about 1,500 votes.
The reason he lost — and the reason he quit his seat early — is that he was embroiled in a sordid tale of influence peddling in Richmond that has besmirched the Assembly’s reputation as nothing else has in recent years.
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As an Appropriations member, he was able to insert a line item into the state budget several years ago on behalf of Old Dominion University in Norfolk. The $500,000 he procured for ODU paid for the start up of a teacher resource center at the school that, shock of shocks, immediately hired him in a $40,000-per-year job that did little. To make matters even worse, e-mails and other correspondence obtained by newspapers in the area made it plain he made the job a prerequisite for the funding itself.
In August, Speaker Howell asked the House ethics committee to investigate Hamilton for any possible violations of House ethics. Reportedly, the members have met several times since as part of that investigation.
But, evidently, under House guidelines, Hamilton’s resignation stops the inquiry in its tracks: He’s no longer a member of the House, therefore the ethics committee has no power over him. (He’s not out of the woods, as a federal grand jury has been convened to investigate the matter.)
Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, speaking earlier this week to the editorial board of The Virginian-Pilot, said that it would be wrong for the House leadership to halt the probe. Virginia citizens, Kaine said, deserve to know what happened, what went wrong and what needs to change to avert a similar scandal in the future.
Howell, however, seems to disagree, telling the paper that Hamilton’s already paid a heavy price in the scandal. He went on to suggest that Democrats and others who want to continue the probe “aren’t going to be satisfied until he’s hanging from the gallows.”
Simply put, the governor is correct; Virginians deserve to have this scandal cleaned up in the bright light of day.
And no, Mr. Speaker, we’re not out to see former Del. Hamilton “hanging from the gallows.” We’re out to see the honor and reputation of the House of Delegates restored. We would hope you would be, too.
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