Sunday, June 10, 2007
Editorial: More than just the appearance
It doesn't just appear improper for an attorney general candidate to accept large donations from the target of an investigation. It is improper.
From the RoundTable blog
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Attorney General Bob McDonnell's chief deputy William Mims said his boss "believes strongly in avoiding even the appearance of impropriety."
McDonnell has a strange way of showing it.
Someone who truly believes in avoiding even the appearance of impropriety -- much less the real thing -- wouldn't have accepted $25,000 in campaign contributions from the apparent target of a state investigation.
But that's just what McDonnell did while running for attorney general in 2005. He accepted a $12,500 personal check from Dan Hoffler, the former chairman of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, and another check for the same amount from Hoffler's development corporation Armada Hoffler.
Hoffler had stepped down earlier that year from the game department after he and other officials were accused of waste, cronyism and misuse of state property.
The allegations arose from a state audit in May 2005 and were fleshed out in a state police investigation forwarded to the attorney general's office in July of that year.
McDonnell accepted the contributions in August and October.
Among the irregularities uncovered by the audit:
n $11,352 in hunting gear was purchased on state credit cards by three top officials for an African safari. Hoffler paid for the safari after the state rejected a department request to fund the junket.
n An all-terrain vehicle and two watercraft owned by the agency were kept at Hoffler's waterfront home on the Eastern Shore.
n Security at Hoffler's annual dove hunt was provided by game wardens.
It's been two years, and the investigation, according to the attorney general's office, is "ongoing." No information has been made public except for this recent tidbit: Soon after taking office, McDonnell ceded all authority on the investigation to Mims.
That step is apparently supposed to erase any conflict of interest or appearance of impropriety within the attorney general's office.
Sorry, but that doesn't cut it, especially when the office is so tight-lipped about an investigation that should have been concluded long ago.
Even Hoffler was surprised to find out the investigation was still ongoing.
Navy retiree Lee Albright, the gadfly who uncovered many of the abuses, told The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot, "Watergate didn't take this long to investigate."
McDonnell should have had the good sense to refuse to accept any contribution from the target of an investigation by the office he was hoping to run.
He already failed that test. The best McDonnell could do now is to return the contributions and order his office to inform the public about the status of this long-delayed investigation.
Virginia deserves an attorney general who knows the difference between the appearance of impropriety and actual impropriety. McDonnell clearly does not.
