Alan Mollohan

Alan Mollohan
Member of the U.S. House of Representatives from West Virginia's 1st district
In office 1983–present
Preceded by	Bob Mollohan
Personal details
Political party	Democratic
Spouse	Barbara Whiting
Residence	Fairmont, West Virginia
Alma mater	College of William and Mary, West Virginia University
Occupation	attorney

Alan Bowlby Mollohan (born May 14, 1943, in Fairmont, West Virginia) is a Democratic member of United States House of Representatives, representing West Virginia's 1st district (map). The district encompasses the northern part of the state; it based in Wheeling and includes Parkersburg, Morgantown, Fairmont and Clarksburg. He serves on the House Appropriations Committee and was ranking Democrat on the Ethics Committee until being asked to step down in 2006.

He attended Greenbrier Military School and graduated from the College of William and Mary. Thereafter, Mollohan completed a law degree at West Virginia University. When his father, Bob, retired in 1982 after 16 years in Congress spread out over two stints, he endorsed his son as his successor. Alan was elected that November in a very competitive contest. He faced another close race in 1984, but was unopposed for a third term in 1986. He has not faced serious opposition in a general election since, running unopposed in 1992, 1996, and 2002. In 1998 and 2000, no Republican candidate ran against Mollohan. In both of those years he was opposed by a Libertarian Richard Kerr, but Mollohan won handily.

He last faced any serious electoral competition when, in 1992, West Virginia lost a House seat due to the 1990 Census. The redistricting placed Mollohan against another representative, 2nd District Congressman Harley O. Staggers, Jr.. No other party put up a candidate, meaning that the Democratic primary was tantamount to election. It was predicted to be a tough primary, however Mollohan succeeded in winning his party's nomination with 60% of the vote.

Scandals and controversies

On February 28, 2006, National Legal and Policy Center filed a 500-page ethics complaint against Mollohan, alleging that the congressman misrepresented his assets on financial disclosure forms. Mollohan's real estate holdings and other assets have increased from $562,000 in 2000 to at least $6.3 million in 2004. For the period 1996 through 2004, NLPC alleged that his Financial Disclosure Reports failed to disclose real estate, corporate and financial assets that public records showed were owned by Mollohan and his wife.

On April 7, 2006, The New York Times reported that Mollohan "has fueled five non-profit groups in his West Virginia district with $250 million in earmark funding" [1] UPI.

On April 21, 2006, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi announced that Mollohan would temporarily step down as the Ranking Democrat on the House Ethics Committee. Howard Berman of California took Mollohan's place.

On April 25, 2006, The Wall Street Journal reported that Mollohan cooperated with CEO Dale R. McBride of FMW Composite Systems Inc. of Bridgeport, West Virginia for the joint purchase of his 300-acre (1.2 km²) farm along West Virginia's Cheat River. Mollohan had directed a $2.1 million government contract earmarked to FWM composite systems to develop lightweight payload pallets for space-shuttle missions. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents have started asking questions in Washington and West Virginia about Mollohan’s investments and whether they were properly disclosed, according to the Journal. Mollohan had previously acknowledged he may have made inadvertent mistakes on financial disclosure forms, and in June he filed more than two dozen corrections to his disclosure statements.

2006 Election

Mollohan handily defeated Delegate Chris Wakim of Wheeling, receiving 64% of the vote to Wakim's 36%. Wakim himself had questions raised concerning his stated educational background and military experience. The National Republican Congressional Committee had targeted Mollohan for defeat, but Mollohan withstood the challenge.

Detailed financial information released by Mollohan debunked the claims of the right-wing activist group accused him of committing hundreds of violations in his financial disclosure statements.

“The information that I am releasing today provides a literal chronology of the real estate transactions that my wife Barbara and I have made, including the sources of the money we have invested,” Mollohan said.

“The documents prove that the National Legal and Policy Center [NLPC] has wildly exaggerated the inadvertent errors on my past financial disclosure statements. They also show that NLPC is dead wrong in implying that I have improperly benefited from my office,” he said.

Rather than the “over 250 misrepresentations and omissions” alleged by the group, a vigorous review conducted with the assistance of the Mollohans’ accounting firm – Braund Eiler & Vasko – yielded only a relative handful of mistakes. They have been corrected through amendments filed today with the Clerk of the House.

“NLPC has raised questions and I have answered them – fully, honestly and openly. The only people hiding anything are the members of the group, who continue to conceal the 500-page complaint they have prepared against me,” Mollohan said.

NLPC issued a press release April 7 accusing Mollohan of “hiding” assets and “grossly misrepresenting” their value in the personal financial reports that members of Congress must file each year.

Mollohan vehemently disputed the allegations and challenged NLPC to publicly release its report. The organization refused to do so, choosing instead to repeatedly leak portions of its complaint to selected media.

Mollohan said that NLPC, like Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, refuses to stand by the accuracy of the secret and mysterious report it uses to “raise questions” and imply impropriety. The Charleston Gazette reported May 28 that “[NLPC Chairman Ken] Boehm said it is not his responsibility to determine whether everything in the report is true.”

In response to the attacks, Mollohan undertook a comprehensive review of the disclosure statements he filed from 1996 to present.

“For more than a decade, my wife Barbara has marketed and managed our real estate investments. That is her full-time job; it’s been her career for 10 years. She has worked hard at it and she has been successful,” Mollohan said. “Rather than simply recognizing the long hours Barbara has put into her career, NLPC has made sinister allegations about our investments.

“The group also has ignored that we received a sizable inheritance, took on considerable financial risks, and had the good fortune to be investing in a rising real estate market. It is those factors that are responsible for the increase of our assets.

“But it has been obvious for some time that NLPC is not really interested in learning the truth. It is not a public watchdog. It is an attack dog controlled by, and linked to, national political operatives who are desperate to unseat me because I refused to let the House Republican leadership gut the House ethics process last year,” he said.

As the top Democrat on the House Standards of Official Conduct Committee, Mollohan blocked Republican leaders from weakening ethics rules in 2005. He also prevented the panel’s new chairman from installing his own staffer to the nonpartisan staff director position.

In its April 7 press release, NLPC said it began looking into Mollohan’s finances in May 2005. That was immediately after Mollohan prevailed in the ethics rules fight, which an April 28, 2005, New York Times article described as “a significant political embarrassment for a [Republican] majority accustomed to winning almost all of its fights.”

In addition to issuing the analysis of his finances and his amendment letter to the House clerk, Mollohan today released his 2005 financial disclosure statement. Also today, he is providing to all interested media over 200 pages of supporting documents regarding his and his wife’s real estate transactions.

External links

• U.S. Congressman Alan B. Mollohan official House site

• Biography at the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress
• Financial information (federal office) at the Federal Election Commission
• Profile at Vote Smart