Oct. 26, 2006
 
Wakim Campaign Filing Complaint with Federal Election Commission over West Virginia Values LLC 527 Group
 
By HNN Staff
 
Wheeling, WV (HNN) – The Wakim Campaign is filing an official complaint with the Federal Election Commission on an alleged illegal coordination between U.S. Rep. Alan Mollohan, D-WV and West Virginia Values, LLC, the 527 group that attacked Chris Wakim.
 
Wakim campaign spokesman Will Holley told HNN on Oct. 25, 2006:: “Federal law prohibits any coordination whatsoever between political campaigns and 527 groups. However, the California land baron who funded the shadowy group, West Virginia Values, is a long time Mollohan crony who receives millions in earmarks and returns the favor by sending tens of thousands of dollars back to Mollohan and his organizations. Jeffery Burum, the California land developer who donated $50,000 to the 527 group, sits on the board of the Vandalia Heritage Foundation and is the co-chairman of the National Housing Development Corporation. These organizations are part of the network of non-profit organizations that have put the FBI on Mollohan’s trail due to shady financial dealings involving over $200 million in Mollohan earmarks since 2000, according to the New York Times. Burum also donated well over $20,000 to Mollohan’s campaign and foundation since 2002.”
 
Any contact between Mollohan and Burum about the 527’s activities would add yet another offence to the long list of Mollohan misdeeds that the federal government is already investigating, Holley said. He didn’t provide a timeline on the date of filing of the official complaint with the FEC.
 
Chris Wakim, a Republican Ohio County member of the West Virginia House of Delegates, said, “Alan Mollohan is a two bit crook and a political thug. He and his friends will stop at nothing. This is just the latest indication of why it is so very probable that Alan Mollohan and his buddies are likely to find themselves in jail when all is said and done. You cannot stuff taxpayer dollars into your pockets in corrupt schemes and get away with it forever. While West Virginia families suffer the effects of a bad economy, Alan Mollohan and his pals callously abuse the system for their personal gain. Our friends and families simply will not tolerate it any longer.
 
Alan Mollohan has to go.”
 
Editor’s note: For a Sept. 29, 2006 Washington Post news story about the Mollohan-Wakim race, click on:
 
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/28/AR2006092801821.html
 
Additionally, Common Cause has checked in with a more recent blog on the Mollohan controversy: http://www.commonblog.com/tag/Rep.%20Mollohan For more on 527 groups and their controversial position in the political spectrum: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/527_group
 
For more on the National Housing Development Corp.:
 
http://www.nhdc.org/home/executive_address.html
 
California developer Jeffery Burum is included in the list of members of the board of directors of Vandalia. Here’s the web site for Vandalia:
 
http://www.vandalia.org/who.htm