A Virginia House panel has dropped a probe into whether Phil Hamilton, a powerful former delegate, broke ethics rules by steering state dollars to a university teaching center while pursuing a job there.
The once-influential GOP lawmaker resigned earlier this month from his Newport News seat after losing a bid for re-election. Hamilton’s departure leaves the House Ethics Advisory Panel without the ability to investigate him, members of the panel wrote in a letter to House Speaker William Howell. Hamilton’s conduct is still the subject of a federal investigation.
The Republican delegate sat on the House Appropriations Committee and was part of a small team of negotiators tasked with hammering out a budget compromise with the Virginia Senate. He frequently spoke for his caucus on fiscal matters.
Hamilton’s re-election hopes were dealt a fatal blow when two Hampton Roads newspapers unearthed a string of e-mails that showed him negotiating a job and salary at an Old Dominion University teacher training center while he secured $500,000 in state funds to create the center.
Hamilton and the university severed their ties after the story broke in the Virginian Pilot and Daily Press. The scandal quickly became election season fodder, and nearly every statewide candidate — both Republican and Democrat — called for him to resign.
Howell, who had asked for the House investigation, expressed disappointment at the panel’s decision. He suggested the process by which the House investigates its own members will be reviewed during the 2010 General Assembly session.
“While I regret that their fact-finding inquiry did not reach a final conclusion whether an actual violation of state law occurred, I understand the decision by the ethics panel and respect them for not wanting to operate outside of the legal authority granted by the Code of Virginia,” Howell said.
Hamilton lost re-election to Democratic challenger Robin Abbott by an eight-point margin on Nov. 3, and resigned effective Nov. 15.
He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
