Virginia House Democrats

Editorial boards across Virginia have addressed Phil Hamilton's cozy, state-funded consulting gig, and the verdict is unanimous: something's fishy.

Delegate, university show poor judgment

Virginian-Pilot, 8/1/09

"The responsibility falls first on the 20-year lawmaker and second-ranking member of the Appropriations Committee. State law admonishes legislators not to 'accept any business or professional opportunity when he knows that there is a reasonable likelihood that the opportunity is being afforded him to influence him in the performance of his official duties.'"

[...]

"In the absence of an advisory commission, Hamilton could have consulted the House Rules Committee or the attorney general, but he did not."

There ought to be a law

Roanoke Times, 8/3/09

"Del. Phillip Hamilton of Newport News, who is chairman of the House Appropriations Committee and is one of the most powerful members of the General Assembly, has slipped into an unethical but legal situation, even if he does not admit it."

Money and Politics

Daily Press, 8/6/09

"Del. Phil Hamilton has some explaining to do....something can pass the 'strictly legal' test and still make citizens sniff at it like a cook checking out yesterday's fish."

[...]

"Hamilton's no stranger to controversy about conflicts of interest. He stepped in it when he took $10,000 from Merck, the only maker of a vaccine against HPV (Gardasil), then sponsored legislation to make the vaccine mandatory for every girl entering middle school. And when other non-state agencies were going begging, he secured a special appropriation for a private health service on whose unpaid board he sits." 

[...]

"[B]oth ODU and Hamilton need to air this thing out — not just with denials and rationalizations, but by giving the public a look at the paper trails (or e-mail trails) that show how this deal was done, how Hamilton was hired and how it works today."