Time to Focus on Delegate Clarke Hogan

Clarke Hogan is quickly rising within the Republican Party.  Elected in 2001, Clarke has quickly moved up.  Why?  He is known as the "Vice Speaker" or other nicknames that are not printable here within the Republican Caucus because of his close ties to Speaker Bill Howell.  But why is Clarke, who was elected less than a year before Howell became Speaker so popular with Howell?

This has been a real sore point within the Republican Caucus, as senior members have been passed over for Clarke on some very plum assignments by the Speaker.  For example the former Chairman of the House Republican Caucus, Steve Landes, is on the Appropriations Committee and is a much more senior member than Clarke, but he was passed over by the Speaker as a budget conferee.   He has bitterly complained to his colleagues about this slight, as he has been a very loyal member of the Caucus.  So again, why is Clarke Hogan so popular with Bill Howell?  How did he become the "chosen one" by the Speaker.

As usual the answer is money, but this is time it is not as traceable.  The Speaker formed a group called the "Virginia Reform Institute", a 501 c(4) by tax law, which means it can not spend it's money on political campaigns, but also does not have to report its donors.  In other words, the committee can raise unlimited money from groups to study "policy" and voters never get to see who funded the Speaker's pet group.  Sources in the House Republican Caucus tell me that Clarke bragged about delivering a $50,000 check from a large southside donor to the group when it formed but there is no way to verify this because the Speaker does not release this information.

So all we can really rely on to guess here is who is funding Hogan himself. And that isn't a pretty picture.

Hogan's #1 individual donor of all time is a man named Bob Gluhareff.  His donor history is bizarre, I've never seen anything like this before and I have seen a lot of campaign finance reports. He gave Hogan $800 every single WEEK for fourteen straight weeks in 2001, for a total of $11,200.  It ended the week of the election.  If he wanted to give that large of an amount, why not write one or two checks?

Then I found this.  Those weekly payments for $800 are going to Ontario Hardwood, which is Clarke's company to pay the salary for "Bradley". Who is Bradley, why is Clarke not paying him directly through his campaign account and instead funneling it through his business?  And why is Bob Gluhareff paying "Bradley's" salary?  Something very strange is going on here.

Meanwhile who is Bob Gluhareff?  I'll let the News and Observer take that question:

"Prosecutors claim Bob Gluhareff, 61, illegally padded Wellspring Academy accounts with more than $662,000 in bad checks -- including ones parents believed he would hold until they secured loans to cover them. Prosecutors also think he criminally misled parents into thinking they could claim some of the South Boston, Va., school's $49,000 tuition as a charitable donation.

Gluhareff called the 36-count federal indictment, unsealed Friday in Virginia, the result of a prosecutorial "witch hunt" stirred up by parents angered by his school's sudden closure three years ago. He is charged with tax, wire, mail and bank fraud; money laundering; and making false statements before a grand jury.

...

Prosecutors believe that between 1999 and 2003, Gluhareff tried a series of financial maneuvers to keep his school chugging, including writing bad checks and cashing tuition checks that parents thought he would hold until they notified him that they had the money.

"Mr. Gluhareff took advantage of parents who were desperate to help their children," John L. Brownlee, the U.S. Attorney for western Virginia, said in a statement. "He was dishonest in his dealings with parents, banks and corporations."

Prosecutors claim, among other things, that none of the school's counselors were licensed in Virginia -- even though Gluhareff told parents that their kids would receive help from licensed counselors.

Well everyone is innocent until proven guilty so I went to check the trial transcripts. Gluhareff was convicted and sentenced to 30 months in federal prison.  Ouch.  Even worse for Hogan was some of the allegations in the indictment come in the same time period he was accepting these huge amounts of cash from Gluhareff.  Was this money given to Hogan stolen from a local school?  Why has Hogan not donated the money to charity or to the families who were bilked out of their life savings?

I'd love to ask the question to Mr. Gluhareff in prison, but last month this story took another twist.  From the Register Bee:

"Person County Sheriff Dewey Jones said the body of Robert S. Gluhareff, 63, of South Boston, was discovered by deputies Sunday morning in a wooded area off Edwin Robertson Road. Jones said deputies found the body at 7:37 a.m. while on patrol. The North Carolina State Medical Examiner was called to the scene and determined Gluhareff’s death was the result of a single gunshot wound, the sheriff said. The medical examiner said the wound was self-inflicted, Jones added."

That happened just last month as legislators were going back into session.  Something is going on here. Clarke has a lot of questions to answer, and he needs to provide some proof in those answers since Mr. Gluhareff can not speak for himself anymore.

Let's review. A sudden surge of influence for no apparent reason (bumping loyal and more senior Republicans above him out of the way), a bizarre pattern of donations from someone who was stealing from a school at the same time and rumors of Clarke bragging about delivering big checks to a 501 c(4) controlled by Speaker Bill Howell that doesn't report contributions.  Something is really foul here. 

And we may have found out because of one incident on the floor last week...

Comments

Hogan is one of the bigger jerks in the HoD. I'm interested to see what the news is....

By "jerk" I'm sure that you mean "totally awesome and capable delegate."

Clarke Hogan is a decorated Marine Corps veteran and recipient of the Navy Cross, the Silver Star and the Medal of Honor. He personally dispatched 100 Chinese Communists at the Chosin Resevoir.
No wait a sec... that was Chesty Puller. Never mind.

[Franklin County Admirer]

I sure hope this isn't about the illegal moonshine that Hogan keeps in the desk in his legislative office in Richmond.

With all of those State Troopers in that building, Hogan would be sweating bullets about the possession of an illegal substance in his taxpayer funded office.

You say "moonshine" -- he says "supporting local privately owned distilleries." Same difference.
But there's an odds-on chance that all that "shine" has rendered him blind.

[Houdon]

I'm bored. You must be too.

[Donkey Breath]

Someone say jerk off??

Woah, this story involves dead people. Got my attention.

[not frank ruff]

Bradley is Sheila Bradley, his legislative aide.

[Not Larry Sabato]

I deleted some comments here, this is not a thread for discussing the differences between 501 c3's and 501 c4's. No where in this post did I mention 501 c3's.

It seems to me that this guy did not fancy the idea of going to prison. Everything else is just typical politics and money stuff.

It's likely that the $800 donations were being given directly to Bradley and were reported as general contributions. In other words, they may never have actually gone into an account.

[Franklin Admirer]

What isn't so clear in this post is that South Boston is one of Virginia's most economically disadvantaged communities.

These parents were at the end of their ropes and relied upon the false promises of Gluhareff.

Nothing quite like kicking a man when he is down.

Hogan is a delegate AND a father, for him to be involved in this situation is simply outrageous. He knows better, and his community deserves better.

Also, it should be noted that US Attorney Brownlee is a partisan Republican. This is no political with hunt. Brownlee should be congratulated for pursuing this matter. He has certainly earned points in my book.

The problem with Southside Virginia is that the poor folks there keep voting against there best their own interests and returning the same do nothing politicians to Richmond-Hogan, Marshall, and now replacing do nothing Dudley with Sir Charles Poindexter.

You hate to think people get the government they deserve. However, these voters continue to fall for the social issue scare tactics of Tucker Watkins time and again.

Watkins and other GOP operatives will tell you it is about values and culture, what they don't tell you is that it is a culture of corruption and self-enrichment.

I have no idea if this story is true, but it's definitely interesting. You're definitely a better writer when you're not as conerned about feigning righteous indignation and instead focus on telling an interesting story and let the reader draw his own conclusions, Ben.

I want to be one of those poor southside folks that can afford to send my kid to a school that costs 49k.

Why would Gluheroff pay Hogan to pay a Hogan staffer on a weekly basis? That does not make sense. Wouldn't he have just paid a lump sum rather than weekly checks which would be a pain in the ass? Did Sheila Bradley work for Gluheroff and he was trying to find her a new job for some reason and Hogan had one? Or did she know something about Wellspring and needed to go somewhere else? Who knows? But it makes no sense that someone would write a weekly check to a campaign that then goes to pay a staffer on a weekly basis. There are a lot easier ways to do that.

Shelia has been with Clarke since he was first elected. It doesn't make sense that a donor would pay her salary for an extended period of time.

[Franklin Admirer]

To Anon 6:04...

The people couldn't afford to pay the 49k. That is where this story began to unravel.

Gluhareff accepted checks with the promise he would hold them until the money was there. Then he cashed them. Now the parents should have thought better, but they didn't.

As for them being well off because they wanted a better education for their children...you must not be a parent.

If it meant my kids would have a slight better chance in life, I would sell my blood to get it for them.

These parents were struggling to get their kids in school while Hogan runs his children from swim meet to swim meet. All the while he is in the pocket of the guy defrauding parents and investors.

Shame on Clarke Hogan.

[Sam]

6:04 have you taken a look at the public schools in South Boston? I don't care how poor you are, if you have even the possibility of sending your kid to a private school there, you do, even if it puts you in a mountain of debt.

What was the "incident from the House floor" that you are referring to and when do we hear about that?

fa,
You are mistaken I do have kids. sent them through private schools and are now in college. have refinanced the house multiple times to do so. did not cost 46k/ year to go to school. and sam if that was the only school in the area then i say there is a business opportunity there.

Not to mention the question of "Wy are we spending all that money for public schools?

[Not Larry Sabato]

As a point of information for everyone, part of the reason the tuition was so high at this school was because it was for "troubled" young people. Which makes it an even greater debacle that the school shut down and left these young people out in the cold.

Strange that the Roanoke times had this article today:

"Robert Serge Gluhareff, who headed the financially troubled Wellspring Academy in Halifax County, will spend 30 months in prison for a variety of fraud charges.
.....
Gluhareff said he plans to appeal."

Maybe someone should tell them he is no longer around to appeal

[Gnarly]

Wow...wild story....and a crazy Vince Foster ending to boot!!

[Pete in Williamsburg]

Ben,

Great investigative journalism, and it's a legit issue. However, I don't think it'll ever have real legs for two reasons:

1) It's a somewhat sophisticated story. It's hard to shrink it into a soundbite.

2) Even at the soundbite level, it's too easy for Hogan to distract by saying "what a bummer, I never knew I had a bad egg in my donor pool." Troubled donors have become such a common ailment for politicians, the public never seems eager to tie them to the sins of the contributor. Abramoff anyone?

As an overall chip in the stack of woes of Virginia Republicans, it's excellent. As always, Republicans campaign on the idea that politics stink, then they get elected and prove it themselves.

[JMU Duke]

Pete, I agree with you that as constituted this story is a little tough to pick up and slam on someone's head, but I think Ben's point is that there is more to come. Now just whenever he decides to post the last piece I don't know, but I'm refreshing pretty consistently.

[Pete in Williamsburg]

JMU Duke,

It's the standard sort of outrageous act that only outrages insiders. It takes a lot to grab the attention of political non-junkies. In addition, Republicans are very skilled at shrugging off responsibilities. Wilson reports "no yellow cake" and a few months later it ends up as a core assertion in the state of the union address. What is the Rove response? "Sixteen little words were wrong." It's like an artform with them. Meanwhile, the public never came close to understanding that the yellow-cake story was the reason for all the Scooter Libby fuss.

As for this story, I wish Woodward and Ben-stein successful legs on this story.

[not an obamalemming]

it was never a yellow cake issue. it was an issue of some dem's not getting what they want and trying to slam the admin. by making up a story. the chick was not a covert agent, just ask her neighbors and friends who were well aware of her job.

The typical political hack job that missed the target but would take what they could get.

Kinda like obama is handling the dress up issue.

Find someone to smear... avoid the question.

it is unbelieveable that this man can wear that garb for a muslem nation but not wear the flag pin for ours

Anon 9:43, that Roanoke Times story ran not yesterday, but in October.
From Google searching I found this, more recent story, which documents the apparent suicide:
http://www.roanoke.com/news/roanoke/wb/147210

[Pete in Williamsburg]

Lamer at 12:03, thank you for validating my point about shrugging off responsibility and distracting from the issue.

[UVA Rockstar]

Interesting stuff here, but you had better keep following the trail in
the high interest of informing the public. Clarke Hogan has
been rabid in his opposition to studying uranium mining in Pittsylvania
County. He stands ready to destroy the uranium study bill in one of his
Committees in the House--using the power given him by Speaker Bill
Howell. It's one thing to be skeptical about uranium, or to want more
answers, or to be cautious, or whatever. Not Clarke Hogan. He has gone
nuts against the whole possibility, using wild and unfounded charges
that few educated people would even consider. His closest ally in this
irrationality is a man called Jack Dunavant who is in the paving and
earth-moving business in Hogan's home county of Halifax. Dunavant leads
a small group of screamers and squealers called Southside Concerned
Citizens who go around to any public gathering screeching their
opposition to studying uranium mining.

Because Hogan seems to jump when Jack Dunavant says "BOO!", the
frequent question is, "What's Dunavant got on Hogan?"

Look a little harder. You just might find something that really
serves the public interest.

[joe]

why are you after hogan? he's the only hope for conservatives in virginia. he ought to be governor.

[Willie Jane]

Governor of WHAT? Governor of the Luddites perhaps.

If Hogan is the only hope for conservatives in Virginia, then you may as well say there is NO hope for conservatives in Virginia.

[Willie Jane]

There is no hope. Guys like Hogan and Howell will guarantee the Republican loss of the House. It's inevitable. And good riddance.

[Trent in Halfiax]

Gluhareff's school, Wellspring Acadamy, was not a private school alternative to public schools. It was a residential school for problem students. It did not draw students from Halifax County or even Southside Virginia. I think it may have offered "scholarships" to a few local students, but there were no locals paying $49,000.

Yes it was very important to Gluhareff that the troubled teens did not have family that could come check on them. Remember the bible spare the rod spoil the child. Women are to be subserviant to men. These are "christian men". They neither spared the rod nor hesitated to settle perverse lawsuits out of court. Check how many students commited "suicide".

As for who is "bradley" I don't know but these people seem to use women for only certain things. Is she pretty?

[Jean in Cosmos]

What is the big deal about Bob Gluhareff? Why has so much focus continued on someone who obviously was in pain and took his life as the best way "out"?? Let the poor guy and his family rest and not have to wonder about "this" and "that". It's over - let it be