Sept. 23, 2010
West Virginia Politics Has Long History with Federal Investigations
Part One in a Series
By Huntingtonnews.net Staff
West Virginia's long and storied record of political corruption may not
be as violent as neighboring Kentucky's, where as recently as a decade
ago a Sheriff's candidate was gunned down at a fish fry.
However, West Virginia may have the record for most high-ranking officials going to the federal clink of any state in the nation. Observers have long noted that the West Virginia statehouse seems to invite a certain kind of criminal element, one that sees the state budget as a fat purse ripe for the taking.
Indeed, once some elected officials maneuver into real positions of power, they see the endless number of state and federal projects, each going into the multiple millions of dollars, as just too tempting to pass up. Either that, or they were sent with a pre-existing mission to fleece the public.
Take Wally Barron, for example. From 1961-65, Barron was the ebuillient Democratic Governor from Elkins, good with the public and press. A graduate of Washington and Lee University and the WVU College of Law, Barron was well-educated and urbane.
He was also a Democratic machine politician, groomed by the machine to serve as Mayor of Elkins in 1949, then in the House of Delegates. He then moved quickly into the Marland Administration in 1952 as Liquor Control Commissioner--a place where the machine her served could rake in kickbacks from bar owners across the state.
Having served his machine fellows well, they helped put him in as Attorney General in 1956, then as Governor in the 1960 election, where he quickly went to work to dismantle the clean government and civil rights reforms of his predecessor, Cecil H. Underwood. According to veteran reporter Tom Stafford, Barron's abuse of power was prolific.
In his book, Afflicting the Comfortable, the former reporter for the Raleigh Register and Charleston Gazette states that Barron and his top aides rigged bids for services and equipment. They drafted state contracts to favor specific companies and then funnelled payoffs from state contractors to themselves through a maze of bank accounts and numerous companies from Ohio to Florida.
Stafford claims that Governor Barron and his associates took in nearly $25 million in bribes and payoffs. The 2010 equivalent of that 1960s haul would be hard to estimate. Stafford goes on to add that Barron and some friends backed Republican Arch Moore over Democratic nominee James Sprouse in 1968.
West Virginia historians like Otis Rice simply dismiss the Barron Administration as largely corrupt. Numerous Barron Administration officials had been convicted of charges including bribery, falsification of records, conspiracy and tax evasion. Barron escaped his term as Governor personally unscathed, but the law caught up with him later on while he pursued his Charleston law practice.
Though acquitted in a 1968 trial, the former Democratic Governor pleaded guilty in 1971 to bribing his jury's foreman. Sentenced to five years, Barron served three years and four months in federal prison.
Afterwards, Barron joined his family in ignominy in Pompano Beach, Florida. He died on November 12, 2002 in Charlotte, North Carolina at age 90. His widow, Opal Barron, passed away in Greenville, S.C. just last week at the age of 95.
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West Virginia Politics Has Long History with Federal Investigations
Part One in a Series
By Huntingtonnews.net Staff
West Virginia's long and storied record of political corruption may not
be as violent as neighboring Kentucky's, where as recently as a decade
ago a Sheriff's candidate was gunned down at a fish fry.
However, West Virginia may have the record for most high-ranking officials going to the federal clink of any state in the nation. Observers have long noted that the West Virginia statehouse seems to invite a certain kind of criminal element, one that sees the state budget as a fat purse ripe for the taking.
Indeed, once some elected officials maneuver into real positions of power, they see the endless number of state and federal projects, each going into the multiple millions of dollars, as just too tempting to pass up. Either that, or they were sent with a pre-existing mission to fleece the public.
Take Wally Barron, for example. From 1961-65, Barron was the ebuillient Democratic Governor from Elkins, good with the public and press. A graduate of Washington and Lee University and the WVU College of Law, Barron was well-educated and urbane.
He was also a Democratic machine politician, groomed by the machine to serve as Mayor of Elkins in 1949, then in the House of Delegates. He then moved quickly into the Marland Administration in 1952 as Liquor Control Commissioner--a place where the machine her served could rake in kickbacks from bar owners across the state.
Having served his machine fellows well, they helped put him in as Attorney General in 1956, then as Governor in the 1960 election, where he quickly went to work to dismantle the clean government and civil rights reforms of his predecessor, Cecil H. Underwood. According to veteran reporter Tom Stafford, Barron's abuse of power was prolific.
In his book, Afflicting the Comfortable, the former reporter for the Raleigh Register and Charleston Gazette states that Barron and his top aides rigged bids for services and equipment. They drafted state contracts to favor specific companies and then funnelled payoffs from state contractors to themselves through a maze of bank accounts and numerous companies from Ohio to Florida.
Stafford claims that Governor Barron and his associates took in nearly $25 million in bribes and payoffs. The 2010 equivalent of that 1960s haul would be hard to estimate. Stafford goes on to add that Barron and some friends backed Republican Arch Moore over Democratic nominee James Sprouse in 1968.
West Virginia historians like Otis Rice simply dismiss the Barron Administration as largely corrupt. Numerous Barron Administration officials had been convicted of charges including bribery, falsification of records, conspiracy and tax evasion. Barron escaped his term as Governor personally unscathed, but the law caught up with him later on while he pursued his Charleston law practice.
Though acquitted in a 1968 trial, the former Democratic Governor pleaded guilty in 1971 to bribing his jury's foreman. Sentenced to five years, Barron served three years and four months in federal prison.
Afterwards, Barron joined his family in ignominy in Pompano Beach, Florida. He died on November 12, 2002 in Charlotte, North Carolina at age 90. His widow, Opal Barron, passed away in Greenville, S.C. just last week at the age of 95.
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