The DCCC And Corrupt Recruitment: Rot Spreads At The Core-- Meet Blue Dog Clark Hall

Digby, John and I host a lot of Democrats when they come to L.A.-- but mostly progressive ones and rarely high-ranking members of the Beltway Establishment. So we were shocked recently when the chief-of-staff of one of DC's top Dems said they'd be in town and would like to get together. It was a very pleasant dinner but something left me sick to my stomach. The chief-of-staff had worked on Capitol Hill for 16 years and told us that Washington is more corrupt now than ever and that we were fooling ourselves if we thought the Establishment Democrats were any less corrupt than the Establishment Republicans.

What really gets me is that the DCCC seems hell-bent on keeping it that way. They actually go out of their way to recruit corrupt and corruptible members, people who are motivated by cash waved under their snouts by the lobbyists and corporate special interests who party leaders like Steny Hoyer, Steve Israel, Joe Crowley, Rahm Emanuel, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, et al have used to help claw their way to the top. A few days ago, someone at a meeting asked me why Blue America hasn't backed a progressive candidate from somewhere or other yet. I said I hadn't gotten around to investigating this one yet because they had been endorsed by the DCCC so I assumed there was a good chance they were on the wrong side of the issues and an even better chance that they were a corrupt corporate shill. (As it turned out, I was incorrect on that one; it was one of a handful of cases where the DCCC was backing a good Democrat with a sense of ethics. It must have killed Israel and Crowley to let that happen.) One Blue Dog sleazebag who the DCCC was quick to embrace-- and who Blue America would never get behind under any circumstances-- was racist and reactionary Clark Hall, a self-admitted Blue Dog from Arkansas.

No doubt you've heard the phrase “Rot Spreads At The Core.” It's a term used to describe how corruption spreads throughout a tree. But in this case we will use it to describe how a relatively unknown candidate from rural Arkansas can be launched into being adopted by the Blue Dog Coalition, have hundreds of thousands of dollars raised on his behalf and possibly become one of 535 people controlling the most powerful country in the world.

You may remember the aforementioned Hall, putatively a Democrat, running for the Arkansas 1st district congressional seat from an earlier post discussing his ties to a blatantly segregationist academy in Marvell, Arkansas. Well hold on to your corn pipe and rebel-trucker hat, because we've discovered more.

It turns out Clark Hall has illegally been taking two homestead exemptions for nearly a decade-- one in Lonoke County and another in his home county-- Phillips. Since purchasing a property in Lonoke County in 2004, the Halls have illegally doubled up on their homestead exemption and owe the state at least $2,300 for seven years worth of doubling up on their exemption.

According to the State of Arkansas, homeowners may receive up to a $350 (increased from $300 in 2008) property tax credit on their homesteads. Eligibility for the credit is confined to a homeowner's principal place of residence. Only one homestead per property owner is eligible to receive the tax credit.

According to property records in Phillips County, Clark Hall currently receives a homestead exemption on his main residence in Marvell (the property is listed only under his wife’s name).#  An employee at the Phillips County Assessor’s’ Office verbally confirmed that the property has been receiving the exemption since 2001.

Additionally, Hall has owned property in Lonoke County since 2004, also under his wife’s name. The Halls have been receiving the annual $350 tax credit since owning the property in 2004, according to a phone call to the Lonoke County Assessor’s’ Office.

But this isn't the only graft Clark Hall has been using to pad his pockets. Since 1995, Hall has received more than $750,000 in federal government subsidies for his farming operation.

As a state legislator, Clark Hall has voted to increase his own salary twice and even voted for a bill that allowed himself to qualify for retirement benefits. At the same time Clark voted against increasing benefits for retired cops and firefighters. (Yeah, that's why we said "putative" Democrat.)

But wait, there's more! Hall has been paying companies he owns out of his taxpayer-funded office budget. He paid one of his companies $2,000 for secretarial work in 2007; and in 2009 he paid another one $9,000.

In a state of only 2.9 million people, one person from a district of 725,000 will become the next U.S. Congressman. That person will sit on committees and decide the fate of funding that will be distributed across our country. Can we afford to be silent? Can we afford to let “Good Ole Boy” politics carry the day? Here is another phrase, “We Get The Government We Deserve”... And the DCCC isn't going to make it any easier on any of us. They want corruptionists like Hall-- corruptionists like themselves and like Eric Cantor, John Boehner, Paul Ryan... the whole stinkin' lot, regardless of party.

The DCCC claims to stay out of primaries. That's always been a lie, of course. Clark Hall has a Democratic opponent in the primary, a real Democrat, not a putative one: Gary Latanich. He might not be as easy for the Hoyers and Crowleys and Wasserman Schultzes to control, but at least he'd be on the side of the 99%, not on the side of the same corporate donors and lobbyists who are funding the transpartisan conservative consensus in DC.


UPDATE: Caught Like A Rat, Hall Offers To Pay His Back Taxes

Looks like we shook things up a little in eastern Arkansas.

A Democratic congressional candidate in east Arkansas said Monday he'll pay any taxes owed after a rival for his party's nomination said he had been illegally taking two homestead tax exemptions for several years.

State Rep. Clark Hall's campaign blamed an "oversight" and said the lawmaker would pay any taxes owed. Democratic rival Gary Latanich's campaign earlier Monday said Hall owed the state at least $2,300 for claiming the homestead exemption on properties in Phillips and Lonoke counties.