C. McLain Haddow - who was a magnet for controversy as a Utah legislator and as a federal bureaucrat - is in the middle of another firestorm, this time as a lobbyist.
Officials in Fairfax County, Va., a suburb of Washington, are upset that a friend of Haddow helped Haddow gain a county lobbying contract without disclosing that he had spent four months in federal prison on conflict-of-interest charges.Haddow, a former aide to Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, had been convicted in 1987 of arranging improper payments to his wife when he was chief of staff to former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Margaret Heckler.
In July, the Fairfax Economic Development Authority decided to pay $30,000 to Haddow to help him continue a lobbying project he had begun five months earlier for the Reston (Va.) Board of Commerce seeking to prevent moving the NASA space station project from Reston to Houston.
Haddow was recommended by authority commission member David E. Ushio, another former Utahn and a friend of Haddow. The authority reviewed Haddow's resume, but it did not discuss Haddow's criminal record - nor did Ushio bring it up.
When other authority members heard about Haddow's record - his conviction had been highly publicized in Washington in 1987 - they discussed canceling the contract and called for Ushio's resignation.
The Washington Post reported Thursday that the county decided against trying to break Haddow's contract, although several officials - including politicians running in county supervisor elections next month - are still calling for Ushio's resignation.
Haddow told the Deseret News, "This whole issue is just people trying to get Ushio and using me as leverage. . . . It's local politics at its worst."
Haddow noted he has been able to obtain language in bills in Congress that would prevent moving the space station, which is what he was hired to do to keep 200 NASA jobs in the area and the jobs of 1,000 NASA contractor employees.
"They aren't upset with my performance. But they still say they would not have hired me if they had known about the conflict-of-interest charges," Haddow said.
"Dave Ushio has said it shouldn't matter, that I had served my sentence and paid my debt and had a good five-month track record on the issue (when hired). He suggested that not hiring me for those (criminal record) reasons would violate my civil rights. The others disagree."
Federal charges against Haddow had stemmed from two deals that steered $50,000 to his family. Haddow had routed to his wife federal speech-writing contracts and payments from a private health care issues group called the T. Bear Foundation.
Haddow said Heckler signed a document waiving conflict-of-interest rules. After a copy could not be found, he agreed to a plea bargain. Later, a copy was found - but the judge did not agree it exonerated him. Haddow said he also passed polygraph tests on the case, which were not admitted as evidence.
When Haddow was in the Utah Legislature in the early 1980s, he was an outspoken leader of the right wing - and twice came under investigation by the House Ethics Committee, but was exonerated both times.
One was for helping arrange a private-jet golf trip for some legislators, which was funded by a lawyer who had a client seeking construction contracts for the Intermountain Power Project. The other was for fund-raising activities with a Jobs Utah seminar.
Haddow also once moved from the House district that elected him but refused to resign despite pressure from the Sandy City Council. Also, a Draper policeman who ticketed him for running a stop sign said Haddow claimed state law did not allow ticketing a legislator when the Legislature was in session - which Haddow denied. He also fought the ticket but lost in court.