Errant and Absent Former Lawmakers

Former state Sen. Lisa Smith, R-Putnam, and her husband pleaded guilty today in U.S. District Court in Huntington, The Associated Press reports.

Smith

Smith, 43, admitted "she failed to pay the IRS more than $86,000 withheld for taxes from her employees' wages when it was due in 2002," and that she "mailed a false campaign finance statement to state election officials while running for her Senate seat in 2002," the AP article said.

Husband Mark Smith pleaded guilty to a single "tax fraud charge involving $63,000 in withholding taxes due in 2004 from the health care companies," AP reported.

The tax charges stem from health care businesses the couple ran. They face a Nov. 5 sentencing hearing.

"Lisa Smith had served two terms in the House of Delegates when she challenged and defeated then-Senate Finance Chairman Oshel Craigo, D-Putnam, in a 2002 election upset," the AP article said. "She resigned the Senate seat in December 2004, citing an undisclosed illness."

MetroNews also has a story from the morning hearing. "She was very frail and so much a different person than the person we came to know at the height of her political career," WSAZ-TV Reporter Doug Korstanje told MetroNews.


Also, The Register-Herald reports that Gov. Joe Manchin has received the three recommended names for a successor to chronically absent Delegate Ron Thompson, D-Raleigh, who resigned last month.

Thompson

"The three nominees are Louis Gall, a retired Raleigh County educator and school administrator; Kevin Maynus, who finished sixth last year in balloting for the five House seats in the 27th district; and former House member and Senate Judiciary Chairman Bill Wooton," the Beckley newspaper reported.

Manchin spokeswoman Lara Ramsburg told The Register-Herald that while the governor has until Monday to appoint a new delegate, he hopes to do so by Friday.

"Thompson resigned in late July following an 18-month period during which he was unable to fulfill any of his legislative duties, leaving constituents in Raleigh and Summers counties without full representation in the legislature," the article said. It also cited his ongoing treatment for severe depression.