U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell has asked a member of his staff to step down after allegedly violating House ethical rules.

In a Wednesday letter to the House of Representatives Committee on Standards of Official Conduct, Kissell said staffer Wendell Fant violated House rules by working on his own case with the U.S. Dept. of Veteran Affairs (VA) using his official title, House of Representatives computer and his official e-mail account.

“On April 29, 2010, two members of my staff reported to the chief of staff that Mr. Fant mentioned his VA claim and they were led to believe that he was advocating on his own behalf to the VA using office resources,” Kissell wrote. “At this time my chief of staff began an investigation that concluded on May 10, 2010. Mr. Fant was asked to resign and did.”

Kissell is a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and has made outreach to veterans a central issue during his two years in Congress.

The 8th District includes Fort Bragg, soon to be the largest military installation in the world.

After Fant’s resignation, Kissell said more improprieties were uncovered, including a series of e-mails from his official account and title “to contact Wells Fargo Bank about his personal mortgage modification and conduct outside business as a Mortgage Marketing Representative and Recruiter.”

Kissell said Fant never reported his work in mortgage modifications to the office, which “never would have approved this type of moonlighting due to the fact that we provide mortgage modification assistance to our constituents and Mr. Fant’s outside employment represents a conflict of interest.”

The incumbent congressman will face the winner of a June run-off election between establishment figure Harold Johnson and political outsider Tim D’Annunzio in November’s general election.

Thus far in the campaign, the Republicans have been grabbing all the headlines for all the wrong reasons, but Kissell’s self-reporting of this violation is the first negative news for him since he soundly defeated fellow Democrat Nancy Shakir in the May primary.

D’Annunzio was the top vote-getter in the Republican primary, but has come under fire by North Carolina Republicans during the run-off campaign.

He has filed a defamation lawsuit against Johnson for publishing claims that D’Annunzio is mentally unstable from divorce proceedings held 15 years ago in Hoke County, and has asked the N.C. GOP Chairman Tom Fetzer to step down for violating party rules by coming out against his candidacy and calling him “unfit” to run.

He has also alleged Johnson, a former Charlotte broadcaster, has been allowed to run more campaign advertisements on Time Warner Cable than he was allowed to run.

“I strive to attain the highest ethical standards in my office, uphold the Rules of the House and adhere to the Code of Official Conduct,” Kissell wrote in the Wednesday letter. “In addition to mandatory House ethics training, Mr. Fant and all employees of my office are issued an employee handbook outlining expectations for ethical conduct which they sign, acknowledging their obligation to comply with these standards. I am proud of my staffers who brought this to my attention and I have encouraged everyone on my staff to report any sign of impropriety.”

Staff Writer Philip D. Brown can be reached at (910) 997-3111 ext. 32, or by e-mail at pbrown@yourdailyjournal.com.