Loudoun Official Tried To Capitalize On Contacts

Symonds said Tulloch gave him 10 or 12 leads. "He said, 'I can get you in the door just by making a call or introduction,' " Symonds recalled. Tulloch told Symonds that he made calls, Symonds said, but no sponsorships resulted, and Tulloch received no benefit.

Tulloch's relationship with Johnson developed after he was elected in 2003, when Johnson sought support for her proposed Salamander Resort and Spa, Tulloch said.

"She said she was trying to get this project approved and she would love for me to learn more about it, and get educated on it, and support her in it, which I did, and I did, and I did," Tulloch said an interview in December.

The upscale project in Middleburg, scheduled to open in 2009, has had many supporters but triggered debates over traffic and how many guest rooms should be allowed.

Tulloch went out of his way to champion the proposal. At one point, he took the unusual step of attending a closed-door meeting of the Middleburg Town Council, which was discussing the project. Tulloch said he told participants that he had engaged the help of his brother, a manager at Marriott. He said he had analyzed the project's financial prospects and concluded that Johnson needed the bigger resort she was seeking, according to one participants' notes.

With Johnson's plans still needing county approval, Tulloch attended a June 2005 Washington Mystics game with her. He said he was a guest at her wedding in September 2005. The next month, he attended a banquet in her honor. And he rode in her private plane, he said.

Three times in 2005, Tulloch cast votes favorable to Johnson and her resort. And when Johnson needed another vote last year to adjust boundary lines for the project, Tulloch's office pressed the county attorney for action, e-mails show.

Tulloch also helped arrange a meeting between her representative and another developer. One goal was to allow her resort's guests access to a Jack Nicklaus-designed golf course planned nearby.

"He wanted to create an introduction. I knew he wanted to get in the middle of all that," said Jeff Zell, who at the time was a real estate adviser to Johnson.

A Longtime Connection

Tulloch has also pursued private ties with another Loudoun businessman, Leonard S. "Hobie" Mitchel, whose development projects have been before the county for most of Tulloch's time in office.

In 2004, Tulloch became an outspoken supporter of Mitchel's plans for a vast housing development tied in with a baseball stadium complex near Dulles International Airport. The stadium would have housed the then-Montreal Expos if they were relocated to the county.

The next year, Tulloch and seven of his colleagues voted to approve Mitchel's Lansdowne Village Greens, a housing and commercial development east of Leesburg.