Tag: 2016 Election

Judge Hears Appeal of Supreme Court Campaign Finance Ruling

A Kanawha County judge has heard arguments in a case challenging the $500,000 of public campaign finance money state Supreme Court Justice Brent Benjamin was awarded for his re-election bid.

Beth Walker, who is running against Benjamin, originally challenged the public financing with the State Election Commission. The Morgantown lawyer argued that technical issues should have prevented Benjamin from being eligible for the money.

The SEC unanimously approved public financing for the Benjamin campaign earlier this month over Walker’s objections. Walker’s campaign appealed the ruling and is asking Circuit Judge Tod Kaufman to overturn it.

The Supreme Court election takes place on May 10.

Kaufman heard the oral arguments on Friday and said he would rule within several days.

 

Ex-Attorney General McGraw Files for Supreme Court Race

Former state Attorney General Darrell McGraw wants one of his old jobs back.

According to the West Virginia secretary of state’s website, the 79-year-old McGraw filed on Saturday to run for the state Supreme Court.

McGraw spent one term on the court from 1976-1988 and served five terms as attorney general. He lost the 2012 attorney general’s race as the Democratic incumbent to Republican Patrick Morrisey.

The Supreme Court election will be nonpartisan for the first time in 2016. The election will be held during the May primary.

Incumbent Justice Brent Benjamin is seeking re-election. Others who have filed for the race are Wayne King, Beth Walker and Bill Wooton.

McGraw’s brother, Warren McGraw, previously served on the Supreme Court.

Gingrich Talks Presidential Politics at Wheeling Jesuit University

Former Speaker of the U. S. House of Representatives Newt Gingrich visited the campus of Wheeling Jesuit University in Wheeling last night. He spoke with students and community members about the upcoming presidential election.

“Why 2016 Will Be An Extraordinary Election” was the title of the talk. Several hundred gathered to hear Gingrich analyze the  front runners in  the upcoming presidential election.

A Republican and former presidential candidate himself, Gingrich predicted that Hillary Clinton would be indicted before the election over an email scandal leaving democratic socialist Bernie Sanders with the Democratic nomination. Gingrich also  spent a lot of time describing the campaign techniques Donald Trump uses to maintain a lead in GOP polls, namely his ability to make a lot of noise, talk at a 4th grade level, and suppress logical debate.

As for who West Virginians would rally behind, Gingrich wouldn’t venture a guess other than to say:

“I think if you had a choice between the Hillary-or-Sanders versus the not Hillary-or-Sanders, the not-Hillary-or-Sanders is going to do well.”

In the end, Gingrich said, there would likely be two candidates forming two camps – one wanting to abolish all billionaires, and one wanting to make everyone a billionaire.

Gingrich also spoke about how the system of government in the U.S. is “stupid” and “decaying” and that any wild-ride candidate would be better than business-as-usual.

“If you end up with Trump or Cruz, or Sanders, but particularly Trump or Cruz, just hold onto your chair because it’s going to be a wild ride,” Gingrich said. “I happen to think that’s better, more creative, and more optimistic for America’s future than the decay we’re living through — which has been a bipartisan decay — it’s not an Obama comment. The system has been decaying.”

Many students were in attendance. One student, a senior theology major at the university Elizabeth Nawrocki wrote a letter to school administrators before the event expressing some disapproval of the decision to bring Gingrich to the school.

“I don’t think most of Gingrich’s political stances are in line with what we stand for as a Jesuit, Catholic institution.”

Nevertheless students were attentive, respectful, and peaceful, offering thoughtful questions.

Members of the audience asked Gingrich questions that encompassed issues such as the Black-Lives-Matter, West Virginia’s depressed economy, and gun control.

Gingrich talked about how the legacy of slavery has led to current social dynamics that leave undereducated black men especially disenfranchised. His advice to lawmakers regarding West Virginia’s economy is to throw out all policies that don’t create jobs. As for guns, Gingrich underlined his support of the right to bear arms saying that the constitution was designed above all else to protect the public from government itself.

During his visit Gingrich, a Catholic, also planned to attend a reception hosted by the bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston, Michael Bransfield.

Goodwin Announces Bid for Governor

Former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Booth Goodwin officially announced his candidacy for governor with the federal courthouse in Charleston as his backdrop Wednesday.

The announcement marks Goodwin’s first run for public office after spending 15 years in the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Five of those years were spent as the office’s head.

Goodwin filed pre-candidacy papers Friday for the 2016 race to run as a Democrat. He faces two Democrat opponents in the primary, billionaire coal baron and owner of The Greenbrier Resort Jim Justice and Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler.

Senate President Bill Cole is leading the Republican ticket.

“I’m not a millionaire and I’m certainly not a billionaire,” Goodwin said in his short 6-minute announcement speech, “and I have no agenda except to protect my fellow West Virginians.”

As for his political leanings, Goodwin said he believes he lies at the center of the Democratic Party in West Virginia, focused on issues that matter to the party including the state’s budget deficit, substance abuse epidemic, and the loss of educated, young West Virginians to more attractive parts of the country. 

U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin to Resign

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia Booth Goodwin will resign from his post after 15 years in the office.

Goodwin has served as the U.S. Attorney since May 2010, but previously worked in the office as an assistant U.S. Attorney since 2001.

A news release from his office says Goodwin will return to private practice at the beginning of 2016.

“It has been the greatest honor of my life to serve as United States Attorney for the Southern District of West Virginia,” Goodwin said in the release.

“The unparalleled success of this office during my tenure is a tribute to and a result of the extraordinary dedication of the lawyers, staff and law enforcement personnel with whom I have been privileged to serve.”

Goodwin’s tenure has focused on fighting prescription drug use throughout the region, prosecution corruption in southern West Virginia tied to public officials and the coal industry and led the investigation into the 2014 chemical spill in Charleston that left 300,000 people without drinkable water for days.

Perhaps most notably, the office also recently received a conviction on one misdemeanor count against former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship, although Blankenship was acquitted of two much more serious charges.

Goodwin has been named as a possible Democratic candidate for governor in the 2016 race. If he enters the race, Goodwin will face a primary against current Senate Minority Leader Jeff Kessler and coal billionaire and Greenbrier Resort owner Jim Justice. 

McKinley Talks Funding for Coal, 2016 Presidential Race

When Congress approved a $1.1 trillion spending package Friday, they approved some $270 million in funding for coal related industries: $160 million will…

When Congress approved a $1.1 trillion spending package Friday, they approved some $270 million in funding for coal related industries: $160 million will go toward carbon capture research, $90 million for cleaning up abandoned coal mines in Appalachia, and $19 million will help retrain miners who lost their jobs because of the downturn in the industry.

Congressman David McKinley, from West Virginia’s 1st Congressional District, however, said those dollars are not enough relief for the struggling industry.

McKinley voted against the bill citing three coal related policies he thought should have been included. The first, a bill that would roll back portions of the Obama administration’s regulations on coal ash disposal.

The second, funding for healthcare and pensions for coal miners, and the third, a measure to stop the regulation of underground streams, all measures McKinley said the House approved, but could not get the Senate to agree to.

“There were some points that were very good in [the bill] and as we tried to get through the 2,000 pages, we saw there was some of the language we had asked for was included,” he said Tuesday, “but sometimes you just have to say enough is enough.”

McKinley maintained his responsibility in Washington is to protect the industries struggling in West Virginia from “overzealous” regulators. A change in the presidency, he said, would benefit the state, but while he said he has followed the John Kasich campaign, he is not endorsing any candidate so far.

“My profile for I thought a great presidential candidate would be someone with gubernatorial experience,” he said. “Perhaps someone who has operated with 200,000 or 300,000 state employees, has passed legislation, but you look at the names of the people [running] and they haven’t caught on.”

McKinley added he’ll be closely watching the 2016 Presidential Campaign. 

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