Dark Money Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Update: Hemp Restrictions, Alcohol Enhancement Bills Among Number To Pass Legislation

On Friday, the House passed Senate Bill 220, the Industrial Hemp Development Act, covering the sale of kratom and other hemp-derived cannabinoids including delta-8 and delta-10.

Updated on Saturday, March. 11, 2023 at 5:20 p.m.

The political ping-pong match that is the final day of session is starting to provide results. Saturday afternoon, the Senate received several bills from the House of Delegates and concurred on their amendments.

Senate Bill 220, the Industrial Hemp Development Act, became law, as did Senate Bill 534, which allows cities to designate outdoor areas for the sale, service and consumption of alcoholic beverages.

Senate Bill 422, which requires public schools to publish curriculum online at the start of each school year also became law.

Original Post:

On Friday, the House passed Senate Bill 220, the Industrial Hemp Development Act, covering the sale of kratom and other hemp-derived cannabinoids including delta-8 and delta-10. The bill limits the sale to those 21 years old and up. Unapproved products are considered contraband with criminal penalties for unlawful possession, distribution and sales.

The House amended the bill to exempt products with no THC, derived mostly from the plant stems, such as clothing and flip-flops.

The vote was 92 to 4 and it returned to the Senate.

Online Curriculum

Senate Bill 422 requires each school to publish its up-to-date curriculum on the school’s or County’s website. This was recommended by Gov. Jim Justice during his State of the State address. New or revised curriculum would have to be posted within 30 days of adoption.

Some delegates said the bill duplicates what is already accessible. Others said working parents struggle to attend teachers meetings, and a curriculum posting should be easily accessible.

The vote was 75-21. SB 422 returns to the Senate.

Outdoor Alcohol

Senate Bill 534 allows cities to designate outdoor areas for the sale, service and consumption of alcoholic beverages through city ordinance and state-licensing. Del. Tom Fast, R-Fayette, objected to allowing free alcohol samples at fairs and festivals.

Del. Bryan Ward, R-Pendleton, also objected to government promotion of alcohol.

“I would just suggest maybe next year we can try to legalize prostitution and the state could just be the pimps and we could make some money,” Ward said.

The vote was 59-32 and it returned to the Senate .

Campaign Contributions

After an abrupt and vote-turning debate, the House advanced Senate Bill 508, increasing campaign contribution limits that trigger reporting requirements.

Currently, any person who contributes more than $500 in a three-month period, or $200 in any one month, to present a program to the public designed to influence legislation must register with the state Ethics Commission as a sponsor of a “grassroots lobbying campaign” under state law.

Additionally the campaign sponsor must report the names and addresses of each person contributing $25 or more to the campaign to the Ethics Commission under current state law.

Under SB 508, those reporting thresholds are raised to $5,000 and $1,000, respectively. The $25 threshold would be raised to $1,000.

Bill opponents said the measure would enhance dark money spending, referring to a term used for undisclosed spending to sway voters’ opinions.

SB 508 goes to the governor for signature.

Defining a Minor

House Bill 3190 amends the state’s definition of a minor to include adults who use electronic devices to catch child predators.

Trump explained that the current legal definition of a minor is so specific, it does not allow law enforcement to arrest predators that have been caught luring or soliciting minors online during stings where officers impersonate minors.

While in committee, an amendment was proposed to the bill that would removed the marital exemption for sexual assault from state code. The amendment failed on the Senate floor because it was not germane to the original bill.

HB 3190 now goes back to the House for concurrence.

Dark Money is Making a Difference in W.Va. Elections

Voters in 27 states will cast their ballots for state Supreme Court justices when they head to the polls in November. In West Virginia, voters made their choice for the high court in May, something new for the state this election cycle, but a study from the Brennan Center for Justice says there is something else that was noteworthy about what happened in that primary.

Anne Li reports, researchers are looking to West Virginia to prove that outside money really can sway a race.

Right, current Attorney General Patrick Morrisey, left, Delegate Doug Reynolds.

One race where outside spending is making an impact is the race for Attorney General. Republican-incumbent Patrick Morrisey is up for re-election this year after considering and ultimately passing on a bid for governor.

Morrisey is taking on Democratic Delegate Doug Reynolds, a Huntington attorney who also owns media and construction companies. Both have been on the attack in a race that some polls show is too close to call less than two weeks from Election Day.

In another statewide race, Mary Ann Claytor is a 20-year veteran of the West Virginia Auditor’s Office and says that experience makes her the right choice for the top job.

Claytor worked with local and county governments to audit their books while working for the state, making sure everything was in line for them to receive necessary federal funds. If elected, Claytor would become the first African American to hold statewide office in West Virginia, but the race for auditor is getting far less attention than others.

W.Va. Justices Are a Hot Commodity for Outside Spenders

Out-of-state and dark money spenders (campaign contributions from nonprofits and super PACs that don’t have to disclose the sources of their funding) are contributing more money to judicial elections than they have in previous years.

The Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute at New York University, is worried that this money will influence the 27 out of the 38 states using a judicial election system for their high courts have positions up for election this November.

West Virginia had its election for state Supreme Court justice this past spring. Though the state has regulations in place limiting donors’ influence in the courtroom, out-of-state and dark money spenders still poured almost $3 million into that one election.

Though dark money sources can only spend a limited amount of money on a candidate, they can spend an unlimited amount on television advertisements. That’s why West Virginians may have noticed a high amount of negative advertising in May.

“We saw about 3 million dollars of spending by outside groups, much of it coming from the Republican State Leadership Committee which is a national group that spends money around the country in different kinds of elections, including judicial races,” said Alicia Bannon, senior counsel in the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. “And I think their involvement has been interesting because they have been spending in races all over the country.”

Elections nationwide saw a spike in outside spending and dark money contributions to downstream elections after the U.S Supreme Court ruled in the 2010 case Citizens United v. Federal Elections Commission that under the first amendment, it would be unconstitutional to prevent corporations or unions from contributing financially to campaigns.

Notes: 1) In 2004, former Massey Energy chairman and CEO Don Blankenship contributed $3 million to Brent Benjamin’s campaign. 2) This chart has been updated to reflect that the data represents total noncandidate spending. The 2016 figure has also been updated.

But judicial elections aren’t the only targets of outside spending in the state. In the 2014 midterm elections, candidates received an unprecedented amount of dark money campaign contributions, causing some Democratic leaders to accuse Republicans of buying the election that ultimately ended more than 80 years of Democratic reign in the House and Senate.

But the consequences of dark money’s impact is especially apparent in judicial elections. Studies show that judges’ decisions are influenced by campaign contributions. For example, then West Virginia Justice Brent Benjamin received $3 million in campaign contributions from former Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship in the 2004 elections. When Blankenship went to trial for his role in the 2010 Upper Big Branch Mine disaster, Benjamin refused to recuse himself from the case and voted in favor of the defendant Massey Energy. His refusal was later ruled by the U.S. Supreme Court as a violation of due process of law.

“In the end, we need to trust that judges are going to be able to make decisions based on the law, and not worrying about where they’re going to get money for the next election, not worry about what the next attack ad will be like,” Bannon said. “I think what we’ve been seeing is that these races are becoming more politicized. The public can reasonably ask questions – are our judges going to be reasonably insulated from the rough and tumble of politics to do their jobs as judges?”

In the meantime, Americans across the country, including West Virginia, can expect to hear more negative campaigning funded by dark money sources – until they turn out to cast their votes on Election Day.