West Virginia’s wealthy candidates poured money into their races during the past month, while the national association of Republican attorneys general spent $2.83 million trying to keep Patrick Morrisey in office.
The group previously paid $3.4 million for ads backing Morrisey, West Virginia’s first-term attorney general, against Huntington businessman and state delegate Doug Reynolds.
Morrisey’s own campaign filing shows about $133,000 contributed last month and $710,000 spent.
Reynolds reports raising $172,000 and spending $1 million of his own money, leaving $34,000 in his campaign fund.
The national Republican governors’ association spent about $900,000 supporting state Senate President Bill Cole’s bid for governor.
Cole, an auto dealer, raised $163,000, spent $492,000 and lent his campaign $100,000.
Opposing Democrat and businessman Jim Justice raised $201,000, spent $835,000, and lent $1.12 million to his campaign.
If you’ve turned on a local commercial TV or radio station in the past few weeks, then you probably already know that the race for Attorney General is pretty heated.
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 just two weeks away from Election Day.
Fighting for Coal Jobs
Morrisey, a Republican, won the office by a narrow margin in 2012, defeating 20-year incumbent Democrat Darrell McGraw. Since, he’s taken strong stances on national issues, including leading the charge in a federal court case against the Obama administration over the Clean Power Plan.
Credit John Raby / AP Photo
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AP Photo
West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey is shown Thursday, March 3, 2016, outside the state Capitol in Charleston, West Virginia. Morrisey’s coal-dependent state is helping lead a lawsuit against President Barack Obama’s new clean-power rules. In February the U.S. Supreme Court issued a stay of the rules until legal challenges are resolved.
The CPP would force coal-fired power plants to reduce their carbon emissions, something Morrisey maintains will result in the continued loss of coal jobs in West Virginia.
“West Virginia has bled jobs in part due to these regulations that are coming out of Washington. If we can reverse that, even 30 or 40 percent, that means that people will benefit,” he said.
The case is easily the highest profile of any the office is currently undertaking and will likely be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court before it’s all said and done. Morrisey argues he’s the only candidate who can continue to lead that effort.
He and his Democratic opponent, Doug Reynolds, debated each other on the state Capitol steps earlier this month. In a Charleston Gazette-Mail video of the meeting, Morrisey pointed to Reynolds’s 2007 campaign contribution to Hillary Clinton as proof that the Democrat will not fight regulations on coal.
Reynolds said the state’s legal battle over the Clean Power Plan is about fighting government overreach in the midst of dysfunction in Washington.
“Just because Congress can’t do their job, it doesn’t give the executive branch of government the authority to go out and do all these things,” Reynolds said, “and I think it’s an overreach of the executive branch.”
Reynolds added if he is elected Attorney General, West Virginia will remain a leader in the case under his watch. As for his 2007 Clinton donation, Reynolds said he has not donated to Clinton since Morrisey has been a practicing attorney in the state of West Virginia.
The Substance Abuse Epidemic
Morrisey moved to West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle in 2006, after a failed Congressional bid in New Jersey in 2000.
At the time, he was working as an independent attorney and a lobbyist in Washington. Some of his clients were pharmaceutical companies, and later, Morrisey received political contributions from Cardinal Health, a drug company that shipped more than 241 million prescription pain pills into West Virginia over five years.
Former Attorney General Darrell McGraw sued Cardinal in 2012, saying the company was fueling the state’s substance abuse epidemic. After reports linked Morrisey to the company in 2013, he chose to step aside from the case.
But Reynolds has argued it’s just one example of where his Republican opponent is dropping the ball when it comes to fighting prescription drug companies.
Credit Perry Bennett / West Virginia Legislative Photography
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West Virginia Legislative Photography
Doug Reynolds on the floor of the West Virginia House of Delegates.
“There’s no one person that can do more to fight substance abuse problem than the attorney general’s office,” the delegate said. “He’s the only person that can go to court and say, hey, you’re doing something wrong.”
“There are way too many pain medications being distributed here and haul them into court and make them pay money if they’ve damaged these communities.”
But Morrisey maintains his office is prosecuting drug companies.
“I think people need to look at the record. We’ve been able to bring in $38 million from drug and drug-related companies,” he said.
A request with the Attorney General’s Office to verify the number of pharmaceutical cases that had been settled under the Morrisey administration and the settlement amounts was not returned.
The current AG also pointed to a partnership with the U.S. Attorney of the Northern District of West Virginia that has resulted in four drug arrests and a student education program as other ways he’s fighting the epidemic.
Campaign Dollars Spent
When it comes to dollars, campaign finance reports from the West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office show Reynolds has spent nearly $1.5 million in the race, a large portion of which is his own money.
Morrisey’s campaign has spent about $325,000 of the $1 million they’ve raised, but has been boosted by the outside spending of a Republican Attorney Generals Association political action committee called “Mountaineers are Always Free PAC.” The group has spent more than $2.5 million in the race, largely on ads attacking Reynolds.
Credit West Virginia Secretary of State’s Office
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Campaign finance filings for the 2016 cycle.
Morrisey has criticized Reynolds for his personal wealth, saying the candidate hasn’t worked to build his businesses, but inherited them.
“We need someone with that work ethic, with that experience, and who is going to be a fighter and I don’t think you become a fighter when everything is handed to you in your life,” he said.
But Reynolds defends his million-dollar investment in the race, especially in the wake of the outside spending.
“They have spent three times or more of what I’ve spent,” he said. “At some point you’ve got to get your message out and my opinion is that these Super PACs are trying to drown out the message.”
The Other Options
The Mountain and Libertarian parties are also fielding candidates in the Attorney General’s race.
Michael Sharley with the Mountain Party is a graduate of West Virginia University’s College of Law and is a criminal and civil rights attorney in the Morgantown area.
Libertarian Karl Kolenich also went to law school at WVU and practices in Buckhannon.
The West Virginia attorney general’s race has reached a boiling point in an impromptu, one-on-one debate at high noon on the state Capitol steps.
Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey offered the debate challenge Tuesday, specifically telling Democrat Doug Reynolds to be there at high noon Wednesday. Reynolds arrived without forewarning.
Morrisey called Reynolds deceitful, a liar and a liberal who donated to Hillary Clinton’s campaign in 2007. Reynolds fired back that Morrisey is swayed by the pharmaceutical industry that has employed his wife as a lobbyist.
Both denied the attacks and threw counterpunches for a half-hour in the sun while supporters cheered and jeered.
Reynolds has put $1.8 million of his wealth into the race through late September.
Morrisey is boosted by $4 million in spending from the Republican Attorneys General Association.
Democrat Doug Reynolds has put about $235,000 of his own money into his bid against first-term Republican Attorney General Patrick Morrisey.
The West Virginia House delegate reported his campaign finance totals late last week.
Reynolds spent about $239,000 of the $253,100 he brought by writing checks to his campaign and soliciting some donations. He has spent largely on TV advertising.
Morrisey has about $648,400 in his campaign account. He put $250,000 of his money into the campaign last spring. Morrisey has raised $472,100, including $160,600 since late last March.
Reynolds entered the race in January. Both candidates are unopposed in the May 10 primary election.
Anyone visiting the state capitol who is licensed to carry concealed weapons would be allowed to keep loaded firearms in their motor vehicles that are parked near the complex. This bill overwhelmingly passed the house Thursday.
Delegate Gary Howell of Mineral County cited the bill as a safety issue.
“This bill addresses a problem that we have. We have our constituents come down from all over the state, normal, average, everyday West Virginians that have their concealed carry permit. They know that they can’t bring them in the buildings, but they don’t know they can’t park in the parking lots,” Howell noted, “This addresses that issue, so they know they can come to the Capitol, and if some time there is a very late night meeting and it’s dark and whatever, they know when they get back to their car, they’re at a point of safety, and I urge passage.”
House Bill 2128 passed 97 to 0.
On second reading, or the amendment stage, was House Bill 2151, which would make the West Virginia teacher of the year an ex officio, nonvoting member of the West Virginia Board of Education.
Delegate Doug Reynolds, a Democrat from Cabell County, stood to offer an amendment to suggest the a change in the qualifications of some members of the Board of Education.
“The purpose of my amendment is to also add in that two members of the 13 must also be parents,” explained Reynolds, “when they’re appointed of children currently under the jurisdiction of the Board of Education.”
Reynolds’ amendment received major support from both sides of the aisle passing 97 to 1. The one rejection vote was from Delegate Joe Statler, a Republican from Monongalia County.
Currently, the Governor appoints the members of the state school board with the advice and consent of the Senate. Reynolds suggests that the Governor must consider board members who actually have school age children. He thinks it would help bring a new perspective.
“I think that parents bring a perspective of what’s going on in the schools,” Reynolds said, “not necessarily what might not be in those rulebooks and what might be in those policies, but how those policies are affecting kids on a day-to-day basis.”
Reynolds says he has nothing against the current school board, but he thinks his amendment will help aim to make the school system better.
“I think it shows that we value the input of parents,” Reynolds explained, “because almost all of the experts I talk to complain about parent engagement, and I think this is showing some leadership and saying we value you, we want your views on the school board.”
With committee passage of the repeal of the prevailing wage in the Senate yesterday and that issue poised for a vote on the senate floor next week, Delegate Mike Caputo warned his house colleagues that the bill is on its way.
“The Senate passed a bill repealing the prevailing wage in West Virginia, a wage that workers depend on to feed their families, that workers depend on to make sure their kids have the same opportunities as rich folks kids have to go to college and have a nice home and a nice car. They’re deeply concerned and they’re deeply worried, and I know you all have gotten the letters that I’ve gotten,” Caputo said, “And I’ve gotten more letters from businesses who are concerned about the repeal of the prevailing wage on what it will do to good West Virginia businesses. It’s been here a long time, and it’s provided a good work place for those men and women. So I would caution us to think long and hard about how we proceed when that bill comes over here.”
